Death by Temptation (10 page)

Mattheus was startled. “Why Rowley and Rod?” he
asked.

“Just trying to see if there’s any way these two
cases are connected,” Darrin remarked.

“You’re not going to hold Vinny?” Mattheus asked
then.

“Everything he says checks out,” Darrin replied. “We
can’t hold him for anything, and there’s no reason to think he had anything to
do with it, either.”

“Not yet,” grumbled Mattheus.

“All kinds of crazy stuff goes on at the casino,”
Darrin continued, “lots of players from the drug ring hang out down there.”

“Could Vinny be a dealer?” Mattheus wouldn’t let go.
“Could he be running drugs through his used car dealership?”

“Anything is possible,” Darrin replied, “but so far
it looks like he’s on the up and up. There’s no sign of money or drugs passing
through his hands. Seems like he and Shane come down here regularly and play
the tables, and that’s about it.”

“No big debts piled up for either of them?” Mattheus
dug in further.

Cindy was fascinated watching Mattheus, wondering
exactly what he was expecting.

“No,” Darrin answered directly, “nothing like that’s
come up. Shane had a good job back home doing medical massage at a local clinic
and he runs his car dealership. Their finances are in good order.”

“You wouldn’t think so,” Mattheus commented.

“Why not?” asked Darrin.

“Two people who spend their time hanging at the
casino all night?” Mattheus commented.

“You can’t arrest them for that.” Darrin became
irritated. “Lots of people enjoy the casinos, they’re a big attraction down
here and a big source of income, too.”

Cindy sighed and put her hand on Mattheus’s arm.
“Looks like the police have got a terrific head start.”

“We had to.” Darrin looked at Cindy appreciatively.
“With all the scrutiny turning our way, we’re not looking for any surprises.”

Cindy and Mattheus thanked Darrin, got some coffee,
and then went back into his office to be present when Rowley and Rod arrived.

*

When Rowley walked in, he looked depressed and
defeated and Rod seemed dazed.

“Thanks for coming,” Darrin greeted them personally
and asked them to sit down near his desk.

“Terrible news about the dead woman,” Rowley offered
the moment he took a seat.

“Awful,” Rod agreed, “but at least it wasn’t Kara.
We all went through hell for a few hours when we thought it was her.”

“That had to be rough,” Darrin agreed.

“Just as rough as still not having any answers.”
Rod’s eyes narrowed.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am about that,” Darrin
remarked.

“So, what do you want us here for now?” Rod was
becoming pugnacious.

“Just a few more questions,” said Darrin. “Your
friends are here too,” and he motioned to Cindy and Mattheus sitting on the side.

Rod was startled to see Mattheus there, and also
looked relieved. “You didn’t tell me you were going to be here,” he called out
to Mattheus.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here either,”
Mattheus responded.

“Okay”—Rod turned back to Darrin—“ask me whatever
you want.”

“Not just you,” Darrin said softly then. “We also
want to hear from Rowley.”

“The kid’s been through enough,” exclaimed Rod.

“Just a few questions,” Darrin promised.

Rod nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Rowley,” Darrin started, “did you or Kara know
Shane or her boyfriend, Vinny, at all?”

“I never saw them before,” said Rowley, looking
blank.

“What about Kara?” Darrin persisted. ”Did she know
either of them?”

“I’m sure she didn’t know them either,” said Rowley.

“How can you be so sure?” asked Darrin.

Rowley looked up at him sadly. “I knew all of Kara’s
friends,” he said.

“Okay, Rowley,” Darrin went on officially then, “as
far as you know, did you or Kara do drugs?”

Rowley squirmed in his seat. “I’ve already answered
that question,” Rowley remarked.

“I have to ask you again now,” said Darrin.

“We did not do drugs,” said Rowley.

“This is an important question, Rowley, think
carefully,” Darrin repeated.

“Neither Kara nor I did drugs,” Rowley repeated. “If
Kara did drugs she could never have worked at the shelter. They’re absolutely
fanatic about no drug use there.”

        “I can second that,” Rod burst out then. “My
daughter never would have taken drugs for any reason.”

“Okay, good,” said Darrin, “just checking again. We
have to completely rule out the drug ring from both cases. Thank you.” Darrin
nodded officially. “And I have to ask you, Rowley, and your extended family to
remain on the island until the medical examiner’s report for Shane is complete.
This is just a routine request. We don’t know what we’ll find yet and we need
to have all the people involved in both incidents present in case something
unexpected turns up.”

“I understand,” Rod acquiesced immediately, while
Rowley continued to stay silent and sad.

“Thank you for coming, that’s all then for now,”
Darrin said finally. “Be assured our investigations are continuing and that no
stone will be left unturned in our efforts to find Kara and to find Shane’s
killer as well.”

Fortunately, Rod went back with Rowley, and Mattheus
and Cindy were finally alone.

It seemed like forever since they’d had time by
themselves. It was important now to go over what they’d discovered now and plan
their next steps.

“Let’s get some decent lunch,” Mattheus said, as Rod
and Rowley walked out of sight. “We could use some time to thaw out.”

“You can say that again,” said Cindy. “How about
taking a few hours and going over to Pigeon Point National Park?” Cindy
suddenly had a craving to leave their usual habitat and spend some time in a
new environment. It would change their outlook on everything. “I heard it’s
beautiful there.” Cindy tried to be cheery. “There’s a beach, two restaurants,
and incredible landscaped grounds.”

“It’s where they hold the jazz festival every year,
isn’t it?” said Mattheus. “I always wanted to go to that.”

“Great,” said Cindy, “it’ll be good to take a
break.” Cindy noticed that she did not add that Pigeon Point was also a
favorite destination of wedding planners. That wasn’t something she wanted to
bring up though. The idea of marriage, of planning a wedding, was the furthest
thing from her mind right now.

“How long will it take to get there?” asked
Mattheus, looking at his watch. “We’ve got a lot on our plate for the rest of
the day.”

“Not long,” Cindy urged. “And it’ll be worth the
time, believe me.”

Mattheus agreed, hailed a cab, and they took off.
Cindy felt relieved leaving town, having a chance to spend time under the wide,
blue, unencumbered skies. As they drove she could feel the sense of burden
slowly drifting away.

“This island is so lush,” she commented, “even a few
hours in nature will mean a lot.”

“Absolutely,”
Mattheus murmured. “I could use it, too.”

Cindy
was glad to hear that. Before they got very far though, Cindy’s phone rang. She

looked up at Mattheus as if to say, should I pick it
up? Is it okay to catch a few hours with no

one to answer to under the sun?

“Take it,” Mattheus replied quickly. “We really
shouldn’t be leaving town at this point anyway, even if it’s only for a few
hours.”

Cindy took her phone and answered immediately.

“Cindy, it’s Alfred.” The voice on the other end
sounded garbled, but Cindy quickly recognized who it was. “I’m freaking out,”
he continued, his words falling all over each other.

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Cindy suddenly felt
afraid. Did something new just turn up? Had Kara surfaced?

“I’m freaking out about the dead woman on the
beach!” Alfred went on. “It’s awful, it’s horrible!”

“Yes, it is,” Cindy spoke in an even keel, trying to
calm him down.

“I’m sure it’s a warning.” Alfred sounded panicky.

“What’s it a warning of, Alfred?” Cindy knew that
Alfred exaggerated things and could easily go over the edge. She tried not to
get caught up in his panic.

“It’s obviously a warning that Kara is next,” he
breathed into the phone. “There’s no question about it, first this woman, then
Kara. They’re letting us know.”

“That’s pure speculation, Alfred,” Cindy responded.
“You don’t know how what happened to the woman, nothing at all. There’s no
reason to believe that she and Kara even knew each other or that they’re going
to harm Kara now.”

“I have every reason, every.” Alfred’s voice dropped
into a raspy sound. “I’ve upped my investigation big time, and there’s more to
tell you. First of all the woman’s name is Shane. Secondly, I believe they
killed her because I was getting too close to finding Kara. Meet me in person
and I’ll tell you what I found.”

“I’m not in town right now,” Cindy answered
hurriedly. “Can it wait a couple of hours?”

“No, it cannot wait.” Alfred was put off. “But call
me the second you return. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

“Okay,” said Cindy, “a couple of hours.”

“Where are you, anyway?” Alfred suddenly grew
curious. “What are you doing that’s so important?”

“I’m with Mattheus,” Cindy replied

“Oh, him.” Alfred’s voice was dripping with scorn.

“Is there something wrong?” Cindy was offended.

“We’ll talk when I see you. Not a word until then,”
Alfred replied as he quickly hung up the phone.

“That guy’s nuts,” Mattheus remarked after Cindy
hung up.

“Why do you say that? You don’t know him. You
haven’t met him, have you?” asked Cindy.
“He and I haven’t talked, but I’ve seen him around,” said Mattheus. “But Rod
told me all about him. Rod absolutely can’t stand him, never could. He always
tried to pry Kara away from Alfred, couldn’t understand why they were so
close.”

Cindy felt put off. Despite Alfred’s sometimes
overly dramatic style, Cindy liked him a great deal.

 “Exactly what’s wrong with him?” she asked,
defensive.

“Rod said the guy’s creepy, lives in a world of his
own. He gets an idea in his head and won’t let go. Everyone thought he was
strange when he was growing up. No one in town expected he ever would amount to
anything.”

“But they were wrong, weren’t they?” Cindy felt
offended. “Alfred’s doing just fine, he has a good job, and he’s a terrifically
loyal friend.”

“The guy’s a graphic designer for horror novels,”
Mattheus commented, condescendingly.

“So, what wrong with that?” asked Cindy. “He’s
making a living as an artist. Good for him.”

“Call him what you want,” Mattheus dug in, “the
guy’s off the charts in lots of ways.”

“So, what does it say about Kara then, if the two of
them were always so close?” Cindy shot back.

“Believe me, I’ve wondered about that myself,”
Mattheus retorted. “At the very least it says Kara wasn’t totally the person
she presented to the world.”

“Well put,” thought Cindy, wondering what it was
about Kara that no one had seen or focused on yet.

*

Pigeon Point was even more magnificent than Cindy
could have ever imagined. Filled with incredible birds singing in trees and
exotic flowers, the delicious salty smell of ocean greeted you wherever you
went.

“I heard there are iguanas nesting right here under
these trees,” said Cindy as she and Mattheus walked along. They were headed to
one of the fabulous restaurants on the island and for a brief few moments, it
felt as though nothing had ever gone wrong. It just seemed as though they were
back on vacation, trying to see where their relationship would go.

Cindy and Mattheus arrived at the restaurant, and
when they went in, to their surprise it was completely packed. There was a
sense of incredible joviality inside, with people waving and talking loudly to
one another from one table to the next. Cindy felt as if they’d crashed a large
party where everybody knew each other well.

“What’s going on?” asked Mattheus, looking around.

“The Love Conference is about to start.” The maître
d’ smiled at them. “Wedding planners from all over come here for the week. We
host this conference every year.”

Mattheus looked ill at ease. “Not even one table
left?” he asked.

“So sorry, sir, everything’s reserved,” the man
started to say.

Mattheus went into his pocket and held out some
cash.

“Well, maybe one table left somewhere, let me look
again,” the maître d’ said, and scurried to the back of the room.

“It’s noisy here,” Cindy commented, looking around,
suddenly feeling sad.

“And it’s packed,” Mattheus added. “Want to try
another place?”

Cindy and Mattheus looked at each other oddly. It
wasn’t fitting for them to join in the jubilation of the Love Conference right
now and both of them realized it. Neither wanted to be surrounded by wedding
planners who had gathered here to create incredible scenarios that fulfilled a
couple’s life-long wedding dreams.

“Let’s go to the restaurant on the other side of the
park,” Cindy suggested immediately as she and Mattheus edged backwards out the
door.

*

Mattheus and Cindy ate quickly at the other
restaurant, carefully avoiding mentioning the wedding planners, or what in the
world the future held for them. This case was cutting close to home,
particularly for Mattheus. Being back in touch with Rod after all these years
was having a strong effect on him. Cindy wondered if being with his old friend
made Mattheus want to go back to the States, or do something different with his
life. This wasn’t the time to talk about it, though. For now they had to stay
focused on Kara and Shane.

“From where I’m sitting at this moment,” Mattheus
started as they were well into their meal, “I don’t see a connection between
Kara’s case and Shane’s.”

“There has to be.” Cindy was surprised to hear
Mattheus be so definitive. “It’s too coincidental for a dead woman to turn up
on the same beach that Kara was swimming on when she disappeared.”

“It’s coincidental, it’s circumstantial,” Mattheus
agreed, “but there doesn’t seem to be the slightest link between them.”

“Not yet,” insisted Cindy.

Mattheus’s jaw set. “Cindy, I know you have to
continue searching to the very last drop,” Mattheus finally said. “I understand
it. We’ve discussed it many times.”

“It’s too soon to come to any conclusions here.”
Cindy felt emphatic about this.

“The medical examiner’s report will be in shortly,”
Mattheus continued, “and that will tie things up.”

“What do you mean tie them up?” Cindy was stunned.

“I doubt very much that the report will link Kara
and Shane in any way,” Mattheus continued. “I don’t see how.”

“But we still have to find out what happened to
Shane,” Cindy was insistent.

“No, we don’t, Cindy.” Mattheus put his hand over
hers. “That’s a completely different situation. We’re not working on Shane’s
case, we’re working on Kara’s, and unless there’s a connection between them,
our work will soon be done.”

“Done?” Cindy was horrified. “How can you say that?”

“Kara’s body is gone, it hasn’t turned up. By now,
it probably never will. Our job is to help her family live through this
nightmare. To somehow make peace with the fact that their daughter probably
drowned in the ocean!”

“Probably isn’t good enough, Mattheus.” Cindy stood
her ground.

“No tips or leads have come in,” Mattheus insisted,
“not one. That itself tells you something. We could spend years searching here
to no avail. That’s a trap, that’s a danger.”

“The fact that no leads have come in is strange in
itself,” Cindy agreed. ”There’s always a sighting by someone.”

“If the person’s alive,” Mattheus insisted.

“And if she’s not alive? If someone killed her?”
Cindy refused to let go.

Mattheus couldn’t stand it. “If, if, if can drive
you crazy. And it can drive the family crazy too. As I said, my responsibility
now is to help the family come to terms with all of this.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Cindy felt totally
left out.

“By spending time with them, by being a friend,”
Mattheus replied.

“You would help them more if you found their
daughter, or at least found a solid lead as to how she died,” Cindy answered
briskly.

Mattheus looked stricken. “Yes, that would be
better,” he agreed. “But you don’t win all of them, sometimes you fail. Cases
go cold, missing persons stay missing for years and years. It’s not always in
our hands.”

Cindy grew quiet. Mattheus was right, he was kind,
he was practical. But deep within she couldn’t go along with it. Somehow, she
felt Kara was still alive.

“Take some time to yourself, unwind,” Mattheus went
on now. He wasn’t inviting her to spend time with him and the family, thought
Cindy.

“You’d rather spend time with the family alone?” she
asked.

Mattheus leaned closer. “It’s not that I would
rather, it’s that Rod feels uneasy with others around at this point. It’s
nothing personal.”

But it was personal and Cindy felt it. “Rod doesn’t
like me, does he, Mattheus?” Cindy asked.

“He’s not totally himself at this time,” Mattheus
responded. “How can he be?”

“Of course he can’t, but that doesn’t answer my
question. Rod doesn’t like me one bit, does he?” she repeated.

“No, he doesn’t,” said Mattheus.

“Why not?” asked Cindy.

“Rod doesn’t know for sure,” Mattheus continued. “He
just said I’ve changed so much he barely recognizes me. He thinks it has
something to do with our relationship.”

A surge of rage rose through Cindy. Why hadn’t
Mattheus defended their relationship, why hadn’t he told Rod how much Cindy
meant to him?

 “How many years has it been since Rod’s seen you?”
Cindy shot back. “What’s gone on in your life all that time? I wasn’t there all
those years, was I, Mattheus?”

“No, of course you weren’t,” said Mattheus. “But
you’re here with me now, aren’t you? That’s what Rod says, anyhow.”

*

Cindy and Mattheus drove home in the taxi silently.
There was nothing further she wanted to say.

“I didn’t mean to offend or upset you,” Mattheus
repeated several times. “You asked me a direct questions and I wanted to give
you an honest reply. Is that a crime?”

“It’s not a crime,” Cindy finally answered, “but it
doesn’t matter, I’m hurt.”

“I never meant to hurt you, Cindy.” Mattheus seemed
on edge.

Cindy wanted to ask Mattheus why he didn’t tell Rod
that he loved her and that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his
life with. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. It wasn’t something she
should have to ask him. That should have come naturally. Did Mattheus really
love her? Did he want to spend his life with her? Right now Cindy wasn’t sure.

“Take some time to unwind,” Mattheus repeated again,
as if Cindy was just overwrought and there was no reason for Cindy to be
reacting this way.

The taxi arrived and let them out at the hotel. “I’m
going straight to Rod’s room,” Mattheus said as they walked to the elevator.
“You go take a swim in the pool or go to the spa for a while. “I’ll be back in
time for dinner.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be around at dinner time,” Cindy
answered briskly. “I’m meeting with Alfred in a little while and I don’t know
how long the meeting will last.”

“You’re not only wasting your time with that guy,
but he’s driving you crazy,” Mattheus retorted, as the elevator stopped at their
floor and Cindy got out alone.