“I just have to ask anyway. It’s routine.”
I don’t know how I’m going to live without her,” Tad suddenly burst out. “You’ve got to find the killer, please. Please,” his voice got wilder and strident. “If only I hadn’t gone surfing that day, none of this would have happened. If only I’d kept in touch with her every hour on the phone. I’ve got to know why this happened, who would want to hurt me this way.”
Mattheus got up and went over to him. “We’re going to find him.”
“Promise me,” Tad started wailing.
Mattheus put his arms on his shoulders. “I promise,” he said. “Can you help us? Do you have any ideas?”
“I think about it all day myself,” Tad spoke quickly. “Rori always had a bunch of wild friends I didn’t like. They scared me, were the kind of people I stayed away from.”
“Why?” Cindy asked alarmed.
“Not my type - all they care about is drinking and drugging, looking for the next high.”
Cindy hadn’t gotten that sense about Rori.
“They don’t have a brain in their head either,” Tad went on bitterly. “Naturally, Tiffany was friends with some of them too – until she and I got closer. Little by little I was getting her to give them up. It wasn’t easy.”
“You’ve have to give us their names,” said Mattheus.
“They’re all over the boat,” Tad waved his hand in the yacht’s direction, suddenly disdainful. People like that are all over the island, all over the country, too. I can’t point to one specifically. How do I know? Maybe one of them got angry about Tiffany’s happiness? Maybe Rori knows something I don’t about her rotten, spoiled friends.”
“You don’t get along with Rori? Cindy asked, taken aback.
“We get along,” Tad was having a hard time talking, “As much as possible… after all, I was taking her twin sister away. She had to feel something about that.”
“Were they close?” asked Cindy.
“Much too close,” said Tad.
Cindy was jarred. Rori’s mother had just said that she and Tiffany weren’t close enough. Then Cindy remembered the Senator’s warning her not to believe the mother. Cindy wanted to talk to Rori directly and find out more for herself.
“You actually think it’s possible that one of Rori’s friends would kill Tiffany?” Mattheus tried to pin Tad down.
“I don’t think any of this is possible,” said Tad. “I have no idea who did it. For all we know there’s a psychopathic, serial killer loose on the island, about to let loose and slash all the beautiful, privileged women down here.”
Cindy shuddered. “That’s a horrible image.”
“Why would you think something like that?” Mattheus focused in.
Tad started sobbing again.
“How do I know? All kinds of crazy thoughts go through your mind when someone you love is murdered. You don’t know what to think.”
And, at that very moment, the waves below splashed against the rocks with such ferocity, it sounded as if they were echoing Tad’s immense confusion and pain.
CHAPTER 5
The Senator had reserved two adjoining rooms for Cindy and Mattheus at the Ile De Joie, the most exclusive hotel on St. Bart’s, perched on a hill, overlooking the ocean. Cindy had taken extra care packing her suitcase, realizing she had to bring the most fashionable, trendy clothes she had, to fit in with this crowd. At the last minute, Cindy had thrown in a slinky, silver, satin gown her sister had bought it for her. The only time Cindy had ever worn it was for her engagement party to Clint. It would come in handy down here.
The taxi to the hotel wound uphill along a paved, winding road, lined with perfectly coiffed shrubbery and flowers. The windows were rolled down and an intensely sweet scent pervaded the air,
as if they were driving to paradise. As they got closer, Cindy saw the hotel, low and sprawling, nestled over the hills and rocks as if it grew out of the landscape, was an organic part of the environment, enhancing the natural beauty around.