“Sometimes we don’t know our own children or the ones we’re closest to,” said Cindy.
Dan would have none of that. “Preposterous, both Margaret and I know our son thoroughly. We have an excellent relationship. I see Clay every day, he works for me. There is nothing hidden between us. Nothing at all.”
“Have you seen Clay here yet?” Cindy asked softly.
“Of course we have,” Margaret burst in. “He’s not himself, but how could he be? He’s confused, rambling, imagining things. Keeps saying how much Kate loved him. I said, Kate who? He said Kate, Kate, and opened the computer to show me her picture online, and all the messages they’d sent and received.
“I looked at her and said who is she Clay? She’s a stranger to me,” said Margaret. “Then he looked at me and said look at the pictures of us together, Kate loved me. It was positively horrifying.”
“I can only imagine,” said Cindy.
“Clay told us that Kate’s family hired private detectives to find out more about how she died,” Dan interjected.
“Yes, they did,” said Cindy, “that’s understandable, isn’t it?”
“No, it isn’t,” said Margaret. “What have detectives got to do with this?”
“Either the girl jumped on her own, or she was killed, “said Dan. “And our poor son had to be the one to find her like that in the morning. But what else does it have to do with him? They were strangers, absolutely strangers.”
“Strangers who became engaged,” said Cindy.
“No one has proved that yet,” Dan insisted, “a few messages on Facebook doesn’t prove anything.”
“The girl was obviously seriously disturbed,” Margaret continued. “She created some kind of web around Clay, sucked him right into it. He was helpless to say no.”
“Clay doesn’t seem like the helpless kind,” Cindy responded, “and they weren’t strangers. Seems they had quite an internet correspondence going, and they’d also met in person a few times.”
“Have you read their correspondence?” Dan asked quickly.
“Not yet,” said Cindy.
“Well, you don’t know him then,” Margaret’s voice became more strident. “Clay could become helpless at times, he’s so trusting, poetic, only wants to see the best. Sometimes he becomes terribly disappointed with the way this world is. He and I have talked about it.”
Dan then took a step closer to Cindy. “Back away from Clay,” he said. “He’s having a hard enough time enough as it is now.”
“What makes you think I’m moving in on Clay?” Cindy shot right back at him.
“I didn’t say you were moving in on him, I just said back away,” Dan corrected himself. “We’re going to have a long talk with Clay tonight and get straight about everything - how he met the girl, what he was doing down here with her, and why he never said a word to us.”
“That’s wonderful,” said Cindy, “and when you find out, I hope you’ll let me and my partner know.”
*
Dan and Margaret Peters left quickly to return to their son, and Cindy took the elevator up to her room. It seemed they felt that Cindy was their enemy and she wondered why? Was there something they were hiding about Clay, or was it just the shock of finding their son engaged to someone they’d never met. And then finding that young woman suddenly dead. It all had to be overwhelming for them.
Cindy got to her room and went into the bathroom to shower and change. She turned on the shower and let the hot water beat down on her back, soothing and refreshing her. She stood like that for a long time, until she heard someone come to the bathroom door.
“Let’s get going Cindy,” it was Mattheus. Cindy hadn’t heard him come in. “Sean’s in the gym and he’s expecting us.”
Cindy had half hoped that Mattheus would come all the way into the bathroom to find her, that they’d have a moment or two for themselves. Right now she needed the comfort of being alone with him, spending a little while in his arms. But it was true, once the energy of a case got going it took on a life of its own. Before long it ran rough shod over all personal feelings and desires.
Cindy quickly got out of the shower, dried off and pulled on a brightly printed, silk summer dress with sprays of hand painted tropical flowers on it. Then she went out to greet Mattheus.
He looked at her slowly for a moment and whistled.
“Fabulous” he said, “sexy, enticing, inviting.”
Cindy laughed. “Maybe we could find a way to take some time to ourselves, in between interviews,” she snuggled up to him.
Mattheus raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Not so easy is it?” he said.