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

“It’s obvious,” Loretta whispered. “When you come down I’ll tell you everything. It’s too sordid to talk about on the phone. Cindy, please, I don’t want to die.”


Who could want Loretta dead? Cindy flashed upon her old friend more clearly then. Loretta had always been popular and in control of her world. She always insisted that the world around her be orderly and beautiful, just like the poems she loved so much. Cindy remembered when Loretta and Pete met in her senior year the deep happiness and relief Loretta had felt about it. Pete was a great catch, from everyone’s standpoint. He’s perfect for me, Loretta had said, he’ll make my world safe. Pete had been a finance major, tall, with sandy haired and startling blue eyes. After he and Loretta got together, Cindy saw less and less of Loretta. Cindy had taken it in stride; she was used to girlfriends wandering away when they got into serious relationships.

“Will you come, will you help?” Loretta insisted. “Will you forgive me for not being a better friend?”

Cindy was surprised by her plea. “It’s fine, Loretta,” Cindy said slowly. “Friends come together and then drift apart. You haven’t been a bad friend.”

“But will you come? Will you help?” Loretta’s voice was quivering.

“Yes, I will,” Cindy said emphatically.. “Email me details, and I’ll be there on the next flight.”

*

“You’ll be where on the next flight?” Mattheus asked, agitated, as Cindy hung up the phone.

“That was an old friend from college,” Cindy started.

And?” Mattheus muttered as he stood up from the stool and walked closer, hovering over Cindy.

“And right now she’s in the Dominican Republic where her husband has just been killed,” Cindy answered briskly. “For all she knows she’s also in danger.”

Mattheus ran his hand across his face slowly. “So you just took the case without even as much as throwing a glance my way?”

Cindy hadn’t thought about it that way. “I told her I’d help her because she’s desperate, needs me.

Mattheus wasn’t having it. “And what about me? I don’t need you? You couldn’t answer my question about getting married, but you’ve answered hers the moment she called.”

Cindy felt herself clutching. She and Mattheus were back on the same track again.

“You don’t want to marry me, do you?” Mattheus’s tone grew sharper. “For God’s sake, be straight with yourself and me, too. You’re using these cases to push me away! And, guess what? You’re succeeding!”

Cindy’s eyes stung with tears. Mattheus suddenly seemed to have turned into a bulldozer rolling over her.

“I did answer your questions about marriage,” Cindy insisted. “I told you that I never wanted to elope, and neither did you. You were thrilled about having a real wedding. Now everything’s up in the air as things have become more and more desperate.”

“So, you view me as desperate?” Mattheus was stung.

“I’m not saying you’re desperate,” Cindy insisted, “but the whole situation has taken on an urgency that feels desperate to me.”

“I’d say we have a desperate situation when your family reacts to me the way they did,” Mattheus fought valiantly. “They want to do everything possible to break us up. If that isn’t a cause for desperation, what is?”

“So, rather than work it out, you want to run away, get married, and let the pieces fall where they may?” Cindy wasn’t going along for the ride.

“I wanted to run away and get married,” Mattheus corrected her. “Past tense. I can’t say I want to do that now.”

Cindy felt a long, slow, chill run over her body. “What are you saying, Mattheus?”

“I’m saying that you can go to your case to the Dominican Republic and have a wonderful time there, have a wonderful life.”

“You’re not coming with me?” Cindy suddenly felt heartsick.

“You don’t get it,” Mattheus murmured. “I’m not spending my life with a woman who doesn’t care about what’s important to me.”

Cindy stood up straighter, the shock of Mattheus’s words were seeping in.

“I thought we both cared about the same things,” she responded.

“It looked that way in the beginning, didn’t it?” said Mattheus. “We both love solving murders, but it seems that’s where it ends. I also want a wife who puts me first, is willing to spend quality time with me and let her work sit on the back burner at times. I want a woman who really wants to marry me.”

“I do, I did,” said Cindy silently. “I wanted to marry you in the right time and the right way, when we’ve worked through difficulties, calmed hurt feelings and had our feet set on solid ground.”

“Our feet will never be set on solid ground,” Mattheus retorted. “The ground beneath our feet will always slide. And when one hurt feeling is solved, another will rise to take its place. That’s the nature of relationships and the nature of our work. Can we handle that as a couple? Looks like not.”