Death by Engagement (Caribbean Murder Series, Book 12)

Cindy stood outside Doug’s room for a long moment before ringing the bell. She wondered if he’d be alone and what condition she’d find him in. Instead of ringing, she decided to gently knock. To Cindy’s surprise as soon as she tapped on the door, Doug opened it, eager to let her in.

“Thanks for having me,” Cindy said softly as she walked into the beautiful suite he and Shari had shared. Doug looked worn and distraught. Clearly, the strain had taken a toll.

“Thanks for stopping by,” he replied quickly, in a craggy tone.

“I know what a horrible shock this has to be,” Cindy murmured.

“Unbelievable,” Doug echoed as he motioned to Cindy to sit down on a small settee at the side. Then he sat opposite her on a blue upholstered chair and began tapping his foot on the ground.

“Did you have any sign, any at all, that this could happen?” Cindy started the conversation softly.

“Absolutely none.” Doug was emphatic.

Cindy realized that most loved ones often missed many signs that a suicide was about to happen.

“Was Shari depressed?” Cindy continued, leading him on.

“Who isn’t depressed?” Doug answered, flippantly.

“Did she act strange at other times you visited the cliff?” Cindy continued.

“Shari was never there before,” Doug responded quickly. “I was never there, either. She took off on her own that night and said she was going to take a long walk. Shari loved to walk. It didn’t mean anything. She often walked alone at night. When she left I was in the bar having a couple of drinks with her father, ask anybody.”

“I’m not questioning whether or not you were in the bar.” Cindy rephrased her question. “I just meant did Shari say or do anything at all during the trip that might have let you know that she could do something like this?”

“Nothing,” said Doug forcefully, meaning it. “Why would I ever marry a woman who could do something like this to herself? And to all of us!”

Cindy nodded, quickly looking over the room. Everything seemed in perfect order.

“You knew Shari quite a while, didn’t you?” Cindy mused, wanting to draw him out, to see if he would say something questionable on his own.

“Shari and I started dating in college.” Doug seemed eager to talk. It had to be a relief to have someone here now, listening. “I feel like I knew her forever.”

“Love at first sight?” asked Cindy lightly.

“No, not at all.” Doug grimaced. “I’m not a love at first sight kind of guy. It took a long time to seal the deal. I had to be sure she was the one, positive that I knew everything about her and could trust her completely.”

Cindy noted the bitter edge in his voice now. It was understandable. People responded in all kinds of ways to the suicide of a loved one.

“You feel fooled?” Cindy continued, trying to get him to go deeper.

That stopped him, though. Doug looked at Cindy with a murky look in his eyes.

“I wouldn’t put it that way.” He seemed to be thinking about it. “I’m not a guy who’s easily fooled. Do I feel stupid though? Maybe. Do I feel I missed something and might have let Shari down? Yes, definitely.”

Cindy nodded. Doug had to be suffering lots of guilt, for sure. That would be inevitable.

“I was always good to Shari, though.” Doug’s voice got louder. “You can ask anyone. Everyone in her family loved me. Talk to anyone you want, there’s not one person who would say I didn’t love her.”

“I’m so sorry, Doug,” Cindy said, realizing the terrible self-accusations he had to be feeling.

“Not only did I love her,” he went on, “but I gave her everything any girl could want. I never held back or stinted. When she wanted an emerald necklace I could barely afford I bought it for her on the spot.”

“Her death is not your fault.” Cindy tried to calm him.

“It’s easy enough for you to say that.” Doug’s voice got lower and his hands turned into fists. “But what do you think people are going to say? They’re going to think that something went wrong between us.”

“Why?” asked Cindy.

“Why wouldn’t they?” asked Doug. “A girl kills herself while she’s looking for wedding venues with her fiancé? This is the time she’s supposed to be on cloud nine. Even though she acted like it, obviously, she wasn’t. What else are people going to think?”

“There’s lots of reasons people kill themselves,” said Cindy. “Shari obviously had a lot going on inside that you didn’t know anything about. She might not have known about it herself.”

Doug raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Not true, I knew her like a book,” he muttered. “If anything bothered her she came to me with it. She wasn’t the kind to hide what she was feeling.”

“Did Shari have a history of depression?” Cindy turned the questioning in a different direction. “Did she have mood swings?”

Doug nodded slowly. “Yeah all of that,” he replied. “But the mood swings weren’t bothering her now.”

Cindy was surprised to learn about this. “Did anyone ever warn you about Shari’s mood swings?” she asked.