Death by Request (Caribbean Murder #11)

“Nah, they’re saving us time, filling us in,” Mattheus protested.

It didn’t feel good to Cindy right from the start. She didn’t need the police to call and go over details that had already been made public. The case had garnered lots of attention, was all over the papers and TV. As soon as Cindy and Mattheus were hired Cindy read all about it carefully. Two months ago, Owen Danden was on vacation in Jamaica with his beautiful wife Tara, of twenty years. They were celebrating their anniversary on the water in a boat, happy and laughing, when huge gusts of wind blew up from nowhere. According to the papers, the boat went crazy, started shaking, tipping, and suddenly Tara fell overboard. As Owen tried desperately to steer the boat away from his wife, the gears locked and the edge of it hit her in the head, again and again. Owen shouted for help, but by the time he’d pulled her out of the water, Tara was alive, but not responding. An all-out SOS call went forth and both Owen and Tara were soon airlifted to the Ranges Hospital.

The Ranges Hospital was a beautiful, private, international hospital, located nearby on top of a nearby cliff. Tara was immediately placed in the ICU, in a special section for coma patients. The prognosis was guarded, they all had to wait and see now how she would progress. Would she wake up? Would she live the rest of her life in a vegetative state? Beside himself, Owen stayed glued to his wife’s bedside for two months, attending to her every need, waiting for her to open her eyes and speak to him. Cindy read the story in the paper over and over.

“The paper said that Owen never left Tara’s bedside,” Cindy reminded Mattheus now. “How did he get from that to being suspected of killing her at the end?”

“He got tired, exhausted,” Mattheus answered bluntly. “That kind of vigil takes an incredible toll.”

Cindy’s nose wrinkled. “Too simple,” she replied.

“Euthanasia is complicated,” Mattheus insisted. “In some places it’s not even considered a crime.”

“But it is in Jamaica,” Cindy reminded him, “and Owen was smart. He had to realize that. Besides, how can we be sure it was euthanasia?”

Mattheus shook his head slowly. “So far as I’ve read nobody has questioned the way Tara died. She died by a lethal substance put into her IV.”

Cindy didn’t go for that, either. “If Owen wanted to kill her,” Cindy said quickly, “he could have just had them pull the plug. That’s involuntary, passive euthanasia, withholding treatment or life support. It’s not as serious as actively killing someone.”

“But a lethal substance could be quicker, less painful,” Mattheus disputed it. “Maybe Owen didn’t want to see his wife suffer dying slowly like that.”

“But if Tara was in a coma,” Cindy mused, “she wouldn’t feel anything anyway.”

“You never know,” said Mattheus. “I’ve read all kinds of things about people in comas.”

Cindy had read a great deal about it as well. Some claimed that people in comas could hear everything being said. There were even cases of people coming out of comas and reporting conversations around them, word for word. The idea of that frightened Cindy, made her think of her sister, Ann. Had Ann been aware that she was dying, what was the last thing she’d heard before she died?

“There are too many unknown variables,” said Cindy. “We’re going to have to stay very grounded and careful with this case.” She ran her hands through her hair then, tying it neatly at the bottom of her neck. Cindy wanted to feel pulled together as they’d be landing soon. Owen had sent a car to the airport to meet them. Cindy and Mattheus would take the car, go to their hotel, check in and then immediately head to the scene of the crime at the hospital. The police were there already, expecting them.

“I love our being back together,” Mattheus said as he watched Cindy straighten her hair. “I love tackling new cases with you.”

Cindy leaned towards Mattheus. “Me, too, I love it,” she said.

“I can see us doing this forever and ever,” Mattheus whispered.

“So can I,” Cindy answered. “And, hopefully, we can do other things, too.”

“Lots of other things,” Mattheus grinned. “We have our whole life before us.”

A loud voice over a microphone interrupted them then. “Prepare for landing, buckle your seat belts.”

Cindy caught her breath. “My God, we’re here already?” The flight had taken no time.

“It’s good, it’s all good,” Mattheus smiled. “Let’s go for it, let’s go for everything.”

Cindy felt a wave of warmth and appreciation for Mattheus as they leaned back, buckled up and got ready to descend. Where in the world would Cindy be without him now? She had no idea.