Death by Seduction (Book #13 in the Caribbean Murder series)

“What?” asked Loretta, still smiling at her.

Cindy dug into her bag then, and brought out the bracelet she’d put inside. “Do you recognize this, Loretta?”

For a moment Loretta didn’t. Then she blinked a few times, “it’s mine,” she uttered, before quickly trying to grab the bracelet away.

But Cindy held the bracelet tightly in her grasp.

“It’s mine!” Loretta repeated. “I didn’t know what happened to it. I lost it somewhere.”

“Where?” snapped Cindy.





“I don’t know,” Loretta looked confused, “somewhere.”

“It was found under Charma’s window,” Cindy replied.

“Someone must have found it and put it there,” Loretta gasped.

“You were there under her window looking in the day Pete was killed, weren’t you?” Cindy said, watching the color drain from Loretta’s face.

“You’re starting again with me?” Loretta muttered. “I haven’t been through enough? You’re determined to hurt me, no matter what?”

“The bracelet’s part of the evidence now, Loretta,” Cindy replied.

“There’s no more evidence needed,” Loretta breathed. “Case closed, Val did it. The money trail points to it.”

“Not so fast,” Cindy took a step closer to her. “This is new evidence, and we need it.”

Loretta’s eyes narrowed as her face flushed. “Evidence of what? That I lost a bracelet? That someone found it and gave it to you?”

“It’s not that simple, Loretta,” Cindy wasn’t buying a word she said.

Loretta’s eyes narrowed then. “What are you saying then? It’s evidence against me?”

“How did the bracelet get underneath Charma’s window?” Cindy insisted. “You told me over and over you never went there and or saw her.”

Loretta stared at the bracelet. “It was a gift from Pete. I cherished it, I was sad when I lost it. Give it back!” she commanded.

“I won’t,” Cindy replied, thrusting it back into her bag.

Loretta’s voice became rasping, “You’re jealous of me and my life. No one gave you a bracelet, did they? You don’t have a life of your own so you enjoying taking down other people.”

“What was the bracelet doing there, Loretta?” Cindy demanded. “Blaming me won’t wipe out the facts.”

Suddenly Loretta’s face became contorted. “That’s right, it won’t,” she shot out. “Nothing will wipe out the facts, will they?”

“Nothing,” said Cindy. “The facts speak out for themselves when you listen to them.”

“And I tried to wipe them out for a long time, didn’t I?” exclaimed Loretta.

“Yes, you did,” replied Cindy. “It didn’t work.”

The reality of the situation suddenly swept over Loretta as she shut her eyes tight.

“You want some facts, well here they are,” she lashed out. “I knew all the time that the bastard went to whores, even back in Wisconsin! I knew it and I shut my eyes.”

“I’m sorry about that,” breathed Cindy, relieved and shocked to hear Loretta’s admission.

“Even though he promised me he’d stop over and over, he wouldn’t.”

“He couldn’t,” said Cindy.

“No, wouldn’t,” Loretta shouted. “He’d come home late at night, smelling of cheap perfume and whiskey and make up all kinds of stories. Do you know what it does to a woman to have to follow her husband, check up on him in secret, go into his computer, listen to his phone messages? At the end I realized he preferred those low lives to me. Do you know how humiliating it is? Finally, we came down here to make it right, but he had no intention of doing it. Even as he was signing papers for the condo he was chasing after the bitch.”

“You knew every move he made all the time, didn’t you?” Cindy was shaken.

Loretta’s voice grew fierce, “Sure I knew and I finally did something about it! Is that so awful? Is it so bad? I gave the hundred thousand my father gave me to a guy at the real estate company, Lou Grand. Then I told him to find someone to finish Pete off.”

“To kill Pete?” Cindy had to be absolutely clear about it.

“That’s right, kill him,” Loretta snarled, “and dump the body in Charma’s room where it belonged. Charma was paid off for letting us do it. We told her she’d be taken in as the suspect, but promised she’d be let out soon. Lou had his way of arranging it. Charma knew Lou and she trusted him.”

“And then you had Lou call and threaten Taylor’s life?” Cindy’s voice was shaking.

“Taylor was digging too deep, getting too close. And I hated him anyway,” Loretta breathed. “Two for the price of one,” she laughed suddenly. “Taylor was smart though, he hid away.”

“So, you threatened Taylor’s life and had Pete killed?” Cindy repeated, wanting to make sure Loretta heard exactly what she was saying as well.