“The police say it looks like a suicide,” Mattheus broke in calmly.
“Suicide, my ass,” Carl shot back. “Kate was beautiful, happy, she loved life. I was there the day she was born and watched her grow up into a star. There was nothing she lacked, nothing. We were always close, she told me everything, came to me if there was something wrong. There’s no reason in the world she would have killed herself. Absolutely none.”
“Everything he says is true,” Tyra started weeping.
Obviously, both of them were in terrible pain. Cindy wondered how she could help ease their agony.
“I’m so sorry,” she repeated, though it sounded empty to her.
Carl barely heard anyway. “Kate had everything ahead of her,” he went on, “she had everything anyone could have wanted. She had friends, money, talent, a fantastic family. Why in hell would she ever kill herself? She wouldn’t. Someone came and snuffed out her life. Who?” He zeroed in on Cindy.
Cindy took a deep, painful breath. “I know this is a nightmare,” she said.
“The medical examiner will go over the body and determine the cause of death,” Mattheus continued, trying to ground things as best he could.
“Medical examiner, my ass,” Carl shot back. “You think I give a damn about what some idiot guy says happened to her? Someone did it. Just let me find out who! Let me get my hands on him.”
Tyra gasped, “Stop it Carl, you’re making it worse.”
“Nothing can be worse,” he bit his lips hard, in rage.
“You’re hurting me, Carl, you have to calm down,” Tyra insisted.
“I’m not hurting you Tyra, I’m trying to help,” he insisted.
“I know you are, but it hurts me when you get so angry like this.”
“How am I supposed to feel? What am I supposed to do? Sit back and listen to the half assed police force on the island?”
Cindy saw the veins in Mattheus neck begin to bulge. Carl sounded the way Mattheus had so many times before he’d found his wife’s killer.
Carl turned swiftly to Cindy and Mattheus then, “We need your help. I’ll pay top dollar. Cost means nothing to me.”
Mattheus stood up and ran his hands through his hair. “Carl,” he said, “I know how rotten and lousy this situation is. I wish we could help, but we can’t right now. We’re here on vacation. We need time to ourselves.”
The words weren’t registering, nothing was.
Carl continued vehemently, “The paper said that Kate posted all over Facebook that she just got engaged. That’s nuts. None of us ever met this guy. This was a new relationship. She wouldn’t do something like that without letting us know first.”
“Are you sure about that?” Cindy perked up.
“Of course I’m sure. I knew everything about Kate’s life.”
Tyra looked up at them then, focusing for the first time.
“He did, he’s right. Kate loved Carl tremendously. And he loved her.”
“And I still do,” he cried out.
Mattheus took a deep breath as his jaw clenched. Cindy saw how hard this was for him, too.
“How recently did she meet this guy?” Mattheus asked, beginning to resonate with the rage Carl was feeling.
“It was new,” Carl insisted, “They met online.”
“Lots of good people meet online,” said Cindy, trying to put things into perspective. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“I didn’t say anything was wrong with it,” Carl turned to Cindy full force.
Cindy was struck with how handsome and intense he was and the depth of his feeling for his niece. She wondered if he’d ever married or had a child of his own.
Carl stopped a moment and looked right at her. “I never had a child of my own,” he said, as if hearing her unasked question. “Three bad marriages and no children. What does that add up to?”
Mattheus walked a few steps away, not wanting to hear Carl’s story or get further embroiled.
“Kate was the daughter I never had,” Carl went on. “If she were even thinking of getting engaged she would have told me. This was mostly a long distance relationship. I believe he came to New York a few times and they saw each other in person then. It wasn’t a big deal to her, she never said it was, anyway.”
Tyra began whimpering then. “I had no idea, none,” she managed. Kate never told me a thing about him. Then I see on Facebook that they got engaged.”
“She posted it and then turns up dead? It doesn’t make sense,” Carl stamped his foot on the ground.
“Nothing makes sense when someone dies,” Mattheus intervened, “absolutely nothing. Slowly the pieces come together. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes work. I wish we could help you, but we can’t right now. We’re off duty, on vacation.”
Carl stood up, stepped too close to Mattheus and stared. “What kind of guy says no to something like this?”
A good guy, a fair guy, Cindy told herself, a guy who’s trying to set his priorities.
Mattheus took a step closer to Carl as well. “We would if we could,” Mattheus said unflinchingly, “but we can’t. Not now.”
CHAPTER 6