Death by Obsession (10 page)

In less than ten minutes Cindy watched three police
cars converge onto the hotel, as stunned reporters flashed their cameras. The
police got out of their cars, rushed into the hotel and flocked into the
private dining room, en masse. The room which had become quiet, filled with panic.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Is
someone hurt?” Voices rose above one another.

“Who called the police?” Raina
she rushed over to Mattheus, incensed.

“Routine procedure,” said
Mattheus quietly.

“There is nothing routine about it.
Police do not flood a private dinner party unless they’re called,” Raina insisted.

“I called them,” Mattheus stood eye
to eye with her.  “There was no choice about it. Tara’s not in her room, but her
belongings still are.”

“Idiotic and ridiculous,” Raina breathed.
“What’s the big deal? Tara obviously had cold feet, ran away and is hiding
somewhere under our noses. We could have easily found her on our own. She’ll
come to her senses - everyone does. You’ve gone and destroyed our celebration.”

“I hope it’s that simple,” said Mattheus.
“Really, I do.”

Taken aback by the strength of
his feeling, Raina quieted down. “What are the police going to do?” she asked,
taking it in, and growing alarmed.

“They’re going to search for
Tara,” Mattheus replied.

“We can obviously do that for
ourselves,” Raina shot back.

Cindy, who’d been listening a few
feet behind, came over and joined the conversation. “When someone disappears,
time is of the essence, she said. “The police are best equipped to cover all
bases.”

“What bases?” Raina flung back. “And,
Tara has not disappeared. She’s gotten cold feet, and will obviously turn up in
a little while. You’ll both look like fools.”

“There’s nothing I’d like better
than to look like a fool,” replied Cindy.

Raina turned her attention to the
guests at the party then. People stood huddled together, whispering, watching
the police. “I have no idea what our guests could be thinking,” Raina hissed. “This
is atrocious. It will hurt our business. Now not only do I have to explain Tara’s
lateness, but the arrival of the police as well. I have to make it all seem
normal, nothing to fuss over.”

It struck Cindy that Raina was
more concerned about how her guests were reacting than what had happened to
Tara.

“It’s a good idea to get your
guests ready,” Cindy wanted to bring some reality in. “These police will be
questioning everyone  to see if they have any idea about where Tara might be,
or if they ‘ve heard anything.  And, right now, other police are already out on
the island searching, checking airports, hospitals.”

“Dear God,” breathed Raina, as
Aldon came over, agitated.

“What the hell is this?” Aldon demanded.
“What are the police doing here? Where is my daughter?”

“Tara was not in her room when I
went to look for her,” Cindy began speaking to him slowly.“Good, very good,” Aldon
flung back. “She’s seen the light, taken off. At the last minute she had the
sense not to go through with this miserable charade.”

“I beg your pardon?” Raina’s
teeth clenched and her eyes narrowed.

“Who in their right mind goes
through with a marriage when faced with secrets and lies?” Aldon demanded.

Raina took a tiny step closer. “We
agree about one thing, Aldon. Obviously your daughter is not in her right mind.”

“Look in the mirror, dear Raina,”
Aldon replied, a strange smile at the corner of his tight lips.

It was painful for Cindy to see
their dislike for each other so blatantly on display. She wanted to defuse the
situation. “Where would Tara go to if she had decided not to go through with
the wedding?” Cindy asked Aldon point blank.

“That is exactly the question you
should have asked before humiliating us by calling the police!”  Raina declared
forcefully.

Lynch came over then, distraught
and flustered. “Who called the police?”

“Tara’s gone,” Mattheus said
slowly.

“She’s here somewhere,” Lynch
exclaimed. “This was completely unnecessary. The police told me she was not in
her room. So what? She must have simply gone somewhere to think things over.
Tara loves to take long walks and think everything over.”

“Where?” asked Cindy on the spot.

“I have no idea,” said Lynch
hurriedly. “Absolutely none. Last I knew she was excited about the dinner,
couldn’t wait to come.”

“So, why isn’t she here?” asked
Cindy.

“You two resolved your
differences?” Mattheus joined in.

“Yes, of course we did,” said
Lynch, on edge. “What happened before was only a slight bump in the road and we
passed over it quickly. Why wouldn’t we? We worked it out!”

Lynch was so distraught and
engaging that Cindy could not help but believe him for a moment. Then she
remembered her trip with Tara to see Bala and the child. This was more than a
bump in the road they’d come to, much, much more.

“Did you agree to include your
son in your life?” Cindy continued, confronting Lynch head on.

Lynch blanched. “How do you know
about that?” he was taken off guard.

“Tara told me about it,” Cindy
replied.

“Tara told you what?” Aldon
seemed totally confused. ‘I thought you two were off the case.”

“Temporarily,” said Cindy. “Tara
called me and asked me accompany her to see Bala and the boy one more time.”

“You were off the case and you
had no business encouraging her to do that!” Raina jumped in immediately.

“I didn’t encourage her, I just
accompanied her,” Cindy said defiantly.

“Cindy was trying to help your
daughter,” Mattheus said to Aldon.

“Well, I thank her for that,”
Aldon remarked, unsettled.

“Your precious daughter insisted
that Lynch include his illegitimate son in their lives,” Raina jumped in. “I
know all about it, Lynch told me. And, I advised him to ignore it. People have
all sorts of strange ideas before they walk down the aisle. Of course I never
thought she’d actually go to see the boy again on her own. Tara was obviously
having a mini breakdown. I thought she’d forget all about it after the
honeymoon and I told Lynch so.”

“Is that true?” Mattheus turned
to Lynch slowly.

“Yes, it’s true,” Lynch replied. “My
mother knows more than I do, she’s experienced with these things. I trust her
guidance completely.”

“What kind of breakdown was Tara
having?” Aldon confronted Lynch, aghast.

Raina jumped in, though. “What
normal woman wants to include an illegitimate son in her new marriage?” She
glared at Aldon mercilessly.

“My daughter is more than a
normal woman, she’s a wonderful person,” Aldon declared, “thoughtful,
sensitive, like her mother was, just like her mother.”

“I’m sure she is,” said Mattheus,
taking a deep breath. “No one is casting aspersions on Tara. The only question
is where is she now?”

*

 Where is Tara? That was the
question on the lips not only of the guests at the wedding, but all the island?
News of her disappearance was announced on TV. An alert was sent out to search
for her and all roads leaving the island were temporarily blocked. Guests took
it upon themselves to scour the hotel grounds and roads nearby, searching.
Lynch left the dinner and went fiercely roaming around beaches, calling her
name.

Aldon returned to his hotel room
and sat squarely next to the phone, waiting for his daughter to contact him. As
he waited, he summonsed Cindy and Mattheus to come over and speak to him.

“You’re back on the case,
obviously,” Aldon said as soon as Cindy and Mattheus walked into his suite. “Find
my daughter as soon as you can.  Let her know that I’m full square, completely
on her side. Tell her I agree with her choice and that she must never fear
returning home.”

Cindy and Mattheus agreed to do
deliver his messages as soon as they found her.

“And I’ll tell you something
else,” Aldon continued, “I’m pleased that Tara ran away. It shows good sense on
her part. The more you find out about Lynch and his family, the further away
you’d want to run from them, too.”

“There are all kinds of ways Tara
could have ended the relationship,” Mattheus broke in. “It’s not the best idea
to just disappear.”

“Maybe that’s all she could do
right now,” Aldon said with a gleeful glint in his eye.

“Maybe that’s true,” Cindy agreed
with him. “Maybe Tara couldn’t think of any other way to say good bye. Let’s
hope she said something to someone about where she was headed.”

 “Tara has plenty of friends she’s
close to,” Aldon agreed. “Someone here knew she wasn’t going through with the
wedding! Go talk to all of them and find out who.”

“We will,” said Cindy. If nothing
else there were certainly plenty of people to talk to.

“We also need to talk to you,” Mattheus
jumped in. “You know your daughter better than anyone here. Where do you think
she could be?”

Aldon closed his eyes and
trembled. “Thank you for that,” he said slowly. “Actually, I used to know Tara
better than anyone - before her mother died and she met Lynch. Once she met him
things turned around. Lynch had a strange effect upon her, drew her away from
me right away.”

“That had to be rough,” said
Cindy.

“It was terrible,” Aldon
remembered. “She couldn’t think straight anymore once she was with him.
Everything revolved only around him. I didn’t matter a whit anymore.”

 “Tell us more,” Cindy said.

Aldon suddenly seemed sad and
frightened. “Tara just got swept up in that crazy whirl that Lynch and his
mother lived in – parties, dances, the high life, it seems. I never saw that
side of her before.”

“She wasn’t raised that way?”
asked Cindy.

“Of course not,” Aldon looked out
of the window and up at the sky. “Tara was raised to be a fine, upstanding,
community woman, with all the right values. Do you understand?”

“I do,” said Cindy warmly. “And I
believe you succeeded in that. The Tara I knew cared a great deal about others.”

Aldon was pleased and also
startled. “What makes you say that?” he asked.

“Tara insisted upon including
Lynch’s child in their marriage,” said Cindy. “I saw that when we went to visit
the child one more time.”

“I wish you hadn’t done that,”
said Aldon. “I don’t like the idea.  I would have advised against it. The
locals on the island can’t be trusted.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Mattheus
sneered.

Aldon’s voice grew more strident,
“Why didn’t anyone tell me about it?” he demanded.

“No one told you because no one knew
about it,” said Cindy. “Only me.”

*

After Cindy and Mattheus left
Aldon, they went down and sat on the veranda in front of the hotel. It was a
beautiful clear night and the stars were out in full array, a glittering
canopy. But as Cindy gazed at the sky, rather than feel the wonder of the
evening, her sense of desolation deepened.

“I don’t have a good feeling,”
she said to Mattheus.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Mattheus
tried to hold back.  “Let me call Rodney, and he can call Nick. Maybe someone
down at the casinos has something to tell us.”

Mattheus put in a quick call into
Rodney, who had found the informant in the first place for them. He put the
call on the speaker phone, and Cindy closed her eyes as she listened to him
dial.

“News is out,” Rodney picked up
right away. “We’re looking for her everywhere. If she’s here, we’ll find her
before the morning.”

“What do you mean if?” asked
Mattheus.

“Could be she took a private
plane out of the island,” Rodney mused. “Two private planes left a few hours
ago, just when she would have been leaving.”

Cindy opened her eyes in a flash.
How wonderful that would be. She prayed that Tara was on one of the planes,
safely tucked away, headed back to the states. Cindy hoped that Tara had found
that kind of strength. But why would she leave her bag in her hotel room then?

“Tara Whitfield has all the money
in the world and all the contacts,” Rodney continued. “There’s no reason to
think she didn’t charter a plane.”

“Hope so,” said Mattheus,
guardedly.

“Why’d she disappear like that?
What kind of trouble is there in the family?” asked Rodney, curious.

Cindy put her hand on Mattheus’s
arm, as if telling him not to say a word.

“All kinds of pre-wedding
jitters,” Mattheus answered vaguely.

“Come on, let me have it,” Rodney
wasn’t buying it. “You guys dug something up that made her go?”

Both Mattheus and Cindy were dead
silent.

“Hey,” Rodney continued. “Lynch
comes from a big family and they’ve got power. If his bride to be actually
turns up missing, there’s a lot of suspects waiting in the wings. “

“Is Tara officially listed as
missing?” Mattheus responded, sliding around Rodney’s other question, artfully.

“Well, what else would you call
it?” asked Rodney, irked.

“I’d call it a case of a runaway
bride,” said Mattheus.

“If you’re lucky,” Rodney didn’t
sound convinced. “But I just want to let you know that a couple of other people
connected to this family’s company have gone missing in the past.  Police
looked high and low and found nothing – they’re both cold cases by now. It won’t
look so good if another vanishes.”Cindy was shocked by that news. “We have to
find out more about that,” said Cindy, horrified. “Who were these people who went
missing? Did it happen when Lynch’s father was still alive?”

“Slow down,” said Mattheus to
her. Then he thanked Rodney for the information, told him to keep in touch and
got off the phone, fast.

“Why didn’t you want to find out
who are those people who went missing?” Cindy repeated, annoyed.

“Slow down, Cindy,” Mattheus
repeated. “A lot of the native population here work for the company in one way
or another. And, there’s a pretty good underground drug trade down here too,
growing all the time.”