After a quick breakfast ordered up in their room, Cindy and Mattheus, went out onto the balcony, sat at the round, glass table, opened their separate computers and went to work. The day was warm, with soft breezes blowing in from the ocean. Cindy realized that guests would soon be arriving at Aupres Hotel for the wedding. As she and Mattheus sat there, looking for trouble, laughter and celebrations were going on.
Cindy was looking over Tara’s background and Mattheus was looking into Lynch. As Cindy glanced through the many profiles and articles about her online, Tara seemed faultless. An only child, raised in the best private schools in Boston, she’d been everything her family had ever wanted her to be, gave credit to their name. Beautiful, social, a fine student, star soccer player and flutist, she’d attended all the right schools, had the best friends and had been her mother’s delight. Like Lynch’s mother, Tara’s mother was well known, had done major charity work along with her father. Not only that, it also seemed as if her mother been Tara’s closest friend. Tara’s pages were filled with pictures of them. It must have been quite a shock to Tara when her mother died suddenly of cancer, thought Cindy. There were also pictures online of the huge funeral, and Tara dressed in black.
After that, Cindy noticed that Tara had retreated into the background. There were fewer photos or mention of her at parties or with friends. She must have been grieving, thought Cindy, remembering back to her own loss of Clint. The shock and pain had been relentless; it took time.
As Cindy kept browsing she saw that quite suddenly, one year ago, Tara met Lynch Sprain. From what the articles reported, the couple had been inseparable right from the start. There were photos of them, arms around each other, gazing out at the world, victorious. They seemed to fit perfectly, a beautiful, well bred, celebrity couple. Both were blonde, wealthy, and smiling into the camera for all the world to see. Cindy would have thought Aldon would have been happy for his daughter, glad to see that she could resume her life after her terrible loss. Oddly enough, there were few photos of Aldon. Even at the funeral he stayed in the background, keeping a low profile.
As Cindy scanned the articles, Mattheus piped up, “Nothing to report about Lynch. The guy looks like the cream of the crop. Great polo player, top horseman, fine student, MBA from Wharton. What more could you ask for?
“Good question,” said Cindy.
“Lynch did internships at his father’s company all through college, learned the business from the ground up,” Mattheus went on. “When his father died suddenly, he was ready to step right in and run things. Takes good care of his mother too. There are tons of photos of her at his parties.”
“Tara’s mother died suddenly, and Clint’s father did as well,” Cindy chimed in. “Both of them went through that around the same time.”
“Could be that’s what brought them so close so fast,” Mattheus retorted. “They’ve only known each other a little over a year.”
“Not exactly a shot gun wedding, though,” said Cindy. “The papers state that both families are thrilled about it. It made everyone look good.”
Cindy paused a moment. Obviously Aldon’s nervousness about Lynch had developed later on. Had something happen to cause it, something Aldon didn’t want to tell them about? When Cindy had asked him what brought his bad feeling on, Aldon had no answer. Mattheus has pressed him further, but all he could answer was, “Nothing to point to, just something my gut says.”
“When we’re done going over their Facebook pages, and record of calls and texts,” said Cindy, “we can go to the casinos and clubs.”
“Right on,” said Mattheus, “and while we’re investigating something tells me we should look into Aldon too?”
Cindy was taken aback. “Why?”
Mattheus looked up from the computer and stretched out. “Because, look at it this way, if the son in law come up squeaky clean, the fact that Aldon’s so worried about Lynch could lead to trouble down the road. You think he’s gonna trust him just because we say things are fine? His suspicions are going to haunt him.”
Cindy felt profoundly uneasy. Clearly, Mattheus was speaking from personal experience. His suspicions had taken him over many times in their relationship.
“If Aldon’s got a loose hinge, he needs to get help,” Mattheus added. “And, someone’s got to know about it and keep an eye on him.”
“Who? asked Cindy, startled, realizing that Mattheus was right.
“That’s the real question, isn’t it?” said Mattheus. “Who’s really in charge in this world?”
*
Cindy and Mattheus went back to their computers at the same moment then, opening Tara and Lynch’s Facebook pages.