Death by Jealousy (Caribbean Murder #6)

Tad’s responses were all measured. Obviously he’d given it careful thought.

“We’ve got to get those files over to my dad and Mac immediately,” Peter said then.

Mattheus interrupted, “I noticed files that were deleted and scrambled on Peter’s records.

Peter jumped to his feet. “Which files?”

Mattheus quickly opened the computer and showed him what he’d found.

“Those are the ones,” Peter breathed, horrified.

“Someone’s onto it,” Tad said quickly. “They’ve wiped the evidence out.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Peter quickly recouped. “I have backups of those files with me in my suitcase.”

Tad looked completely shocked. “Backups?”

“You think I’d leave something so important only on my computer?” Peter said. Then he turned to Mattheus. “Once things settle down with Allie, I want you and Tad to help me go over this with my father and Mac.”

*

Peter and Tad left together to go for a walk, and Mattheus stayed behind to keep scrolling through the files to see if anything else came up. Around five o’clock, just before he was about to call Vivien, the phone rang. It was Cindy.

“How’s it going?” Mattheus asked her, as if the day had been perfectly ordinary and the call was just routine.

“Fine,” Cindy replied. “I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be at dinner in the hotel with my sister and her husband tonight. They’re flying down from Miami for a quick visit.”

That was the first Mattheus had heard about that. He didn’t like Cindy’s sister Ann and she didn’t like him.

“Just wondered if you’d like to join us?” Cindy asked lightly.

The last thing Mattheus wanted to do was have dinner with all of them.

“Normally I would,” he said, matter of factly, “but I’m really tied up here tonight.”

Cindy paused on the other end. Mattheus wondered what she was thinking. He knew his response was irregular, but it wasn’t normal procedure to have dinner with her family, either.

“Okay,” she said then, “just asking.”

Something in her voice struck him strangely though. “How’d your day go?” he got in quickly, as he felt her about to hang up.

“I don’t know. I’m still here, anyway,” Cindy said, strangely.

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Mattheus shot back, as she suddenly hung up the phone.





CHAPTER 17


Mattheus and Vivien met up in a restaurant down the block with a garden in the back. When Mattheus arrived he found Vivien sitting in the back garden, under a hanging tree, sipping a cocktail. Dressed in a sheer, dark green dress, and beautiful emerald bracelet, she looked absolutely ravishing, with the setting sun dimming across her face.

The moment Vivien saw Mattheus approaching, her face burst into an incredible smile.

“It’s You,” she breathed, as he came closer. “I’ve been waiting for this all day long.”

Mattheus sat down, his head whirling as she edged closer to him. I’m not available, Vivien, he wanted to say, I’m a married man. But then he suddenly realized he was not. His wife wasn’t missing any longer. She was dead.

Mattheus looked down at the bracelet Vivien was wearing and realized that it had to be the one Tad purchased for her. And what about Tad? How would he feel about Mattheus and Vivien meeting secretly like this?

“That’s a beautiful bracelet you’re wearing,” Mattheus was transfixed by it.

“The bracelet is beautiful, or I am?” Vivien purred

“That too,” Mattheus had to agree.

“I ordered you a Scotch and soda,” Vivien said, pointing to a drink on the table. “I know you like them.”

Mattheus was touched, but he was here for a purpose. He couldn’t get swayed.

“I want to make you happy, Mattheus,” Vivien said as Mattheus reached for his drink.

“I am happy,” he replied.

“And I want to make you even happier,” Vivien’s lips parted into a smile as he lifted the Scotch to his mouth.

“Where’d you get that bracelet?” Mattheus asked as he put the drink back down.

“It was a gift,” Vivien said lightly.

“From Tad?” Mattheus wanted it all out. Here she was hidden away with Mattheus, while accepting jewels from someone else.

“Yes, from Tad,” she said, “so what?”

“So, you told me not to mention to Tad that we were meeting,” Mattheus reminded her.

“Of course not,” Vivien said under her breath, lifting her drink to her mouth. “You and I need our time alone. When someone who is perfect for you is just brought into your world, do you go telling the whole world about it? Or do you spend time with that person alone?”

“Who exactly is just perfect for you?” Mattheus asked more gently.

“Let’s not play games, please,” Vivien replied, staring starkly into his eyes. “You know what I’m feeling. You’re feeling it, too. I couldn’t sleep last night, I was thinking so much about you.”

Mattheus stomach lurched for a second, then he grew silent.