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

“Yes, I am,” Val’s voice got lower. “Loretta’s stupid father has been putting so much pressure on the police that they’ve started to lean in big time on us. There’s no way we can keep this hidden longer and you’re the first one I wanted to let know.”


“Why me?” asked Eric, startled.

“You’re a neutral party, you want what’s right,” Val slid closer to him, nodding. “We know you’ll help us out with this.”

Obviously Val was trying to get Eric on his side.

“How do you want me to help you out?” Eric stayed non-committal, handling Val expertly.

“Look it’s not our fault that Loretta made that deal with Lou Gran,” Val started sweating as he continued to talk. “That was between the two of them.”

“What deal did she make, Val?” asked Eric.

“How do I know?” Val wiped his hand over his forehead. “But whatever it was, it’s blowing back on me now. I swear, Eric, I had nothing to do with this at all.”

“But you knew Pete, didn’t you? You were his point person in buying the condo,” Cindy declared.

“Yeah, of course I knew him. But I didn’t know his wife was going to bypass him on the financial arrangements,” Val insisted.

“So why did you lie and say Pete gave you the down payment?” Cindy wasn’t getting pulled into his story.

“Heck, cut me some slack,” Val looked at Cindy strangely. “I was just covering for the guy. He’d just been killed, and found in a whore house. I was respecting him and his family, didn’t want anything worse to come out.”

“You were obstructing a criminal investigation by lying,” Cindy grew strident.

“Hold on a minute, Cindy,” Eric put his hand out in front of her. “Back off a minute, let Val tell us what he knows.”

“Thanks man,” Val looked at Eric gratefully. “I’ve always heard terrific things about you.”

“Why did Loretta give the down payment to Lou Gran? Who’s this guy?” Eric was fascinated.

“I don’t know why,” Val answered. “But she gave him too much, one hundred thousand, in unmarked bills.”

“Can you prove this?” asked Cindy. “What proof do you have?”

“Lou told me and he isn’t lying, that’s for sure,” Val shot a nasty look at Cindy.

“Does this have anything to do with why someone threw a rock through her window?” Cindy felt furious.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Val grumbled.

Cindy did not believe him. “Does Lou still have the money?” Cindy was all over it.

“You’ll have to ask him that,” Val answered. “That’s all I got,” and he stood up to go.

“Wait a minute,” Eric stretched out his hand to detain him. “You can’t drop a bomb like that and leave it hanging.”

“That’s all I got,” Val’s jaw clenched. “If I knew more I’d tell you. It was rough to get even this much. I got it though, and soon the police will have it too. Not only that, Pete’s brother Taylor is digging deeper into the money trail, and this guy Mattheus is going to be helping him. Who knows what they’re gonna dig up next?”

Cindy felt shaken. Obviously Mattheus had made all kinds of connections already, without letting her know. Cindy didn’t know what to make of it.

“Did you know that Mattheus was so involved?” Eric asked Cindy suddenly, equally dismayed.

“No, I didn’t,” Cindy answered plainly.

Eric threw Cindy a long look at Cindy. “That’s not good, not good at all.”

“Does Mattheus usually follow you, and work on your cases secretly?” Val stood, addressing Cindy in a demeaning tone.

“Mattheus and I are partners,” Cindy responded sharply. “Our firm is CM Investigations.”

“Yeah, I know, we all heard about you two,” Val quipped, as he turned and left.

“Mattheus and I are partners, not were partners,” Eric repeated Cindy’s words carefully.

“Let it go, Eric,” Cindy snapped back. “You’re getting distracted, that’s not the issue.”

“What is the issue?” Eric asked.

“Loretta lied to me a couple of times,” Cindy murmured. “Was she the one who was buying the condo with her father’s money? Was she the one who wanted time alone together, not Pete? Was she just trying to save face?”

“Why is all that important?” asked Eric.

“Because it tells us more about Pete and his trajectory,” Cindy replied, “like why he ended up dead in Charma’s room.”

Eric’s phone rang suddenly and he quickly picked up. “What? Okay, yeah, of course. We’re at La Costa Nova,” he replied, “come now.” Then he hung up the phone.

“Who’s that? Taylor?” asked Cindy expectantly.

“No, Taylor’s staying in the background right now,” said Eric. “He told me he feels safer in the shadows when the snakes are out, crawling over the place. It was the police calling, they want to talk to us now.”

“How do they know we’re here having dinner?” Cindy was upset.

“I mentioned it to Taylor and I guess he told them,” Eric shook his head slowly. “Taylor called me after I spoke to you. He liked the idea, of you and me having dinner together. Taylor likes me and he respects you, he wants the best for us, he really does.”