Death by Seduction Read online

  “How do I know?” Val wiped his hand over his forehead. “But whatever it was, it’s blowing back on me now. I swear, Eric, I had nothing to do with this at all.”

  “But you knew Pete, didn’t you? You were his point person in buying the condo,” Cindy declared.

  “Yeah, of course I knew him. But I didn’t know his wife was going to bypass him on the financial arrangements,” Val insisted.

  “So why did you lie and say Pete gave you the down payment?” Cindy wasn’t getting pulled into his story.

  “Heck, cut me some slack,” Val looked at Cindy strangely. “I was just covering for the guy. He’d just been killed, and found in a whore house. I was respecting him and his family, didn’t want anything worse to come out.”

  “You were obstructing a criminal investigation by lying,” Cindy grew strident.

  “Hold on a minute, Cindy,” Eric put his hand out in front of her. “Back off a minute, let Val tell us what he knows.”

  “Thanks man,” Val looked at Eric gratefully. “I’ve always heard terrific things about you.”

  “Why did Loretta give the down payment to Lou Gran? Who’s this guy?” Eric was fascinated.

  “I don’t know why,” Val answered. “But she gave him too much, one hundred thousand, in unmarked bills.”

  “Can you prove this?” asked Cindy. “What proof do you have?”

  “Lou told me and he isn’t lying, that’s for sure,” Val shot a nasty look at Cindy.

  “Does this have anything to do with why someone threw a rock through her window?” Cindy felt furious.

  “I don’t know anything about that,” Val grumbled.

  Cindy did not believe him. “Does Lou still have the money?” Cindy was all over it.

  “You’ll have to ask him that,” Val answered. “That’s all I got,” and he stood up to go.

  “Wait a minute,” Eric stretched out his hand to detain him. “You can’t drop a bomb like that and leave it hanging.”

  “That’s all I got,” Val’s jaw clenched. “If I knew more I’d tell you. It was rough to get even this much. I got it though, and soon the police will have it too. Not only that, Pete’s brother Taylor is digging deeper into the money trail, and this guy Mattheus is going to be helping him. Who knows what they’re gonna dig up next?”

  Cindy felt shaken. Obviously Mattheus had made all kinds of connections already, without letting her know. Cindy didn’t know what to make of it.

  “Did you know that Mattheus was so involved?” Eric asked Cindy suddenly, equally dismayed.

  “No, I didn’t,” Cindy answered plainly.

  Eric threw Cindy a long look at Cindy. “That’s not good, not good at all.”

  “Does Mattheus usually follow you, and work on your cases secretly?” Val stood, addressing Cindy in a demeaning tone.

  “Mattheus and I are partners,” Cindy responded sharply. “Our firm is CM Investigations.”

  “Yeah, I know, we all heard about you two,” Val quipped, as he turned and left.

  “Mattheus and I are partners, not were partners,” Eric repeated Cindy’s words carefully.

  “Let it go, Eric,” Cindy snapped back. “You’re getting distracted, that’s not the issue.”

  “What is the issue?” Eric asked.

  “Loretta lied to me a couple of times,” Cindy murmured. “Was she the one who was buying the condo with her father’s money? Was she the one who wanted time alone together, not Pete? Was she just trying to save face?”

  “Why is all that important?” asked Eric.

  “Because it tells us more about Pete and his trajectory,” Cindy replied, “like why he ended up dead in Charma’s room.”

  Eric’s phone rang suddenly and he quickly picked up. “What? Okay, yeah, of course. We’re at La Costa Nova,” he replied, “come now.” Then he hung up the phone.

  “Who’s that? Taylor?” asked Cindy expectantly.

  “No, Taylor’s staying in the background right now,” said Eric. “He told me he feels safer in the shadows when the snakes are out, crawling over the place. It was the police calling, they want to talk to us now.”

  “How do they know we’re here having dinner?” Cindy was upset.

  “I mentioned it to Taylor and I guess he told them,” Eric shook his head slowly. “Taylor called me after I spoke to you. He liked the idea, of you and me having dinner together. Taylor likes me and he respects you, he wants the best for us, he really does.”

  “So are the police coming here now?” Cindy still felt confused.

  “I guess there’s more they have to tell us, or maybe more they want to know,” Eric said.

  “Are you going to tell them what Val just told us?” asked Cindy.

  “Of course I am,” Eric responded. “Why would I withhold important information from them?”

  “Because you don’t know it’s true,” Cindy replied. “Rumor is one thing, facts another. Val didn’t say there was proof of the exchange.”

  “Val gave us the guy’s name though, Lou Gran,” Eric said quickly. “We can give that name to the police.”

  Although she didn’t want to tell the police about it yet, Cindy liked Eric’s honest and fearless way.

  “Look, it’s good that things are heating up,” said Eric. “There’s pressure being placed on the cops and finally they’re taking action. They heard we’d be here and they don’t want to waste any time.”

  Eric looked over then, and quickly got up out of his seat. “Here they are now,” he said to Cindy.

  Cindy looked up and saw two policemen approaching their table. She looked a little closer then, and to her total horror, Mattheus was there, walking with them.

  “Oh no,” breathed Cindy.

  Eric stopped cold, “Mattheus?” he exclaimed.

  “Yes, it’s him,” said Cindy, in pain.

  Chapter 20

  It was a shock for Cindy to see Mattheus walking towards her. He actually looked wonderful, suntanned and toned in navy linen slacks and a plum summer shirt. She flinched.

  Mattheus stopped short when he got close to the table, glanced at Cindy and then at Eric, confused.

  “This is Eric, an attorney on the case,” Cindy quickly introduced them. “He’s been helping me.”

  Thankfully, Eric stood up and extended his hand to Mattheus, who took it as they shook hands. Cindy didn’t recognize either of the two cops who stood close behind Mattheus, surrounding him like a hedge.

  “I heard you’ve been in touch with a lot of the players on the case,” Eric took the lead, to Cindy’s delight.

  “That’s right, I have,” Mattheus answered promptly. “I’ve been concerned about Cindy working down here alone.”

  “That makes sense,” said Eric.

  Mattheus looked back and forth between Cindy and Eric again and then at the restaurant.“ Quite a lovely place to spend the evening in,” he remarked.

  “A favorite spot of mine,” Eric commented.

  “Now I see Cindy hasn’t been alone, after all,” Mattheus added.

  Mattheus’s comment made Cindy feel like a child who’d been found doing something wrong. She didn’t like it.

  “No one’s ever alone when they’re on a case,” Cindy spoke up pointedly, trying to put things in their rightful place. And nip Mattheus’s jealousy in the bud. “One way or another there are always others who want to help.”

  “Of course that’s true,” said Mattheus, really looking at Cindy for the first time.

  “You guys look uncomfortable,” Eric piped up then, looking over at the other cops as well. “Why don’t you all sit down at the table? I’ll arrange the seats for you.”

  As Eric got up and arranged the seats, Cindy was struck with his graciousness and how beautifully he was handling things. Then she reminded herself that he certainly knew the ropes. Not only was he a top attorney but head of a large law firm as well.

  Mattheus and the other two policemen took their seats.

  “What can we do for
you?” Eric started the conversation again.

  “We?” asked Mattheus, throwing a pained glance at Cindy. “Are you two a team now?”

  “We are not a team,” Cindy spoke up quickly, hiding her embarrassment. “As I said Eric is an attorney on the case and we are having dinner here in order to go over current findings.”

  “Sounds very official,” Mattheus retorted.

  “We understand someone from the real estate company came to speak with you tonight?” One of the other two cops broke into the conversation.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Cindy took the lead now. “Val.”

  “We spoke to that guy already,” the other cop remarked.

  “Val had more information for us tonight, though,” Eric took over. “He told us that the reason he had no record of the down payment was that Pete never gave him one. Loretta gave the down payment to someone else in the company. All cash.”

  “Oh brother,” the first cop said, “you got to be kidding me! That changes everything.”

  “You’ll give us the name of this other guy?” the other cop asked.

  “Definitely,” said Eric.

  “How much of a down payment?” asked Mattheus, focusing now on Cindy.

  “A hundred thousand dollars,” Cindy remarked.

  Mattheus shook his head swiftly. “That’s not a down payment, it’s something else. Where did Loretta get the money from?”

  Despite his previous comments, Cindy felt a sense of relief going over the details with Mattheus. His solid manner and clear observation helped her get herself back on track.

  “Loretta’s father gave her the money for the down payment,” Cindy informed him.

  “Probably gave her money for a lot of things,” Mattheus commented.

  “Right,” Cindy quipped. “That’s what her friend Angela told me.”

  Mattheus began to calm down as he and Cindy went over the facts, falling into their familiar rhythms. “Tell me about Loretta’s father?” he asked.

  Cindy told Mattheus all she knew and in a few minutes they’d covered lots of ground. It was as if no time had passed between them then, as if they’d always been on the case together, working hand in hand.

  “Wow, I see why you’re considered such a fabulous detective,” Eric said to Mattheus as he and Cindy paused.

  “I’m not a fabulous detective myself,” Mattheus countered, “it’s Cindy and I. We know how to work together, we’re a fabulous team.”

  Cindy watched a strained smile cross Eric’s face.

  “What more information can you and the police give us?” Cindy asked Mattheus, wanting to break into the tension.

  “Pete was deep into the life on the streets,” Mattheus started solemnly. “There were a bunch of girls he did business with and liked a lot! “

  “How did you find this out?” Cindy was shaken at the depth of Mattheus’s knowledge.

  “Two sources,” Mattheus replied, “Pete’s brother Taylor and also a weird guy, John Burnd. The police introduced me to both of them.”

  “Where are they now?” Eric asked quickly. “I spoke to Taylor earlier this evening, but when I called him later on he wasn’t answering his phone.”

  Eric hadn’t mentioned that to Cindy, and she wondered why.

  One of the cops raised his large hand then, as if to motion to Mattheus to be still.

  Mattheus paid no attention, though. “From what we know, Taylor’s in hiding right now,” Mattheus replied.

  “Hiding?” Eric looked alarmed. “Has he been threatened? Did he dig too far, find out too much?”

  “We assume something like that,” said Mattheus.

  “This isn’t the time to talk about it,” the policeman joined in. “Taylor’s safe where he is and we’re aware of what’s happening.”

  That was a familiar phrase Cindy heard over and over from the police in the Caribbean. They said they were aware of what was happening, as if that took care of everything. But it didn’t. If Taylor was in hiding, he’d hit a strain of gold. Cindy wanted to know more about it, and also more about what Mattheus had learned about Pete.

  “Tell us more about what you found out about Pete,” Cindy directed the question to Mattheus. “Which girls was he involved with?”

  Mattheus smiled, “Plenty of them, from what I could tell,” he replied. “Pete couldn’t get enough, seems like he even gave expensive bracelets to them all.”

  Cindy shivered, remembering the ruby bracelet he’d given Loretta that she’d been so proud of.

  “Pete even had the names of each girl engraved on the back of her bracelet,” Mattheus went on.

  One of the cops laughed out loud then. “Some crazy guy,” he cawed, “dishing out pearls to the dogs.”

  Eric flushed noticeably. “Did Pete give one of those bracelets to Charma?” he asked immediately, offended.

  “Don’t have any idea about that,” the cop replied.

  “Sounds like the guy lived with romantic fantasies,” Eric said slowly.

  “Or maybe he enjoyed playing with the girl’s heads,” Cindy shot back. “Maybe one of the girls got jealous of another and had Pete killed?”

  “No,” Mattheus was definite. “Don’t kid yourself. That’s not how these girls operate. It’s business to them, that’s all.”

  “How would you know that?” Cindy asked, so indignantly, that all of them broke into laughter.

  “It’s not just business for all of them,” Eric wasn’t laughing, though. “Feelings can develop between the girls and their patrons. Sometimes they even fall in love.”

  Cindy was struck by the plaintive tone in Eric’s voice.

  Mattheus wouldn’t go along. “Never,” he insisted, maybe these girls act like they care about the tricks they turn, but, believe me, they don’t, ever! They’re just using these guys for their money.”

  “It’s not true,” Eric resisted.

  Mattheus looked at Eric more closely. “What are you saying?” Mattheus asked.

  “I’m saying it’s a mistake to lump all the girls together,” Eric’s voice rose. “There are some who definitely have feelings, who want the closeness and love.”

  “That’s what tricks always like to imagine,” Mattheus responded, “but that’s a dangerous fantasy, like a drug. It keeps these guys hooked to the girls and sooner or later both the guys and their money go down the drain.”

  “Who are you, an expert on this or something?” Eric’s face was gnarled.

  Mattheus looked at Eric slowly again and relented. “No, of course I’m not an expert. Hell, what do I know? What do you think happened to Pete, Eric?” Mattheus graciously changed the topic.

  “I don’t know,” Eric was definitely flustered. “But I think it’s good that we’re checking the money trail.”

  “Very good,” agreed Mattheus.

  Cindy was relieved that Mattheus was being respectful of Eric. To her surprise Mattheus actually seemed to like him.

  “Okay,“ one of the policemen broke in. “We all know about the girls, that’s not news. What else have you guys got for us?”

  “We told you a lot,” Eric insisted. “What can you tell us now?”

  “We got something else,” the cop admitted. “You want to tell them, Mattheus?”

  “No, you go ahead,” Mattheus took a back seat, watching the interactions carefully.

  “Mattheus found out something we didn’t know,” the cop quickly continued. “Seems like the real estate company had big ties with the brothel where Pete was found. Looks like they hired Charma and some other girls there lots of times for parties and special occasions.”

  “That’s huge,” said Cindy.

  “It’s something, but not huge,” the cop corrected her. “Lots of companies use these girls to beef up business and show their customers a good time.”

  “No, Cindy’s right,” Mattheus disagreed. “If the killing had something to do with the real estate company it could explain why Pete’s body was found in Charma’s room.”


  “You’re blaming Charma now?” Eric’s voice rose noticeably.

  “No, we’re not,” Mattheus calmed Eric down immediately, “but we’re saying it’s entirely possible that Charma was used as a pawn in the hands of the real estate company.”

  Mattheus had only been on the case a short while and made such headway. Cindy was proud of him, glad he was here. It was a different world working with him around.

  Mattheus felt Cindy’s appreciation and turned her way. “I’m glad I’m here,” he said, “everywhere you look there’s another pothole, waiting.”

  “I’m glad you’re here, too,” Cindy replied.

  Cindy and Mattheus smiled at each other then, as Eric looked away.

  *

  After the meeting was over, they all stood up from the table.

  “I’ll get a cab for us to get back to the hotel,” Mattheus said to Cindy, edging Eric out of the equation completely.

  Eric looked over at Cindy, waiting for her response.

  “Fine,” Cindy replied promptly, not wanting to leave an opening for Eric to think that anything between them was possible, or that she would chose to have him take her home. He was clearly involved with Charma emotionally, and now having fantasies about Cindy too.

  Eric turned away then and signed the check and Cindy felt badly. She wanted to smile at him and thank him for all he’d been doing to help. But Eric didn’t look her way again, just began speaking to the policemen, one of whom offered to give him a lift home.

  *

  It was strange and tense in the car beside Mattheus. The lights from the streets shone in on them for awhile and then faded as they turned along the road to the hotel.

  “You’ve certainly taken a lot upon yourself to come down here,” said Cindy as they drove along.

  “I’ve been tracking the case for a long time,” Mattheus responded. “Fortunately I know a few of the cops here quite well.”

  “You didn’t think I could handle it alone?” Cindy asked, troubled.

  “No, of course I knew that you could,” said Mattheus. “I just didn’t want you to. I knew sooner or later there’d be trouble and I wanted to be there for you then.”

  Cindy took a deep breath. Mattheus had gone out of his way to help her and Cindy was grateful for that. Where this would all lead was another matter.