Kendra sat up stiffly in her chair. Cindy could see this was hard for her. She resented every minute of it, was brittle and proud. It wasn’t her way to speak freely to strangers.
“What I wanted to say is something simple, but it hurts like hell. I told it to the cops, but it didn’t make a dent on them. They laughed in my face.”
“What is it?” said Cindy.
“Paul stayed out of town a few nights every week. Said he was in St. Croix.[MSOffice1] He had cases there, but he also he liked to gamble. It was his one weak spot, if you can call it that. He told me he stayed in St. Croix for his work, but I often wondered if something else drew him.”
“The gambling?”
“I grew to wonder if he had a woman.”
Cindy took a deep, quick breath. It made sense.
“It’s not that unusual, you know,” Kendra added quickly, surprised at Cindy’s reaction. “We’d been together for almost twenty years. It wasn’t that he wasn’t good to me. He was. By a woman, I mean a mistress. Something on the side, not important. His murder could have something to do with that. These island women out here get crazy, start dreaming about all kinds of things.”
The door to living room opened and Mattheus walked in and came over to Kendra.
Clearly, he was eager to get to the next step.
“I think it’s important for us to check into the police station now, let them know we’ve arrived, and see what else they have for us to do. We’ll all have plenty of time to talk to each other, fill in the details.”
Cindy knew it was time to move on for now. She needed to get the name of the bar Paul hung out at, and more information about his work on St. Croix.
A strange pall came over Kendra’s face as the two of them got up to leave. “You just arrived and now you’re leaving,” she said in an odd tone.
“We need to get filled in on as much as we can as soon as possible,” Cindy said. “We’ll be back in a little while. You’re not alone.”
“Wrong again,” Kendra echoed in a husky voice. “I’m completely alone. More alone than you can ever imagine. And no one even really knows.”
CHAPTER 3
The police station was located in a mid-sized, stucco building off the main road. A wide entranceway surrounded by a fence, bordered by palm trees, led up to the main entrance. Little geckos jumped happily along the fence, peering out at visitors unsuspectingly. Mattheus had notified the police that he and Cindy would be arriving and had been hired to work on the case.
When Cindy and Mattheus walked in, a few policemen were sitting at desks, a few others gathered in the rear talking. At first no one looked up.
Mattheus walked up to the policeman at the front desk. “Mattheus -- Private Investigations,” he said and extended his hand.
The officer at the desk looked up and took Mattheus in. In a flash, he decided that he liked him and extended his hand. “Heard you were coming. Fred Brayton,” he said and took Mattheus’ hand.
Mattheus, an experienced cop, felt at home with the police, and the guy probably felt it. Cindy watched the two of them size each other up favorably.
“Welcome to the island,” Brayton continued. A few of the other cops looked up and came over.
“This is my partner, Cindy,” Mattheus said, including her.
Fred Brayton smiled a wide smile, showing huge white teeth. “Now that’s what I call a fine business,” he said.
Some of the other cops looked at Cindy briefly. One raised his eyes, surprised. Clearly they were not accustomed to women detectives down here on the islands. She saw she would have to earn their respect.
Brayton got up from behind his desk, turning entirely to Mattheus. “We checked you out when we heard you were coming,” he said. “The guys down in Grenada only had the best things to say about you.”
Mattheus flushed. He seemed to like being recognized among his peers.
“So, let’s go inside and talk a few minutes,” Mattheus said. “You can fill us in on the details.”
Brayton threw a quick look at Cindy, wondering if she were coming too.
“Cindy’s done some fantastic work,” Mattheus interjected immediately.
“Beginner’s luck,” Cindy heard another tall, muscular cop, mutter under his breath.
“We’re lucky to have Cindy on board,” Matthew said definitively.
Brayton seemed taken aback at Mattheus’ vehemence, so did a few of the other cops. They stopped and looked at her hard. Cindy felt the band of brotherhood between them that naturally kept a woman at bay.
“The widow requested a woman detective to work with her on her case,” Mattheus continued.
“The widow?” Brayton laughed in a mocking tone. “Wouldn’t exactly call the little wife a widow.”
“Why not?” Mattheus asked at once, alerted.
“Let’s all go in and sit down,” Brayton said, nodding in Cindy’s direction, inviting her to join them as well. “There’s a lot to cover.”
He led them and a few other cops down through a long hallway, into a meeting room, with a round table, ceiling fan and huge coffee machine in the corner, with paper cups piled near it.