“Good morning,” she said.
“Let me take you to where Frank is being held,” Trage said as the two of them walked down the wide, airy hallway, “it’s just a few steps away.”
“Thanks again,” said Cindy, eager to see Frank.
“Your brother in law can’t wait to see you,” Trage filled her in.
“Same here,” Cindy replied. “And, I want to talk to him alone.”
“You got it,” said Trage.
“I still don’t know why you’re holding him,” Cindy suddenly snapped, turning to Trage quickly. “It’s bad enough that he lost his wife, but to end up in jail overnight for it!”
“Protocol,” Trage said slowly.
“That’s not a good enough answer,” Ann looked swiftly into his eyes.
“Maybe you’re right, maybe you aren’t,” Trage scratched his head, “but it’s what we’ve got. I’m sure you and Mattheus have run into protocol.”
“Yes, we have,” Cindy quickly agreed as they grew closer to where Frank was being held. She felt odd at the mention of Mattheus and thought for a second what it would be like to have him here.
“Okay, Frank’s in this room to the left,” Trage finally said, stopping in front of the door. “You’re on your own for now.”
Cindy nodded, opened the door and walked into a small, dim room, where Frank was sitting at a long steel table, his head in his hands.
“Frank!” Cindy ran over to him, as he looked up, and grabbed his hands.
“Cindy, Cindy, my God, you’re here,” Frank murmured and started to cry.
“I got here late last night,” she quickly breathed.
“Bless you, bless you,” Frank could barely speak.
“Talk to me Frank,” Cindy gripped his hands more tightly as he gripped her hands back.
“Get me out of here, Cindy,” his voice was wobbly. “I didn’t do a thing.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Cindy exclaimed. “What happened, tell me?”
Frank’s drawn face cringed at the thought of going over it again. “I don’t know,” he started. “I can’t remember.”
“You have to remember – everything,” Cindy demanded, “Your life depends on it.”
Frank shuddered, “It was late afternoon. I went down to the pool for a quick swim. Ann didn’t want to go with me, she wanted to rest. I told her I’d be back in a few minutes and she was perfectly fine with it.” He looked up at Cindy bleakly. “We were having a good time, things were going great, no friction. She just wanted to rest.”
“Go on, Frank,” Cindy muttered, “tell me what happened.”
The pool was practically empty, just a few people in it. They were busy with each other, no one took notice when I jumped in. Why should they? I swam for a little while and then got out and lay on a lounge for a few minutes. Nothing wrong with that, is there?”
“Of course not, nothing at all,” Cindy breathed. “Did you order a drink? Did a waiter see you?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Frank. “I was going to go back up and have drinks and dinner later with Ann. I was just cooling off. Is that so terrible?”
“It isn’t terrible! Go on Frank, tell me exactly what happened then.”
“I stayed down there for about half an hour and then went upstairs to be with Ann. When I got into our room, right away it felt funny. It was too quiet, there was a pall in the air. I called out, Ann, where are you? She didn’t answer. That’s wasn’t like her, you know. Ann talks her head off.”
Frank’s head suddenly dropped into his hands again, as if he were trying to hide from the awful memory.
“I can’t go on,” he finally muttered.
“You can go on, Frank,” Cindy said softly. “You have to go on and tell me what happened, every single detail.”
“I don’t know what happened. Ann didn’t answer. First I checked on the patio. You know how much she loves sitting on patios, looking at the sky. So I went out there, but there was no one on it. So, I kept calling Ann, Ann, then I went over to the bed.” He stopped talking a moment as terror filled his face. “There she was totally still, laying face down. But Ann never lays face down, and on top of that, there was a pillow over her head. I reached down and shook her shoulder, but it didn’t move. She didn’t move. I shook it again and then started screaming. No matter how loud I was screaming, she didn’t move. So I grabbed the house phone and called downstairs for a doctor. I thought she had a heart attack.”
Cindy’s heart pounded violently as she listened to every word.
“The medical people came up in a second and pushed me away from the bedside. They flipped her onto her back, started pounding on her chest, breathing in her mouth. Finally, the doctor turned to me and said, “She’s gone.”
“Bring her back,” I yelled. “He said, I can’t.”
“What about the scratches on her neck?” Cindy could barely speak.
“They saw them later,” Frank eyes were twitching. “Thick scratches in her skin.”