“My daughter was born when I was a kid. It was years and years before I ever met you. What could it possibly have to do with us now?”
“You never told me about her, though,” Cindy had no choice but launch into the discussion. “We’ve been talking about getting married and building a family these past few weeks, and she never once came up.”
“So?” Mattheus truly didn’t get it.
“So what does that say about you?” Cindy said. “It says that you’re hiding important parts of your life from me. It makes me say how can I trust you?”
“Just trust me,” Mattheus replied. “Just trust that I love you. I do. This happened before I ever knew you.”
“And what else happened then?” Cindy asked blatantly.
“Thousands of things happened,” Mattheus replied. “Do you want me to make a complete record of them all? Do you want to take a microscope and peer into every inch of my life?”
Mattheus was making Cindy feel foolish, but she refused to take the bait. She had a right to know about his daughter, just the way Tara had a right to call off her marriage to Lynch when she found out the very same thing. The strange conversion of events between them struck Cindy once again, as she grew more uneasy about Tara. Cindy needed to know that she was alright.
“I have to know how Tara is doing right now,” Cindy got up from her seat and paced back and forth along the veranda. “We can talk about ourselves later. There’s no time for focusing on our relationship now.”
Mattheus got up and began walking beside Cindy. “It’s going to take a while until we find out about Tara,” he said softly. “Who knows when it will be? These things take time; you know that. And, plenty of cases go cold.”
“This case won’t go cold, Mattheus, I feel it,” said Cindy, as his telephone suddenly rang.
Mattheus picked up quickly. “Yeah,” he said, as his face grew stony. “Yeah, yeah,” his voice dropped an octave then.
“What is it? What is it?” Cindy tugged on his arm.
“Okay,” said Mattheus, shut his phone and turned to her slowly. “You’re right, as usual,” he said slowly.
“Right about what? Tell me!”
“They found Tara at Ryder’s Cove,” Mattheus voice was dark and stilted.
“Oh thank heavens,” said Cindy, “that’s where she went swimming.”
“No,” said Mattheus, “not thank heavens. Tara was found tangled under the branches. She’s dead.”
CHAPTER 11
The horrible and shocking news hit the island like a tsunami. Socialite found dead the night before her wedding, the headlines screamed. More police swarmed the hotel. Guests at the wedding were detained from leaving. Aldon collapsed in his hotel suite. His sister Olivia took a room in his hotel to care for him during the ordeal.
“The case of the socialite bride who came down to St. Martin for her wedding has quickly developed from a missing person’s case to a homicide,” the TV news announced. “C and M Investigations have been brought on board. These are two of the best, most widely known private detectives in the Caribbean, Cindy and Mattheus.”
After the story broke Cindy and Mattheus received endless calls from reporters for interviews.
“Nothing yet, Mattheus repeated over and over. “As soon as we have news, we’ll let you know.”
The shock of the news mobilized them . Cindy and Mattheus immediately established a center of operations in their hotel room. First step was to create an overview of all that had to be done.
“We have to meet with police on the island as soon as possible,” said Cindy.
“I’ve already set up an appointment,” Mattheus agreed.
“Good,” said Cindy. “I can check that off the list.”
“You’re going to have to tell me every single detail of your visit with Tara to see Bala’s child,” Mattheus added.
“Absolutely,” Cindy agreed. The visit had oddly slipped her mind. The memory of it now made her freeze, as her thoughts naturally drifted to Bala’s brother Dawl. Oh God, why had she taken that visit so casually? Dawl had been rude and unruly, even made a definite threat that Cindy had overlooked. It never occurred to her that Tara was in danger, though. Cindy had truly believed that Tara would call off the wedding and leave on her own. Her relationship with Bala and Dawl would then have ended naturally.
Mattheus sat quietly, pondering the items on their list. “I think it’s best for me to interview Raina alone first,” he said. “You’re a bit threatening to her. She’s comfortable with me.”
“Agreed,” said Cindy, “and how about Lynch?”
“We should speak to him together,” said Mattheus. “But I hear he’s in no condition to talk to anyone at the moment. He’s still running around on the beaches calling for Tara.”
“Gone off the deep end?” asked Cindy.
“In shock,” Mattheus replied. “They’re reining him in now though, as we speak.”
“What a nightmare,” said Cindy.