“That’s it,” said Cindy, trembling. “You remember her?”
“I do,” Alain got excited. “I remember the husband mentioned to me that his wife was coming down and where could he get yellow tulips? He said she loved yellow tulips!”
Cindy’s heart began beating terrifically. “That’s right, that’s my sister. She loved yellow tulips, they were her favorite!”
“I noticed he got them,” Alain spoke quickly.
“He was excited she was coming?” asked Cindy.
“Yeah, it seemed that way to me,” Alain said.
Cindy was thrilled to hear this. It was wonderful to talk to someone who had actually seen Ann before she died. She leaned over towards Alain now. “Did you see Ann too?”
“I saw the wife once,” Alain was doing his best to remember details. “They ordered breakfast in the room in the morning.”
“Yes, Ann loved having breakfast in,” Cindy agreed.
“Yeah, yeah, I definitely remember.”
“How did she look?” Cindy hung on every detail, “did she seem happy?”
“Honey, I really hope so. I can’t say, I didn’t look at her so closely. I brought in the tray and the husband signed the check. I saw her sitting there, though. She looked okay to me.”
“She wasn’t okay,” Cindy’s voice started to crack into pieces, “she was in danger and had no idea about it. She died later that afternoon.”
Alain stood up disconcerted. “I’m really sorry to hear this. Truly I am.”
“There were horrible scratches all over her neck,” Cindy went on, “and then she was
smothered.”
“May God, save us,” Alain muttered.
Cindy knew she had to plough on with the interview, go deeper, no matter how lovely Alain seemed.
“I heard you were just fired from your job,” Cindy mentioned.
“Yeah, it’s true,” he said, “damn rotten luck. I’ll get another one though. It’s not getting to me.”
“Why were you fired?” Cindy dug deeper.
Alain started to answer and then fell silent. “Why do you want to know? What’s all this about, anyway?” he asked swiftly.
“You were one of the last ones to see my sister alive,” Cindy answered softly.
At that he spun around in a crazy circle. “You think I did it? It’s me?” he was totally amazed.
“No, I don’t think that,” Cindy answered quickly, “I just need to talk to anyone who saw her and can tell me something.”
“Then why did you ask if I was fired?” Alain only half bought it.
Cindy rose to the occasion. “Sometimes distraught employees who get fired take it out on the hotel guests,” she replied.
“So you thought I might have killed her?” his eyes opened wide again.
“Just a possibility we’re checking on,” replied Cindy.
“Who’s we?” Alain countered.
“I’m also a detective,” Cindy decided to come clean. She didn’t want to hide anything from him and he appreciated it.
“This was your sister killed and you’re a detective?” he wanted to get it straight.
“Right,” said Cindy. “She was found dead in her room late in the afternoon, the day you were fired. You were fired a little after noon.”
“Whew,” Alain looked relieved. “Yeah, I was fired at around twelve thirty and then I went to a local bar right after and hung out there all afternoon. Lots of people saw me. I ate, we talked. Random firings of help aren’t so rare on the Island. I was fired because I had trouble with my boss for the past few weeks. He was getting on my case every second and I finally told him off. It had absolutely nothing to do with your sister. Nothing at all. Not a thing. And believe it or not, I’m sorry to hear about her.”
“I do believe it, Alain,” Cindy said, upset to have had to put him through this. “I’m sorry to upset you like this.”
“You didn’t upset me,” he answered quickly, “and let me tell you something. Bermuda is a hub of rich folks coming down here to invest. It’s crawling with two things, money and cover ups of all kinds. If you think people don’t turn up dead here all the time, take another look. The government hushes it up, but it’s a known fact.”
“Tell me more,” Cindy breathed, “please, I need to hear it.”
“There’s big business here in insurance and re-insurance,” Alain went on defiantly. “People come from all over the world and make piles of dough. There’s almost no taxes for businesses either, they make it easy. Get my drift?”
Cindy got it. “But that had nothing to do with my sister,” said Cindy.“ She’s not in business and never came here before.”
“How about the hubby?” Alain was quick on the draw.
Cindy scanned her memory quickly. Actually Ann had just mentioned that Frank had come down here a bit on business recently, but that couldn’t have anything to do with it. Frank did well back in the states but wasn’t a finance guy, ever. Cindy thought he’d probably just found a new market for his products here.