Death by Deceit (Book #5 in the Caribbean Murder Series) (16 page)

Again, Barbara and Angie
looked at each other. Barbara seemed weakened and sad.

“This won’t hurt the Shelter,”
Angie said to Barbara, “ultimately it will help us to find out what happened. Give
Cindy Katrina’s address. It’s the only right thing to do.”

*

When Cindy returned from the Shelter it was
just past lunch time. The new information she’d received was so urgent, that
she had to get in touch with Mattheus immediately. There was a new viable lead
to explore and they had to get right on it. Cindy was sure Mattheus had no idea
that Shelly had gotten between an abused woman and her violent husband. Who
knows what that encounter could have led to? Domestic violence escalates and affects
all who stand in its trail, Cindy remembered. Both she and Mattheus had to
speak to Katrina and her husband immediately.

As soon as she got to the hotel lobby, Cindy
dialed upstairs to Mattheus’s room. There was no answer. She called his cell
phone; he didn’t pick up. Cindy then left a message saying there was a new,
urgent development - he had to call her as soon as possible.

 Where was he? Why wasn’t he picking up? Cindy
was disconcerted. She went over to the desk to find out if they’d seen him.
Nobody had. He hadn’t left a message for Cindy either, at the desk. Cindy
guessed that this was his childish way of letting her know their partnership
was over. It was crazy though, they were in the middle of a case. Had he
flipped out?

Cindy wanted to talk to Katrina as soon as possible
but couldn’t go without back up. She decided to call Alex then and let him know
what she’d found. When she dialed Alex’s phone, he didn’t pick up either. Cindy
left him a quick message, telling him to call, and then decided to take a few
minutes to unwind at the pool. She would have a drink on a lounge chair out
there, and get her thoughts together.

This was way more than she’d bargained for, but
she decided not to jump to conclusions, thought Cindy, as she walked to the
back of the hotel, where a large pool, surrounded by lounge chairs and little tables
awaited her. There were a few guests scattered here and there, but basically
the pool felt empty and it was soothing to be here.

Cindy sat down on a lounge and reminded herself
that sooner or later either Alex or Mattheus would have to call back. She
ordered a drink and put her head back, trying to put together the information
she’d uncovered. Obviously, they were scared to death at the Shelter of having
any misdoing exposed, afraid of being closed down. It seemed clear to Cindy
that Shelly had exposed herself to danger by getting between Katrina and Flan.
The only way Cindy would find out for sure, would be to go and talk to them
herself.

The frosty, iced drink came and she sipped it
slowly, suddenly missing Mattheus terribly. It had been so reassuring going
over cases with him, feeling cared for and supported. She and Mattheus had
balanced each other perfectly and both of them taken it for granted. Was it
possible that he would ever come back to his senses, that they’d be able to be
working partners again?

Mattheus decided to spend the next
day alone. He had no desire to see Cindy or hear about her visit to the
Shelter. The shock of seeing her and Alex, cozy at dinner the night before, was
more than he could handle right now.  Jealousy had never been one of his weak
points. In fact, up until now, the opposite had been true. It had never even
occurred to him that a woman he was with would step out on him with someone
else. Why would they? He was attentive, dependable, caring and loyal to a
fault.

After Shelly went missing, out
of respect to her memory, it was years before Mattheus let himself get involved
with anyone else. And, he’d had no lack of opportunities either. The women down
in Grenada had gone after him big time. Why wouldn’t they? He was good looking,
toned, sexy and appealing. And he knew it. It was him who had said no to them,
over and over.

When he’d finally met Cindy,
it was different. Time had passed, Cindy was beautiful, charming, great to be
with. They had so much in common, worked so well together. Despite himself,
she’d won his heart.

  Mattheus spent the morning
in bed, ruminating about everything. He finally ordered lunch up in the room,
ate it in bed, and thought about how much he used to enjoy sharing meals in the
room with Cindy. He’d believed she’d be the perfect partner, someone to step in
for Shelly, finally. How could one guy have been so wrong?

Obviously, Cindy had some kind
of problem, pulling out on him in Grenada so suddenly. Who does something like
that? It reminded him of the way Shelly just ran away. The fact that Cindy came
right back down here to help him now meant something, of course. That was good
of her, he knew she cared about him. But why in the world would she sneak around
the first chance she got, and have dinner with another guy?

After lunch, Mattheus decided
to get dressed and take a walk down at the harbor before going down to
Rancher’s Bar. He put on a pair of jeans and shirt, and slid out of the hotel
taking the back entrance, so as to be sure he wouldn’t run into her. Let her do
all the investigating she wanted to, he thought. She was comfortable working
with women, great at getting them to talk.  So, good for her. That had worked
when they were a team. Only they weren’t a team anymore. What were they? Mattheus
had no idea.

He walked slowly down to the
harbor, which was only a mile away. The sun beat on his face as it walked,
feeling good, relaxing him. When he got near the water he took a deep breath
and felt his head clear.

 The harbor was filled with
fishing boats, stores on the sidewalks, outdoor cafes and the wonderful smell
of salty air. Mattheus sat down on a bench on the pier, watching tourists choose
souvenirs, walk on the docks, go out on fishing boats. They made it look as
though the world were normal, that people didn’t just disappear and that it
made sense to collect happy memories to bring back as gifts for the folks at
home.

Mattheus gazed out at the
ocean, and suddenly missed Cindy terribly. Jesus, he thought, I must be going
crazy, one minute I hate her, the next minute I miss her like hell. He suddenly
wanted to call her, hear every little thing she found out at the Shelter, help
her sort it all out, hold her in his arms. He ran his hands through his hair,
nervously. Finding out about Shelly’s life down here had turned his world
upside down. How could he trust anything anymore?

Mattheus got up, stretched his
legs and started walking along the pier. Better to keep moving than to dwell on
details, trying to make sense of them. His years of working as a cop taught him
that. It always took time for the truth to be revealed. You had to take it one step
at a time, stay in the moment and focus on that. Instead of dwelling on his
life with Shelly, Mattheus turned a switch in his head and decided to do what
he did best - focus on the crime.

What kind of evidence did the
cops still need? How he could help? His gut still said that Anthony was
innocent, but a gut gets you nowhere. He had to get out there, dig up the dirt,
back up his instinct with hard facts.

Mattheus looked at his watch,
to his surprise it was almost four o’clock. In a little while Rancher’s Bar
would open and he’d be able to go in and talk to Tommy. This was a fascinating
lead and he was eager to get on it, especially as the police had just let it just
drift by.

 Mattheus decided to walk over
to Rancher’s Bar now. It was down the other end of town and by the time he
arrived it would just be opening up.

*

Rancher’s Bar opened promptly
at five. Mattheus got there about six minutes before opening, stood outside,
leaned against a street post and waited for someone to arrive. The bar was
located in a sketchy neighborhood, way over at the other side of town.  A bunch
of motorcycles were parked diagonally along the street, in front of small
shanty buildings where people lived cheap. The air down here felt heavy with
the smell of cooking coming out of the windows, grease, cigarettes and pot. You
could hear rap music coming from some apartments, and a few bikers with tattoos
passed by. One of them looked Mattheus over.

“Waiting for some?” the biker
scrutinized Mattheus, as if he might be on the prowl for dope.

“Not now,” said Mattheus
gruffly, trying to pretend he was one of the guys.

“Uh huh,” the guy kept
walking.

In a few more minutes another
big, muscular guy with a square face, old jeans, earring in both ears and red
cap on his head, came up to the bar and leaned against the door. Then he took a
key out of his pocket and opened it up.

Mattheus straightened up. That
had to be Tommy. Mattheus gave him a few minutes to go inside, and get things
going, before he decided to stroll inside and say hello.

The bar was still empty and
half dark when Mattheus walked in. Tommy’s back was to him, lining up glasses
along the bar.

“Hey,” Mattheus said as he sat
down on a bar stool.

Startled, Tommy turned around.

“Hey man, you scared me.
Didn’t hear you come in.”

“Sorry about that,” said
Mattheus.

Tommy looked Mattheus over. “Haven’t
seen you here before,” he said.

“Anthony sent me,” said Mattheus
in a hushed tone. He didn’t want to waste any time. It was perfect to get to
Tommy now before the crowd started arriving.

Tommy’s jaw fell. “Anthony
sent you?”

“Your buddy in jail,” said
Mattheus.

“Who the hell are you, man?”
Tommy asked, defensive. He was being protective of Anthony and Mattheus liked
that.

“It’s not what you think,”
said Mattheus, leaning over the bar. “Hey, how about a beer before we talk?”

Tommy wasn’t budging, or
giving anything up.

 “Talk about what?” he asked,
his eyes narrowing.

“I’m here to help Anthony,”
Mattheus said then. “I’m a detective from the Caribbean.”

“The Caribbean? Tell me
another.” Anthony frowned. You could see it didn’t make sense to him.

“Give me a minute,” said
Mattheus.

“What’s this? Some kind of
hoax?” Anthony interrupted. “You think I’m a jerk or something?”

“No, really, it’s true,” said
Mattheus.

“Really, my ass,” said Tommy.
“The police here haven’t even bothered to darken my doorstep, even though
Anthony told them about me at least fifteen times. So why should someone come
from the Caribbean? Why should I believe you?”

“The police didn’t come
because you’re a close friend of Anthony’s,” Mattheus said. “You’re not a
reliable witness.”

 Tommy relented a second.
“Yeah, well, I am a reliable witness.”

“I believe that,” said
Mattheus, looking straight at him. “That’s why I’m here, talking to you.”

“You believe that? How come?”
asked Tommy.

“Because I have no choice,”
answered Mattheus, straight up. “My gut tells me Anthony didn’t do it and I
don’t know who else to talk to.”

Tommy liked that. He calmed
down a little. “What kind of beer you want, Mister?” he asked.

Mattheus told him and Tommy
poured some from the tap. It was good to have some beer now, and Mattheus drank
a lot of it fast.

“Take it easy, guy,” Tommy
said. “There’s more where that came from.”

“How long did you know
Anthony?” Mattheus wanted to jump right in.

“Years,” said Tommy, turning
his cap around on his head. “He’s a great guy!”

“I heard that from a lot of
people,” said Mattheus.

Tommy was surprised, “Yeah?
Who? I thought you didn’t have anyone else to talk to about it?”

Mattheus smiled. This guy
didn’t miss a trick, he would make a terrific detective.

“I didn’t talk to anyone else,
my partner did,” said Mattheus. “She’s talking to some women down at the
Shelter today, as we speak.”

Tommy looked confused. “The
abused women’s Shelter?”

“Yeah, where Shelly worked.”

“Oh yeah,” said Tommy. “I
forgot about that. I heard she did a good job.”

“The women down there also
said that they liked Anthony.”

“Everyone liked the guy,” said
Tommy. “This is his damn, rotten luck.”

“But his alibi doesn’t hold,”
said Mattheus.

Tommy made a fist and banged
it on the bar.

“It holds,” he said. “I know
his stupid cousin Bella for years. Everyone down here knows her. It’s no
secret, she’s a druggie. Bella told Anthony to come and live with her when he split
from Shelly. So, he went. I told him it was a great idea.”

“What was a great idea?
Leaving Shelly? Or going to live with his cousin?”

“Both,” said Tommy frowning.
“The poor guy had to get away from Shelly. I begged him to do it for the past
year.”

Mattheus felt himself starting
to freeze, but shook it off. He had to force himself to listen.

“Why did he have to get away
from Shelly? What was wrong with her?”
Tommy looked Mattheus straight in the eye. Finally someone wanted his story and
he seemed eager to let it be heard.

“The women in the Shelter
won’t tell you, but Shelly was one hell of a wild cat. She made my friend’s
life miserable.”

Shelly? Mattheus kept saying
over and over in his mind. Made his life miserable? It didn’t compute.

“She turned it into a living
hell,” Tommy insisted.

“How?” Mattheus demanded.

“The bitch took advantage of
Anthony big time. She ran around on him, in front of everyone. He told me he
knew about some of it, but man, I could see the hurt in his eyes. He really
loved her. I don’t know why!” Tommy took his cap off and put it on again then.
“I’ll never know why good guys fall for these bitches. Some guys like to be
hurt, I guess.”

Mattheus swallowed hard. This
was not a picture of Shelly he could even relate to. A wildcat? Running around
with guys?

“Anthony told me he knew she
needed to step out on him once in a while,” Tommy continued, “but believe me,
it wasn’t once in a while. It was getting worse. Anthony finally told her he
couldn’t stand it. She just shrugged it off, acted like she had a vendetta.”

“Against who?”  asked Mattheus,
the fury rising again inside.

“Who the hell knows, and who
cares?” said Tommy. “But she was definitely getting worse and worse, flaunting
it wherever she went. She’d turn up in public with one guy one day and then
another the next. She and Anthony started fighting about it then. He would yell
that he’d leave her if she didn’t stop.”

“People heard that?” asked
Mattheus.

“Sure they heard the fights.
But they didn’t get the whole picture.  People thought it was Shelly who was
jealous of him. She was, but he gave her no reason. It was Anthony who was
being ripped apart. ”

“What kind of a woman does
that?” Mattheus blurted out, heartsick.

“A rotten one, that’s who,”
said Tommy.

“It’s not Shelly,” Mattheus
uttered.

“What do you mean?” Tommy spun
around on a dime. “Did you know her?”

Mattheus couldn’t speak.

“Did you ever see her come in
here and dance? The last few weeks before she was killed she came in with only one
new guy though, danced with him like a slut. There seemed to be something
between them. They clung to each other like it was a matter of life and death.”

“What?” Mattheus felt the heat
in his body rising.

“They had some connection! It
was obvious.  My blood boiled for Anthony. When I told him about it, he finally
got fed up, got the hell out of there and went to live with his cousin, Bella.
What choice did he have?”

Mattheus started perspiring
heavily.

“Believe me,” Tommy went on, “Anthony
wouldn’t have ever hurt Shelly, he loved her. He was asleep in his cousin’s
house on the night of the murder. Bella was out dancing, and he was supposed to
go too, but he didn’t have the heart for it. He called me before he went to
sleep. I told him to go get some coffee, and to rest, and stay strong.  He said
he would. He was supposed to go dancing so that’s what he told the cops. Nobody
actually saw him sleeping at his cousin’s that night, so the cops decided his
alibi didn’t hold. I say he’s a convenient patsy.”