Death by Seduction (Book #13 in the Caribbean Murder series)

“Yes, they definitely are,” agreed Cindy.

“You know what it tells me?” Loretta spoke loudly, “You know what it tells me?”

“What?” asked Cindy, suddenly nervous.

“It tells me that no matter what happens, life goes on,” Loretta called out shrilly over the choppy waters. “It tells me it’s okay to be happy, no matter what.”

*

When the spectacle had died down and the boat was returning to shore, Loretta began to look somewhat glum. Cindy wondered if she was realizing that she was here without Pete now. Cindy didn’t want to waste time. She wanted to resume their former conversation, find out more about him.

“Is it hard to be on this trip without Pete, isn’t it?” Cindy asked quietly, trying to bring reality in.

“Maybe it is,” said Loretta, knotting her hands together. “But my father is on the way as we speak and so is Taylor, Pete’s brother. My father will help us figure out what to do. I’ll introduce you to him first thing tomorrow morning.”

“What about Taylor?” asked Cindy. This was the first time she’d heard anything about him.

Loretta made a sour face, ignoring the question. “My best friend Angela will also be coming down tomorrow. She and I have been through everything together. You’ll love her, Cindy. And she’ll love you.”

“And what about Taylor?” Cindy repeated.

Loretta’s face flushed as she swerved around. “I never liked him much and he never liked me. I’d rather you stay away from him.”

Cindy was startled. “Why?”

“Taylor gets weird ideas and becomes obsessed. Sometimes he even upset Pete. I’m not sure why he’s coming, I asked him not to. I told him we’d be home soon and he could help take care of things then.”

“Was Pete close to his brother?” asked Cindy surprised.

“Very,” said Loretta, “family was family for Pete and nothing could get in the way.”

“That’s a wonderful quality,” said Cindy.

“Maybe,” said Loretta, “but if anything was a bone of contention between us, his crazy brother Taylor was. He was a bad influence on Pete. I tried to keep him as far away from us as I could.”

“That must have hurt Pete, it was his brother!” remarked Cindy.

“So what?” said Loretta nastily, “just because he was Pete’s brother didn’t make him a friend.”





Chapter 6


By the time Cindy returned home she was exhausted, took a shower and practically fell into bed. Before she pulled up the covers up she checked her phone, just to be sure. To her surprise and relief, there was a missed call there waiting for her from Mattheus.

Cindy blinked a moment, then bolted up in bed. She’d half hoped for the call and half hoped not. She clutched the phone close to her, but kept herself from listening to the message Mattheus had left.

Cindy fell back down in bed, wide awake now, and saddened. Even though she’d been wanting to hear from him, it really wasn’t okay for Mattheus to call whenever he felt like it. Cindy wasn’t going to let him bounce in and out of her life It wasn’t healthy and it wasn’t right. She quickly turned off the ringer, slipped the phone under her pillow, and then turned and twisted in bed, desperately trying to fall asleep.

*

After a night of tossing and disturbing dreams, Cindy awoke, groggy in the morning. To her surprise, though, it wasn’t Mattheus she had dreamt about all night long, but Clint. Memories of losing her brand new husband not so long ago, of Clint going missing in Barbados on their honeymoon, surfaced vividly. In her dreams Cindy saw both the ocean he’d gone surfing in and the lone surf board that had returned without him on it. Cindy’s sister Ann was in the dream as well, standing there stalwartly, comforting her. Cindy thought how much she missed Ann now, how wonderful it would be to have her here to talk to. She also knew that Ann would have approved of her decision not to call Mattheus back. Ann and Frank had never approved of Cindy’s relationship with Mattheus, though, Cindy had never understood why. Cindy had thought that basically Ann and Frank just didn’t want her to be a detective, and Mattheus was an intrinsic part of that. The difficulty Mattheus had with Cindy’s mother and Frank during their visit after Ann’s death, was something else. It had stunned Cindy. Mattheus had given them no reason for the hostility they’d expressed towards him.

As Cindy lay in bed thinking things over, she pulled her phone out from under her pillow and turned the ringer back on. To her surprise it was later than she realized and there was also a missed call from Loretta this morning. Cindy listened to the message Loretta had left.

“Call as soon as you get up. My dad is here and he wants you to join us for breakfast downstairs,” said Loretta.

Cindy looked at the time. It was about nine thirty, much later than she usually woke up. She immediately returned Loretta’s call.