Free Death by Desire (Caribbean Murder Series, Book 4) by Jaden Skye Page A

Bart’s.
    They walked up the entrance
way and before they got to the front, the door opened. A tall, very slender,
elegant woman stood waiting to greet them.
    “Mrs. Crane?” asked Cindy, walking
to the entrance, extending her hand.
             The elegant woman did not blink an
eye, or extend her hand in return.
          “Come in,” she said in a
plain tone, her face impassive and slightly weary.
    Cindy and Mattheus walked into
the home. It was formal, stark and somewhat forbidding. The floors were grey
marble with an angular design and the furniture polished and upholstered in the
finest beige satin. It seemed strange for a vacation house on an island. Cindy
felt uneasy sitting down on the sofa.
    “Sit down,” Mrs. Crane said,
motioning to a settee large enough to seat two. Another settee was placed
opposite it.
    Cindy and Mattheus sat down carefully.
Everything about the place was carefully appointed, not a hair out of place. It
made Cindy nervous.
    “Mr. Crane will be down in a
moment,” Mrs. Crane said as she sat, facing them, on the opposite settee.
    “I am sorry for your loss,”
Cindy started.
    Mrs. Crane looked momentarily
startled.
    “My loss?” It didn’t seem as
if she felt that Tiffany’s death was her personal loss.
    At that moment, however, a
tall, stately man in his early sixties, dressed in slacks and a sports jacket,
walked through a wide, latticed door and came over to them. He had to be Tad’s
father.
    Mattheus stood up. “Mr. Crane?”
he said.
    The man looked at him keenly.
    “How can my wife and I be of
help?” he asked. He spoke as if he were attending a board meeting in the middle
of a busy day.
    “We’re sorry for your son’s
loss,” Mattheus started.
    “Thank you,” he said, non commital.
    Mrs. Crane looked down at the angular
patterns etched into the marble floor, her hand resting limply on the edge of
the sofa.
    “What can I do for you?” Mr.
Crane repeated, seemingly eager to get this over with.
    “I’d appreciate if you could
tell us about your son and his fiancée?” Mattheus started.
    Mrs. Crane cleared her throat,
perturbed. “We’ve answered this question before, many times.”
    “Don’t worry about this, I’ll
take over,” her husband said, putting his hand on her arm.
    “Tad’s a wonderful son, always
has been. He’s thoughtful, smart, successful.”
    “Is there anything else?”
    “What do you have in mind?”
Tad’s father said.
    “Sometimes a detail that you’ve
left out will surface and it can help us discover a new lead.”
    “You live in the world of
possibilities,” Mr. Crane responded, “I live in the world of reality.  What
kind of detail are you looking for?” He was implacable.
    “Whatever seems relevant to
you,” Mattheus responded calmly.
    “Nothing about this seems
relevant to me,” Mr. Crane quipped. “Nothing seems understandable or normal.”
    “I understand this has been a
terrible time for all of you,” said Mattheus.
    “Beyond what anyone can
imagine,” Mrs. Crane chimed in. “Shocking and deeply humiliating.”
    Humiliating? Cindy thought
that was an odd way to put it.  “How has it been humiliating?” she asked.
    “We’ve all come down for a
celebration, not only us, but our closest friends,” Mrs. Crane’s eyes opened as
she vented. “This was to be a delightful time. It was at first, and then it
wasn’t. Some of our friends have even left the island prematurely since this awful
turn of events.”
    “Why did they leave?” Mattheus
asked promptly.
    “Well, wouldn’t you?” Mrs.
Crane said. “Everyone was appalled, scandalized. They wanted to get as far away
as they could. It’s not what anybody expected.”
    It never is, Cindy thought and
noticed that neither of Tad’s parents said one word about Tiffany, or her
family.
    “Were you and your husband
close to Tiffany?” Cindy asked point blank.
    “We’ve told the police all
they need to know,” Mr. Crane interrupted. “Frankly, I