Death by Seduction (5 page)

When
Loretta arrived in the lobby her hair was freshly brushed, pulled back from her
face, and she was dressed beautifully, in crisp white linen slacks, a yellow shirt
and a beige woven bag slung over her shoulder. If anyone saw her it would have
simply seemed as if she were simply a happy tourist, going out for an afternoon
to take in the sights.

“You
look lovely,” Cindy commented, taken aback, as Loretta approached.

“Thanks,”
Loretta answered pleasantly. Then, seeing the surprise in Cindy’s eyes, she
flinched. “I like looking good, it’s part of my business.  What good would it
do me to have my makeup smeared, or my hair tangled in knots?” Loretta looked
at Cindy angrily.

“None
at all,” said Cindy softly, trying to calm her once again.

 I
called you down to help me,” Loretta jumped back in, “so you have to know who I
am.  I’m not going to let Pete’s death take me down. He wouldn’t have wanted me
to buckle, he had more guts than anyone I ever knew.”

Cindy
didn’t know what to make of Loretta’s demeanor. Was she just incredibly brave
or  completely in denial? Cindy found it interesting to hear more about Pete.
She wanted to find out how Loretta really felt about him, their marriage,
everything.

Loretta
lead Cindy through the front door of the hotel and then waved at the cab she
had waiting for them.

“People
come from all over to see the Humpback Whales do their thing,” said Loretta as
they piled into the large taxi. “They’re incredibly beautiful, I can’t wait for
you to see them.”

“I’m
excited too,” said Cindy, trying to get into the mood Loretta was creating, two
old college friends going for an adventure, happy to see each other again.

The
cab whirled away from the hotel and wound through the main streets to roads
that sprawled and dipped into the soft belly of island.

“Where
exactly are we going?” Cindy was fascinated, and glad to be heading into the
countryside. It was a welcome respite for her, as well.

“We’re
going to a peninsula where Humpback Whales come from as far as Greenland.” Loretta
seemed relieved to be talking about it, seemed to know a lot. “The whales take
a journey here to mate and calve. I’ve been here before and it’s amazing to
watch them. It  takes your mind off everything.”

“I
can imagine,” said Cindy.

“Pete
loved doing stuff like this,” Loretta added.  “Pete loved all kinds of wild
life.  If he’s looking down and watching me now he’ll be glad to see where I’m
headed.”

Cindy
was glad to hear the comment, it was important for Loretta to absorb the fact
that Pete was gone.

“I
saw photos of Pete on his Facebook page with wild life of all kinds,” Cindy
commented.

“Right,”
Loretta chimed in immediately. “He loved going on those kinds of vacations,
always talked about the endangered species and what we could do to save them.”

“Did
you go with him?” asked Cindy, looking for a way to uncover more.

“Sometimes,”
Loretta shrugged slightly. “A lot of the time he went with guy friends. It was
a guy thing. I was fine with it, those trips were a little too rugged for me.”

“You
didn’t miss him when he was gone?” Cindy was quick on the uptake.

Loretta
threw Cindy an odd glance. “Not really,” she said, “the boutique keeps me going
all the time. We’re famous. There are always new customers, showings, photographic
displays, parties of all kinds.”

“You’ve
built a little empire for yourself,” Cindy remarked.

Loretta
looked grateful.  “Thank you,” she said, enjoying the recognition.

“I
suppose Pete was fine with it?” Cindy added.

“More
than fine with it,” Loretta said. “He was proud of my shop, proud of me. Pete
encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. He was the most incredible husband
anyone could ever want.”

Cindy
said nothing, just looked at Loretta keenly. But, Loretta immediately turned
her face away, looking out of the taxi window at the incredibly lush flora and
fauna they were driving through.

“Did
you know that the Dominican Republic has some of the clearest waters in the
West Indies?” Loretta drew her finger over the window glass. “People come here
for all kinds of reasons, world class scuba diving, deep sea fishing. Blue and
white marlin can be found at any time of year but barracuda only visit in wet
season.”

That
was fitting, thought Cindy. It was the wet season now and some kind of human
barracuda had attacked Loretta’s beloved husband.

“Did
Pete enjoy fishing as well?” asked Cindy, wanting to keep her talking about him.

“Not
especially,” said Loretta, turning back towards Cindy. “He loved extreme sports
and travel, though. He did waterfall jumping, crocodile swimming, it was an
adrenalin rush.”

“He
loved tempting fate?” Cindy commented.

Loretta
flung her head back slightly. “I guess a part of him did,” she conceded,
“though I never thought of him that way.”

It
sounded to Cindy as though Pete and Loretta were opposites. How did a guy who
loved extreme sports and adventure get on with a woman who ran a high end
wedding salon for elegant women? How else Pete and Loretta were different? In
what other ways might he have tempted fate that led him to end up dead in a
sleazy whore house?

“I
never actually thought of Pete as wanting to tempt fate,” Loretta wasn’t about
to let the point slide by. She had a strong image of Pete and was sticking to
it.  “He was a family man, thrilled to be married and loved coming home to me. In
fact, he called a few times a day and couldn’t wait to see me at night, if you
know what I mean.”

“He
needed you badly?” Cindy commented.

“Boy,
did he ever,” Loretta grinned. “Sometimes it made me feel great, sometimes 
exhausted.” She winked at Cindy as if they were old sorority friends.

Cindy
thought of her intimate times with Mattheus. He’d needed her and she’d needed
him, but it had been easy, natural and deeply fulfilling. Cindy had never felt
exhausted by him, only rejuvenated. For a second it was hard to believe that their
relationship was really over, that she and Mattheus would never be together
again.

“Pete
didn’t only take care of me, he also loved his brother and his friends. He took
good care of everybody.”  Loretta spoke evenly, painting a fine, upstanding
picture of her husband.

“Who
would want to kill him, then?” Cindy dove in pointedly.

Loretta
stared at Cindy plaintively. “That’s what I’ve been wondering night and day,”
her voice grew gravelly. “Who was sick and jealous enough of us to want to
break up a happy marriage? Who wants to take me down?”

“Do
you have friends or customers who were jealous?” Cindy followed her lead.

“No,
I don’t, that’s the crazy part of it. Our friends were happy for us and happy
in their own lives. And my customers came to me at a peak time in their lives.
I only added to their joy.”

“What
about people Pete worked with?” Cindy focused strongly.

“Pete
worked for a financial company that made investments, speculated in real
estate, and other things,” Loretta answered. “They have a branch down here, so Pete
came down to work fairly often. He had lots of great co-workers. Everyone loved
him and he did great.”

“Did
you come down here with him on his trips?” asked Cindy, thinking of the booming
trade in prostitution.

“Sometimes,”
said Loretta, “but I had a life of my own. I was busy with the boutique. I came
with him this time because we were buying that condo from, Loori Inc.,  a real
estate development company. Pete knew these guys well. He’d checked into the
condo and said it was a great investment. He told my father all about it and my
father agreed. It was all set to go.”  

“I’ll
check into the real estate development company,” Cindy remarked, wondering if
they were on the up and up.

“Absolutely,”
Loretta agreed. “Check all you want. Talk to everybody. A friend of Pete’s from
work, Ed, bought a condo in the development and was thrilled with it. Pete
wanted us to spend more quality time together and thought this condo would be
the perfect way.”

“Why
did you need more quality time together? Was something wrong?” Cindy was quick
on the uptake.

“Absolutely
not,” breathed Loretta. “Oh God, were we happy, fantastically happy. Pete was
my dream come true. We had a wonderful marriage. Ask anybody.”

Loretta
looked like a young girl for the moment, the way Cindy had remembered her years
ago, in college.

The
taxi started to slow down, slipping onto a road that led deeper down towards
the peninsula where the whales were mating.

“One
thing though, we couldn’t have kids,” Loretta suddenly switched gears as the
taxi slowed. “We tried to have kids and we couldn’t. It wasn’t my fault, it was
his, low sperm count. Can you believe it?”

“That
must have been hard on you,” said Cindy. “Was Pete ashamed of it? Did it make
him feel like less of a man?”

“Of
course not,” Loretta bristled.

“Did
you two consider adopting?” Cindy had to cover every angle.

“I 
wasn’t interested, Loretta confessed. “I was happy with Pete and with my
business. We could have lived a good, full life without kids running around.”

“Did
Pete feel that way, too?” Cindy prodded further.

“Not
as much as I did.  It bothered him that he couldn’t have a son. He once told me
that it made him feel like a failure. I told him that was nonsense, that he was
perfect just as he was.”

“He
didn’t believe that, though, did he?” asked Cindy.

Loretta
smiled oddly. “I guess not. Does anyone believe they’re perfect? Does anyone
believe they’re even alright? You should see the brides I dress every day, no
matter how gorgeous they are, no matter how wonderful the gown is, they always
find something wrong.”

The
taxi bumped wildly then as the unpaved road grew narrower.

“We’re
almost here, we’re almost here,” Loretta turned all her attention to the road
then.

Cindy
also looked out the taxi window and could see clear, wavy water in the
distance.

“Oh
God,” Loretta chimed in, “You’re in for a real treat. We’ll get on a boat that’s
waiting to take us right to the Whales.”

*

 The
taxi let Cindy and Loretta off at the edge of the water, besides the tour boat
that was waiting.  The two of them boarded the boat at the last minute, just
before it pulled out. As they sailed into the bay warm air drifted over them.
Soon they heard the sound of splashing water and saw the magnificent sight of whales
jumping.

“Oh
my God, my God,” they’re here,” Loretta called out.

The
guy in charge of the boat gave Loretta and Cindy hydrophones so they could
listen to the male Humpback’s courting song and witness the incredible displays
of flippering, tail lobbing and breaching. It was thrilling. Cindy felt as if
she’d been transported into a different world.

“These
are the most active species of whale in the Atlantic,” the guy in charge
announced to the passengers who were transfixed. “The Humpbacks are all born
here.  This makes them Dominican citizens. They migrate north to feed but always
happily return to their beautiful homeland in the Caribbean.”

Cindy
watched Loretta turn into a child, filled with delight, watching the spectacle.

“Pete
loved this, we did this a lot together,” Loretta called out to Cindy over the
sound of the splashing water.

Cindy
thought how ironic it was that the whales returned here for mating. She also
wondered if the fact that Loretta and Pete couldn’t have children had caused
more of a rift than Loretta realized? This was clearly not the time to go into those
questions, though. Loretta seemed to desperately need the momentary relief that
this outing was providing. Cindy let herself enjoy it along with her.

“Aren’t
they beautiful?” Loretta asked over and over. “Aren’t they magnificent?”

“Yes,
they definitely are,” agreed Cindy.

“You
know what it tells me?” Loretta spoke loudly, “You know what it tells me?”

“What?”
asked Cindy, suddenly nervous.

“It
tells me that no matter what happens, life goes on,” Loretta called out shrilly
over the choppy waters. “It tells me it’s okay to be happy, no matter what.”

*

 When the
spectacle had died down and the boat was returning to shore, Loretta began to
look somewhat glum. Cindy wondered if she was realizing that she was here 
without Pete now. Cindy didn’t want to waste time. She wanted to resume their
former conversation, find out more about him.

“Is it hard to be
on this trip without Pete, isn’t it?” Cindy asked quietly, trying to bring
reality in.

“Maybe it is,”
said Loretta, knotting her hands together. “But my father is on the way as we speak
and so is Taylor, Pete’s brother. My father will help us figure out what to do.
I’ll introduce you to him first thing tomorrow morning.”