Death by Deceit (Book #5 in the Caribbean Murder Series) (7 page)

Waves of horror overcame Mattheus  as he
totally believed what Anthony said.

“But she was rough!”  Anthony went on. “She was
jealous, she was picky, she ran out on me a bunch of times. I always forgave
her and took her back.”

“Ran out on you?” Mattheus said in a thin
voice. “Ran away?”

Anthony leaned towards Mattheus then, and spoke
softly, “No, ran around on me, with other guys. She needed it.”

Mattheus gagged.  “Needed what? To sleep
around? “

“Yeah, that’s what we were yelling about that
night I finally left her and ran through town.  We fought about it all the
time. I couldn’t take it anymore. But she said it wasn’t only the sex she
needed, it was the freedom. I had to give her that.”

Mattheus could not believe what he was hearing.
“And did you give her that? Could you?”

They looked at each other then, sudden, strange
comrades in a war that never could be won.

“I tried,” said Anthony, “but it finally got to
be too much for me. A few weeks before I left, I knew she was with someone else
again, I knew it, I smelled it, but she wouldn’t admit it. Then, finally, I
heard about it from a friend.”

“Who was it?” Mattheus had to know.

“I have no idea. My friend who told me about it
probably knows.”

“You didn’t ask him? You didn’t want to know?” Mattheus
was disbelieving.

“Hell, it didn’t matter by then,” Anthony burst
out. “There’d been so many of them. All that mattered was that it was happening
again. I couldn’t take it one more time.”

“You confronted her?”

“And she lied again. Man, this dame loved to
lie. She made up stories, she couldn’t help it. It was the lies that did it,
finally.”

Mattheus wracked his brain to remember if he could
remember Shelly lying to him? He couldn’t. He might have been taken in by her
though, he finally realized.

“Listen, do me a favor,” Anthony leaned towards
Mattheus across the table, as if they were old combat buddies, “help me get out
of here. I’m innocent. I didn’t do it. Believe me.”

“Why should I believe you?” Mattheus pulled
back.

“You don’t have to believe me. Find out for
yourself.  Go to Rancher’s Bar, it’s a biker bar here in town. My friend who
saw them is the bartender there, Tommy. Go talk to him about it. He was one of
the first friend’s Shelly made when she moved down here. He knew her like the
back of his hand.”

Mattheus felt his mouth go dry at the thought
of Shelly hanging out at a biker’s bar.

“Will you do it for me? Will you?” Anthony was
pleading.

Mattheus looked at the pain etched across his
face.  None of this added up. But one thing was for sure, he didn’t feel like
Anthony killed her.

“Tell me where you were when Shelly was
killed,” Mattheus wanted to be absolutely sure his hunch was right.

“When I ran away from Shelly, I went to live
with my cousin Bella across town. There are plenty of people who can tell you I
was living there. They saw me around. Bella’s a user, if you know what I mean.
I told the police when Shelly was killed I was with Bella. And I was. I was at
her house with her, watching TV. I fell asleep while watching. Bella was high
and went out to a club. Someone saw her dancing there and told the cops I
wasn’t with her, that I was lying. I wasn’t lying, I was at her house,
sleeping. I was with her before she left.”

“It’s a lousy story,” Mattheus mumbled, “doesn’t
prove a thing.”

“But it’s true. Man, you got to believe me. I
was asleep on the couch. Go talk to Tommy at Rancher’s Bar, I beg you. He’ll
fill you in on Shelly. You’ll find out who she was cheating with. Whoever she
was sleeping with is the guy you got to get!”

“Why didn’t you give the police this
information?” Mattheus’s mind was spinning in a hundred directions at once.

“I tried, I really did. But they made up their
mind about me, as soon as they heard my alibi. I never had a fair chance. All I
want is a fair chance.”

“Okay,” said Mattheus, “You got it. I’m going
to talk to Tommy at Rancher’s Bar tonight.”

 Rodney and Alex weren’t thrilled with the
interview. There wasn’t anything new in it for them. After it was over Mattheus
joined them in the back room where it was even more airless and humid.

“Nothing new,” Rodney tapped his foot on the
floor, as soon as Mattheus sat down. “Anthony already told us Shelly was involved
with someone else when she was killed. It’s a convenient story - only problem
is there’s no evidence of it. We checked it out with a bunch of people who knew
her well. No one corroborated it.”

Mattheus felt shaky. He believed Anthony,
anyway.

“These kinds of guys make all kinds of things
up,” Rodney said, flipping a pencil back and forth on the desk. “The truth
doesn’t mean a damn to them.”

 “You know him well?” asked Mattheus.

“Who the hell needs to?” said Rodney. “Guys
like him float around down here all over the place.” He looked both disgusted
and resigned. “I’ve been watching these guys for years - always the same thing
- in and out of jail for minor offenses, doing dope, buying, selling, preying
on all kinds of women. Then they snap - go over the line. You reel them in and
they squirm like fish trapped in a bowl.  It’s always the same excuse too -
the
police aren’t giving me a fair shake. They want to wrap the case up.
If you
knew how many times I heard that baloney. If only one of them would look me in
the eye, like a man, and admit it – say, I killed her Mister, and I’m damn glad
I did.”

Mattheus swallowed hard. He’d heard that excuse
himself plenty of times himself, but each person was different, each one
deserved a chance to be heard.

It was a principle he lived by.

“What about this guy’s friend at Rancher’s
Bar?” Mattheus went on. “Did you check him out?”

Rodney scoffed and Alex just looked away.

“The tip about Tommy at Rancher’s Bar’s old,
too,” said Rodney. “There’s no reason to follow it up. Tommy is Anthony’s
friend – he’ll say whatever Anthony wants him to. Obvious, isn’t it? The lead
has no credibility. The guy’s not worth wasting precious time on.”

“Everyone’s worth something,” said Mattheus.

“Yeah,” the statement caught Rodney up short.
“Everyone’s worth something, but you have to know what. You have to know where
to spend your time, or they end up dragging you around good. If you knew how
many cops I’ve known who’ve gotten turned into rags.”

Mattheus felt defiant. He wasn’t going along,
this was too important.

“I’m going to talk to Tommy myself,” he
declared.

Rodney looked a little fed up. “Go talk to
anyone you like to, but remember, no matter how long they’ve  been around,
Tommy and Anthony are drifters.  It’s a mentality and they’re stuck with it. They’re
just gonna give you the run around.”

 Mattheus felt a vein in his neck start to throb.
 He refused to discount anybody without giving them a hearing. He’d been
surprised too many times. Real leads had come from the strangest places. And, this
was Shelly’s killer they were talking about. He wasn’t going to leave any stone
unturned.

“We got our man, I’m sure of it,” Rodney
muttered, “Anthony’s a real slime.”

Mattheus didn’t feel that way. In fact, he was
surprised at how much he liked Anthony, at the kinship he felt with him. Was it
because they’d both been with Shelly? Mattheus would have expected to hate him
because of that, not to feel close to the guy. He didn’t want to mention that
to Rodney or Alex though, it would make him look weirder than he already did.  

Mattheus noticed that Alex didn’t say a word
and wondered what he thought about all this? Probably had to keep his mouth
shut if he wanted to keep his job, thought Mattheus.

“Wondering what you think about all this?”
Mattheus confronted Alex directly.

Alex looked momentarily surprised. “If you
really want to know, I was actually wondering where Cindy is in all this? How
come she’s not here with you?”

Mattheus was taken aback. It was a strange
question.

“I don’t know,” said Mattheus, “I guess she’s back
at the hotel.” 

“G
uess?
” Now it was Alex’s turn to be
surprised.

“What’s wrong with that?” said Mattheus.

“Seems like you’d want her meet Anthony, get
her take on it. You guys check in with each other regularly?” Alex asked.

“Of course we do,” Mattheus got defensive. What
was this guy getting at? “I just left very early this morning and didn’t call
her room. I didn’t see the point in waking her up.”

Alex shook his head. “Bet you felt funny about her
being here with you.” Mattheus looked at him closely. He wanted to know more about
more about Mattheus’s relationship with Cindy. Mattheus wasn’t open to having
it questioned. He decided to set the record straight right then and there.

“Cindy and I split the work in an
investigation,” he said, “talk to different people. Then we get together, go
over what we found, and decide what steps to take next.” Mattheus was extra
careful to sound professional. There was no reason for either of them to
develop any ideas.

“She’s one terrific woman,” said Alex slowly
then, zoning in on Mattheus.  This guy was too taken with her, Mattheus didn’t appreciate
it.

“Cindy’s a fantastic detective,” Mattheus answered
curtly. “She’s got amazing instinct.”

 “It must be hard for her to be down here,
too,” Alex interrupted. “You guys just broke up and now you’re back together,
working a case?”

“Who said it was supposed to be easy?” Mattheus
was irritated.

“And, on top of it, she’s finding out so many
personal details about you!” Alex didn’t stop.

“She’s finding out about
Shelly
,”
Mattheus corrected.

“But Shelly was
your
wife,” said Alex.

“Yes, she was,” said Mattheus curtly.  “But
what does her behavior have to do with me?
She
left.
She
ran
away. You think I drove her to it?”

“Did you?” Rodney interrupted.

“I resent that,” said Mattheus flatly.

“This isn’t pretty,” said Rodney, “but these
are the questions we need answers to. We’ve got to fill in our picture of her. It’s
the only way we can get a real sense of what happened, and why.”

Mattheus stared at both of them, angry.

Alex picked up the ball. “After all, what would
make a woman leave home, live a completely different life without telling
anybody?

“That’s the million dollar question,” said
Mattheus.

“Did she have a breakdown? Suddenly turn into a
different person?” Alex was on a roll. “Something had to be wrong.”

“Something,” Mattheus said bitterly, “but I
don’t know what.”

“That’s not good enough,” Rodney joined in
forcefully. “We have to know. Was she acting strange before she left? Did
anyone see this coming? Was she carrying on with guys behind your back? Was
someone blackmailing her?”

Chills ran up and down Mattheus arms.  Had
Shelly been carrying on with someone else then, too? The thought never occurred
to him in all the years. Sure Shelly had some guy friends she saw once in a
while after work. She’d told him they were old friends. He’d had no reason to
think otherwise. He’d trusted her completely.

“Lots of guys in Key West knew her,” Alex
prompted. “Seems like she did the town.”

Mattheus suddenly wanted to punch him in the
face. How dare he talk about Shelly that way?  What did he really know about
her? Mattheus turned his back, clenched his fists, and did everything possible
to calm down.

“Turn around, Mattheus,” Rodney said then.

“Go to hell,” Mattheus hissed between his
teeth.

Rodney took a step closer, put his hand on his
shoulder.

“Listen,” he said, “we’re not out to hurt you –
we just have to understand.”

“I thought you said you got the guy – that Anthony
did it.” Mattheus could barely speak.

“That’s what we think, “said Rodney, “but the
more we know about your wife, the easier it’s going to be to get a conviction.
We need to bring in as many facts as we can find.  Right now there are
questions about her no one has the answer to.”

“And you think I do?” Mattheus spun around and
stared.

“You got to have them,” said Rodney, “even if
you don’t think you do.”

“Go ahead then, ask me! I want to find the
answer as much as you!”

“Again, think carefully, was your wife running
around with other guys behind your back?” Rodney drummed his hand on the table.

Mattheus clenched his jaw. He’d heard this
question a million times.

“No, she wasn’t.”

“Were you running around on her?”

“Absolutely not,” said Mattheus.

“Did you guys have some kind of blow up? Is
that why she left? Think about it.” Rodney was insistent.

“No,” said Mattheus, “you don’t think I thought
about this already a thousand times? It’s all in the record. The police in New
Orleans asked me all of it when she went missing.”

“Nothing else occurred to you over all the
years?” Rodney continued.

“No, nothing.”

“So, let’s go over it again now. They found the
body. She was just killed. Maybe you can remember something different now? Was
she mentally unstable?”

“She wasn’t. I’m not kidding around. She was
fine. She had friends, colleagues, they all knew her. She worked, she played,
she laughed, she loved me. She told everyone how happy she was with me.”

“Told who?” asked Alex.

“She told her friends, her co-workers. She
wasn’t close to her family. I was all the family she really had.”

“What happened with her family?” Rodney pounced
on that.

“I only met them one time, at our wedding,”
said Mattheus. “They came in from Oregon for it. There were just her parents
and retarded brother, Mike. The parents loved the brother, gave him all the
attention. Shelly told me she was always on her own, raised herself. She didn’t
want to talk much about it.”

“Where was her brother Mike at the time of her
murder?” Rodney seemed fitful.

Mattheus looked at Rodney amazed. “You’re
fishing in murky waters,” he said. “The family lives in Oregon. They didn’t
even come back down to New Orleans when they heard their daughter had gone
missing years ago.”

“Maybe because they knew where she was then?”
Rodney said. “Maybe she told them? Maybe she went there first?”

“Impossible,” said Mattheus. “She never spoke
to them. They wrote her off a long time ago.”

“You never really wanted to know why?” Rodney
muttered.

“Why don’t you contact them yourself and let
them know her body has been found?” said Mattheus. “Question them, go ahead.”

“We tried,” said Rodney. “We got their contact
information from the New Orleans Police. They moved a year ago and left no
forwarding address.”

That shocked Mattheus. Just like Shelly, he
thought. “That’s wild,” he said.

“It’s more than wild,” said Rodney, “it could
look suspicious. We tried to track them down, got nowhere.”

Mattheus shook his head. “I haven’t stayed in
touch with them. They didn’t care about me or Shelly. But I can’t imagine they had
any reason to harm her. Going after them is a wild goose chase.”

“It says on the record that when she
disappeared the father said he always knew she’d never come to any good,”
Rodney commented.

 “Yes, that’s true,” Mattheus recollected.

“What did you make of that rotten remark?”
asked Rodney. ”It’s not something a father would normally say.”

Mattheus was impressed that they’d done such
detailed research. That comment had bothered him as well when he’d heard it.

 “I just took it to be a nasty remark,” said Mattheus.
“Probably the reason Shelly stayed far away from them.”

“That’s too simple,” said Rodney. “There had to
be real trouble there.”

“I guess,” said Mattheus.

“You guess?” Alex looked at him strangely and
joined in. “That’s something most husbands would know. How close were you to
her, anyway?”

“I told you, Shelly didn’t like to talk about
her past life. When I’d ask her about it she’d say, chapter closed, over, it happened
a long time ago.”

“And you didn’t press it?”

“Of course not,” Mattheus said. “Why would I push
things that upset her? I wanted her to be happy. I wanted our time together to
be good. I did everything in my power to make a great life for her.”

“It didn’t work, though, did it?” said Rodney, tapping
his foot on the ground again, more insistently.

“No, it didn’t,” Mattheus snapped. “But that
doesn’t mean I didn’t try!”

“Trying never gets the gold ring,” Rodney spit
out.