Death by Obsession (18 page)

“Mattheus, there’s too much evidence here that doesn’t
compute. I have to talk to Raina,” Cindy’s voice rose shrilly.

“So, go talk to her, don’t yell at me,” Mattheus
responded.

“There’s no time to lose. I’m going to her hotel room
now,” said Cindy. I’ll back when I’m finished.”

“Just like that?  She said she didn’t want to see you
and you’re barging in?” Mattheus asked.

“That’s right,” said Cindy. “Just like that.”

“And what if she doesn’t let you in the door?” Mattheus
seemed agitated.

“I’ll find a way to get her to let me in,” a smile
crept over Cindy’s face.

“You’re diabolical, Cindy,” Mattheus exclaimed.

“No, I’m committed, to finding the truth, “said Cindy.
Then suddenly something struck her. “Mattheus, I just had an idea. Please
listen to me, I need your help.”

“What?” asked Mattheus.

“Just do me this favor. Call Lynch and ask him if he’ll
spend some time with you downstairs at the café?”

“Why?” Mattheus looked nervous.

“I don’t want Raina to be able to get in touch with
him for a little while.”

“His cell phone will be on him. If she calls, he’ll
answer.” Mattheus looked confused.

“Tell him not to in advance,” said Cindy. “Tell him
you need all his attention with no interruptions for a little while. Engross
him in the conversation.  Talk to him about Bala. I know he cares about her.”

“What do you want me to say about her?” Mattheus was
growing interested.

“Tell him she’s scared for the safety of the child.
That will get him going. Tell him she needs him to help her. It doesn’t matter
what you say exactly, just keep him out of Raina’s reach for about an hour.”

“You’re setting her up?” Mattheus asked somberly.

“I have to,” said Cindy.

“I get it,” said Mattheus. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

 “Thank you so much,” said Cindy. “It’s a last ditch
effort.”

 “Nothing to lose, I guess,” Mattheus answered.

As Cindy approached Raina’s hotel room, she felt her
there inside, packing. What if Cindy’s plan didn’t work?  Barging in like this
could be considered trespassing. Cindy felt encouraged though by Mattheus’s
last minute support. She told him in detail what she’d planned to do, he’d
listened carefully and seemed to like it.

“You’re incredibly gutsy, Cindy,” he’d said.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Cindy’d answered.

“Yes, it is,” Mattheus had suddenly agreed. “Go for
it. I’m on your team.”

As Cindy walked down the corridor she thought once
again about Tara, and the life she would never get to lead. Tara deserved more
than a quick resolution to a case that had so many loose ends.  Cindy
remembered how Tara had asked her to stand at her side. Maybe she hadn’t been
able to prevent the murder, but she certainly could stop the case from getting
closed before they were absolutely certain about who was responsible. Cindy
gathered her resolve as she stood outside Raina’s door. Then in a flash, she lifted
her hand and knocked hard.

“Who is it?” a shrill voice answered from inside.

“Important! Open up!” Cindy said in a deep voice.
Then she knocked again emphatically.

Raina came to the door, flung it open and stared at
Cindy alarmed. “What in the world are you

doing here? I told Mattheus you couldn’t come.”

“It’s crucial, Raina, I have important news,” Cindy
put her foot in the doorway.

“What’s crucial?” Obviously Cindy took her by
surprise.

Cindy put another foot in and stepped inside.

“Glad to see you’re making yourself at home,” said Raina.
“Of course I can call the hotel police here in a minute and get you thrown out
on your ass.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” said Cindy grimly.

Raina put her hands on her hips, “Oh no? Exactly why
not?” Something in Cindy’s demeanor obviously got to her, though. She calmed
down and waited to hear more.

“Please sit down on the couch, Raina,” Cindy took
command.

To Cindy’s surprise Raina walked to the couch and sat
down.

Cindy followed along. “Getting ready to fly out
tomorrow I hear,” said Cindy.

“Yes, I am,” said Raina, definitively. “Something
wrong with that?”

“Is Lynch going with you?” Cindy asked.

“Of course he is,” said Raina, chagrined. “Hasn’t he
been through enough? It’s high time for him to get out of here.”

“Tara’s not getting out of here, though,” mused Cindy,
“and from what I hear neither is Aldon. He can barely get up out of bed.”

“Okay,” Raina barked, “enough of this charade, what’s
going on?”

“I need to talk to you,” said Cindy.

“Oh really?” said Raina, “the last time we talked you
promised that news would not get out about Lynch’s son. It’s all over the place
now.”

“That wasn’t in my control,” said Cindy.

“Do you even begin to realize how this news is going
to affect our business and family?” Raina snapped at her.

Once again Cindy noted that Raina was more concerned
with her business and family than she was about the murder. “What about Tara?”
Cindy replied. “I haven’t heard a word of concern for her from you.”

Insulted, Raina flung her head back. “And why should
I feel concern for her?  Did she feel concern for me? Did she really care about
Lynch or our family? Do you know how much time and money I spent preparing for
this wedding? And she was ready to throw it over in a minute flat. She didn’t
care for a second who she humiliated.”

“She wasn’t thinking about it that way,” Cindy tried
to defend her. “It was her whole life at stake.”

“And what about mine?” Raina’s voice grew louder and
grating. “And look what’s happened to her whole life now!”

Cindy shuddered. “This is a tragedy,” she said
softly.

 “And I’m sure her stupid father Aldon had plenty to
do with it, too,” Raina came back at her.

“You can’t stand him, can you?” asked Cindy, wanting
to egg her on.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Raina’s back arched and
she smiled strangely. “I don’t know who he thinks he is. Nothing is ever good
enough for him, especially our family. He finds fault with every little thing
we do.”

“That must have hurt,” said Cindy.

Raina laughed in a raucous way. “Aldon hurt me? I
wouldn’t say so. The moment we met he took a dislike to me, and also to Lynch.
Then when he heard about Lynch’s son, that really gave him ammunition. Deep
down I know he was happy about it. He tried to pin me down and talk about it,
but I wouldn’t give him the time of day.” Raina laughed loudly again. “But when
he started calling Lynch, that was too much. I got on the phone and told him
straight to bug off.”

“How did he take that?” Cindy was stunned.

“He didn’t like it, but who the hell cared. I told
him the wedding was going on no matter how he felt.  He didn’t matter, he was a
bystander.”

“The father of the bride a bystander?” said Cindy
appalled.

“That’s all he was, a wicked bystander,” Raina
repeated. “I’m sure he got through to Tara though. After she found out about
the boy, she got more and more nervous and decided she couldn’t go through with
the wedding. That was just unacceptable. It was a side of her I never saw.  I
begged her not to call it off, but she wouldn’t listen to a thing I said.
Imagine that! She just wanted have her way, no matter how it affected
everybody. She even told Lynch that it was their decision and had nothing to do
with me.”

“Wasn’t that true?” Cindy tried to intervene, but
Raina was on a roll and couldn’t hear a thing.

“People like that bring a terrible fate on themselves,”
Raina’s breath came quickly now.

“You’re saying Tara deserved to die?” asked Cindy,
appalled.

“Don’t twist my words,” Raina rolled right over her. “I’m
saying the beautiful bride was creating a power struggle about who was most
important to my son.”

“How did she do that?” Cindy picked up on it.

“Lynch was backed into a corner and finally told me.”
Raina wiped her hands on her slacks. “Finally, he was backed into a corner and
told me that Tara was always complaining to him about me. That didn’t sit well
at all. She was trying to get him to hate me. I warned him not to listen.”

“What did he say?” asked Cindy.

“He begged me not to make him choose between the
woman he loved and me. He said he couldn’t bear to lose either of us. That didn’t
surprise me. Deep down Lynch always was very sensitive.  Of course I had no
desire to make him choose. It was her poisoning him, not me.”

“The situation must have been unbearable for him,”
said Cindy.

“Terrible, awful,” Raina said, “it kept him up at
night.”

“Maybe that’s why he had no other choice but to
strangle Tara and dump her into the Cove,” Cindy continued softly.

Raina froze on the spot and looked at Cindy stunned,
unable to believe what she was hearing. “What’s that you said?”

“There’s new evidence, Raina,” Cindy zeroed in on
her.

Raina shivered. “No, there isn’t. I’m up to date on whatever
they have. It’s in the police’s interest to keep me informed. Lynch is no
longer a person of interest. Two eye witnesses have identified Bala’s creepy brother
Dawl. They saw him lurking around the Cove at the time Tara was murdered. There
was absolutely no reason for him to be there, and the guy has plenty of motive,
too.”

“That’s just circumstantial evidence,” Cindy tossed
it off, trying to throw Raina off track. “The new evidence that’s just come in
is absolutely solid. A new witness, a tourist taking photos, spotted Lynch at
the Cove when Tara was killed. He caught a shot of him there, with blood all
over his hands.”

Raina’s face flushed and her eyes narrowed.  “That’s
crazy. Blood on Lynch’s hands? Who’s this witness? Lynch has never had blood on
his hands for a second. Somebody’s framing him!  They can do all kinds of
things with photography these days. Someone’s out to get my son!”

“The photos speak for themselves,” said Cindy, “and
the fingerprint analysis is also in. The prints on the body don’t match Dawl’s.”

Raina became irate. “Who the hell cares? The body was
a mess, you can’t be sure of anything.”

“And, new evidence has been gathered from the site,”
Cindy continued methodically. “It has Lynch’s DNA on it as well. All roads are pointing
in only one direction – right to Lynch.”

“What are you telling me?” Raina’s hands clenched at
her sides.

“They’re taking Lynch in as we speak,” said Cindy.

“No, they’re not,” yelled Raina.

“Yes, they are,” Cindy insisted.

Raina fled to the table, picked up her phone, dialed
and waited. “Where are you Lynch? Pick up,” she demanded.

“He can’t answer. He must be at the police station
now,” said Cindy. “I wanted to come here and tell you myself.”

“Why you?” Raina practically spit on her.

“This is your son,” said Cindy, “it’s something a
woman understands.”

“Get out of here! Go to hell,”Raina yelled more
loudly. “Nobody’s taking my son from me. And they can’t take him, because he
didn’t do it!”

“All the evidence says he did,” Cindy repeated.

Trembling, Raina yelled, out of control, “He didn’t
do it, he didn’t do it.”

Cindy got into her face. “How do you know?”

“Because I did it,” shouted Raina. “I hired those
guys to get rid of her!”

“What guys, the witnesses? They work for you, don’t
they?” Cindy demanded.

“Yes, they work for me,” Raina growled, suddenly
empowered. “I have a right to hire anyone I want.”

“The eye witnesses lied to the police,” Cindy
uttered.

“So what? “ Raina went on. “These guys listen to me
like their lives depend on it. And they’re good at what they do. It wasn’t
difficult either. They grabbed Tara at the hotel and took her to the Cove. I
heard she begged for her life the whole way there,” a slow smile crept across
Raina’s face. “What did she expect anyway? That she’d take down our family, and
I’d sit back and let her do it?  Did she think I’d sit there and toast with
champagne after she turned into my enemy?”

“Tell me more about happened at the Cove?” Cindy
asked chilled to the bone.

“Routine business, nothing special, they put on
gloves and finished her off.” Raina panted.

Cindy felt the ground beneath her open. “That’s
horrible, awful,” she wailed.

“There was nothing horrible about it,” Raina became
stony. “When Lynch told me he promised Tara that they’d take his son in after
the wedding, I knew it had to be done. There was no way that boy could be part
of my life. I wouldn’t let it happen.”

“Is the boy in danger now?” Cindy was suddenly
frightened.

“He could be,” Raina looked at Cindy darkly. “If the
police don’t let go of Lynch, all bets are off.  My company’s got a big reach
on the island. The boy’s life will be worth nothing. You understand? You’d
better honey, because your life won’t be worth much either if they don’t let
Lynch go free.”

Thankfully, just at the moment, there was a loud
knock on the door.

“Who’s there?” Raina yelled as two policemen shoved the
door open. Raina flinched, alarmed. “What’s going on? Get out of here.”

“Mattheus had us stationed outside, listening in,”
one of the cops said. “Everything’s been recorded.”

“Go to hell, go to hell, “Raina kept yelling, as
Mattheus walked in behind them with Lynch.

“Mom, mom,” Lynch looked as if he were about to
faint.

 “I did it for you, Lynch, I did it for you,” Raina
kept shouting, as the police grabbed her shoulders and held her back against
the wall.

“Did what?” Lynch was dazed, confused.  “What did you
do? What? What?” None of it computed for him.

“Your mother had Tara murdered,” said Mattheus. “She
hired those two guys who were eye witnesses to do the job.”

“Because I loved you, Lynch, because I loved you,”
Raina kept calling as more police entered the room and carted her away.

*

When the room was empty, and Lynch had gone off to
the police station with his mother, Cindy and Mattheus took a deep breath.

“You did it again,” Mattheus murmured, looking at
Cindy in awe.

“I never liked that woman,” Cindy uttered. “She’s
awful, evil. What’s going to happen to Lynch now?”

“He’s got a big family and plenty of money,” said Mattheus
slowly.

“How can he ever get over this?” asked Cindy
mournfully. “He lost both of them, his mother and Tara.”

 “Time is good,” Mattheus murmured, “time heals.”

Mattheus’s phone rang then and he picked it up.

Aldon was on the other end, babbling wildly. “I just
got a call from the cops. Is it true? Is it possible?”

“Case solved,” said Mattheus slowly.

Aldon started to sob uncontrollably. “She’s a
monster.”

“I would say so,” said Mattheus.

“I knew it all along,” Aldon whimpered. “She should
be killed herself like she killed my daughter. Life in jail is too good for
her.”

“Her life in jail will be anything but good,” said Mattheus.

“I want her killed, I want her dead,” Aldon kept
sobbing.

 “It’s over, we got her,” said Mattheus.

“But what good does it do?” Aldo kept whimpering, “It
won’t ever bring Tara back, will it?”

*

On the way back to their hotel in the taxi, Cindy put
her head on Mattheus’s shoulder.

“At least we gave Aldon some measure of comfort,”
said Mattheus.

“Who knows?” Cindy shrugged. “There’s lots of ways of
looking at it. If he hadn’t hired us to dig up dirt on Lynch, he’d have his
daughter alive right now.”

“That’s why it’s best to let things rest, sometimes,”
Mattheus agreed.

Cindy knew he was talking about his meeting his
daughter. He didn’t want to see her again and also wanted Cindy to forget about
it. Cindy looked up at him and smiled. “You’re referring to your daughter, aren’t
you?” she murmured.