Death by Request (Caribbean Murder #11)

At that Loretta’s head snapped back to attention. “I came to tell my mother what I think of her,” she said swiftly.

“What do you think of her?” asked Cindy, afraid to hear what the girl would say.

“I think my mother missed out on the best thing in her life by getting rid of me!” Loretta’s voice rose harshly, causing everyone in the room to look her way.

Jenna got up and came over quickly. “It’s okay, Loretta,” Jenna said in a soothing tone.

“What’s okay? Nothing’s okay!” Loretta started yelling louder, pulling at the pendant around her frail neck.

“Don’t do that to the pendant,” Jenna tried to stop her.

“I’ll do what I want. You can’t stop me,” Loretta fought back.

“That pendant belonged to Tara,” Jenna looked at Cindy and Mattheus for help. “I have no idea how Loretta got it.”

“I took it from the room,” said Loretta holding the pendant fiercely to her chest. “It belonged to my mother and I have a right to a dying gift. You got a problem with that?”

“I don’t have a problem with you having your mother’s necklace,” Jenna backed down, fearfully.

Thankfully, at that moment, the door to the waiting room opened again, and an official, dressed in a white uniform entered somberly.

“The cremation is over,” he announced. “Peace be with all.”

*

After the family hugged each other and said a few more words, they filed out of the waiting room quietly, leaving Loretta behind. Cindy felt concerned about her.

“What are you going to do now?” Cindy asked.

“I don’t know,” said Loretta, looking at Cindy, restless. “I want to stay around until the case is closed. Is there something I can do to help?”

“Like what?” asked Cindy, surprised.

“Maybe I can do something like you do,” Loretta seemed completely forlorn. “You can give me assignments and I’ll help you with them. I could be a great detective, too.”

“Yes, you could be a great detective,” Cindy answered, “and I wish I could give you an assignment, but I can’t. It’s complicated.”

“Everything is complicated,” Loretta wouldn’t take no for an answer. “But for a good detective complications don’t matter. They see right through bullshit, do what they have to, take action.”

“I have an assignment for you, Loretta,” Mattheus broke in. Obviously, he was taken with her, wanted to help prop her up.

“Great,” said Loretta, eager.

“First of all, find out where the woman is now who shared a room with your mother! They may have moved her. Let us know,” said Mattheus.

Loretta was excited. “Definitely, I will,” she said. “Also, I can tell you that her name was Ann. From the first minute I saw her I knew she’d be fine.”

Cindy swallowed hard at the sound of her sister’s name, suddenly missing her deeply.

“Ann was also in her forties,” Loretta filled Cindy and Mattheus in. “She was also in a bad accident, but I knew she’d wake up and be fine. I even said that to her when she was sleeping,”

“You didn’t think your mother would be fine though, did you?” Mattheus interrupted.

“No, I knew she wouldn’t,” said Loretta. “And part of me wondered if she even wanted to die.”

“You didn’t help your mother die, did you?” asked Cindy, startled. She couldn’t miss an opportunity to follow up on the comment.

“I had nothing to do with my mother’s dying,” Loretta was offended. “I didn’t think she’d wake up, but I didn’t kill her, either. There’s no reason for you to say something like that.”

Mattheus took out his card then and gave it to Loretta. “Go do the assignment I’ve given you,” he said “and contact me at this phone number.”

Loretta took the card, delighted. “I’ll be right on it,” she breathed and left.

Cindy and Mattheus stared at each other then.

“She needs something, needs someone,” Mattheus murmured. “She needs to feel she can make a difference in this world.”

Cindy was touched by Mattheus’s wisdom and caring. “You’re right, she does,” Cindy replied, “and it was good of you to give her that assignment. But what I can’t get over is why no one told us about the other woman who shared Tara’s room?”

“There’s a lot of things no one told us,” Mattheus grumbled. “So, we’ll find out where she is and go talk to her ourselves.”

“I’ll go speak to her myself,” said Cindy. “It could be too much to have both of us in her hospital room.”

“That’s a good idea,” Mattheus agreed. “In the meantime, I want to dig into the medical mistakes in this hospital, and spend more time with Konrad. There’s a jazz festival coming up I was invited to where hospital officials will be present.”

“Great,” said Cindy, grateful for the new possibilities.

“I’m glad we’ve got Loretta on our team, too,” said Mattheus. “She could find out things that would be hidden from us.”

Cindy was not sure what Mattheus was talking about. “Since when is Loretta on our team?”