Death by Jealousy (Caribbean Murder #6)

“He was horrified, too. Agreed it didn’t look good.”


“How come the forensic accountants didn’t find those accounts?” Mattheus dug deeper.

“I don’t know,” said Peter, “it was all right there. I haven’t been in here since Allie died. There are more important things to be concerned about now.”

“Of course,” said Mattheus. “Do you know where those files are now?”

“I don’t know where anything is at this moment,” said Peter. “Tad’s taking care of all those details for me. Call him in. We’ll ask him about it.”

“I called him before, he was out to lunch,” Mattheus remarked.

Peter smiled, “Yeah, Tad takes nice long lunches. But he earns them, works really late, too.”

“Doesn’t give him much time for a social life, does it?” Mattheus remarked off handedly.

“What do you mean? Tad’s got the greatest girl anyone can imagine.”

“Vivien was also your girlfriend at one time, I heard,” said Mattheus.

“She was, and now we’re best friends. It works better for us that way. I’m happy for her and Tad, really.”

Mattheus nodded. Peter was one hell of a guy, an open book. Mattheus had nothing but respect for him.

“Can you call Tad for me?” Mattheus asked Peter. “Ask him to join us. It’s important.”

“Of course I can,” said Peter and immediately picked up his phone and got in touch with Tad, who agreed to join them on the spot.

*

About ten minutes later, Tad walked into the office looking calm and focused.

“Hey, man, it’s so great to see you here,” he said to Peter and went over to give him a hug.

“Do you know Mattheus?” Peter immediately introduced them.

Tad extended his hand graciously. “I think we talked briefly in the beginning, but I did have a chance to talk to your partner, Cindy, down at the pool. She interviewed me and Vivien. Then Mac arrived on the scene.”

Mattheus liked Tad very much as well. “How did the interview go?” he asked.

“As I recall there was some upset between Cindy and Vivien,” Tad shrugged. “You know how it is with women, always something.”

Mattheus could relate to that.

“Vivien does better with guys, for sure,” said Peter.

Tad cringed. “Vivien does fine with everyone. As I recall Cindy was pretty aggressive, digging into her behavior. There was no need for it. Mac came to Vivien’s defense. Vivien told me later that she thought Cindy was jealous of her, that all women were.”

Mattheus smiled. It would have been unusual for Cindy to be aggressive with a woman. And, once again, he wondered what Mac was doing there with them. That guy seemed to turn up all over the place, especially where Cindy was concerned.

“Anyway,” Tad sat down on the chair next to Peter, “what’s this meeting about? How can I help? What’s the urgency?”

“I was telling Mattheus about what I found at the company,” Peter said plainly.

Tad looked momentarily confused. “What?”

“The irregular deposits, the cash coming in and going out like crazy.”

“What has that got to do with the investigation into Allie’s death?” Tad said, finally.

“Nothing,” said Peter, “but Mattheus called me in to talk about it.”

“How did Mattheus find out about it?” Tad asked, surprised.

“I just told him,” said Peter.

“What do you mean?” Tad seemed bewildered.

“Mattheus found the email I sent asking you to come for an emergency meeting. He wanted to know what it was about?” said Peter.

Tad’s face clenched. “So you told him about the problem we have here? Why?”

“Why not?” asked Peter.

“Hell, Peter, your judgment is off! What do our business problems have to do with Allie? Nothing. It’s not good for Mac and your father to find out about the financials from someone else. It’s better

for us to tell them ourselves.”

“All bets are off now,” Peter’s head hung down. “I need time to get over this. I’m out of the game for a little while. Let Mattheus step in and help us out.”

Tad shrugged. “I thought I was handling things now.”

“You are,” said Peter. “And Mattheus can help.”

“That’s not what he’s here for,” Tad repeated. “He’s here to find out what happened to Allie, that’s it. That’s all.”

Mattheus broke in. “What did you think about the files Peter showed you, Tad? Look like money laundering?”

Tad’s face remained impassive. “That’s too big a conclusion to jump to,” he said, “you never know about these things. You never know who was doing it either. Got to be careful about throwing rocks. It can create ripples of all kinds. You investigate something like this quietly, one step at a time.”

“Who do you think might be doing it?” Mattheus zeroed in.

“I have no idea,” said Tad. “That’s finding a needle in a haystack. You need special investigators for that. Once Peter and I tell Edward and Mac, it will be up to them to decide what to do next.”