“I thought you just said Ann didn’t have any secrets,” Cindy shot back.
“I said I didn’t know what Ann’s secrets were. And I never wanted to know. They were her secrets,” he spoke between closed lips.
“Frank, you’re out on bail,” Cindy felt herself turning into a tough cop. “If you want me to find out who killed Ann, you’ve got to talk to me.”
The shock of realizing again that Ann had been killed noticeably registered on him. “Ask me what you want,” he said then. “But I don’t know any secrets.”
“Who did Ann hate?” Cindy sat down opposite him and started. “Who was she holding a grudge against?”
Frank looked flabbergasted. “No one, not one in the world,” his voice got shaky. “All the years we were married, I never heard your sister say anything like that.”
“Who was she in a fight with?” Cindy was relentless.
“No one I know,” he looked confused.
“Everyone is in a fight with someone,” Cindy pressed him.
“Ann had plenty of girlfriends, sometime they had tiffs, but nothing big, nothing special. She had the same friends for years and years. Her friends became a family to her.”
Cindy flinched. She’d always known Ann had a world Cindy was left out of.
“What about my mother? Did Ann fight with her? My mother’s not easy,” Cindy went on.
“What are you talking about? Your mother’s a doll. She’s been good to us all these years. Ann loved her, and so do I.” Frank pulled back. “You think your mother had something to do with Ann’s death?”
“Of course not,” Cindy retorted, “I just have to hear every detail of Ann’s life. One things connects with another, suddenly you get a new idea.”
“Cindy,” Frank extended his hand, “even though you haven’t lived closed by and been part of the family for years, there’s nothing you don’t know that I can tell you. If you want the truth, the biggest thing that upset Ann was you. She worried about you all the time. She spoke to me about it. She wanted you to stop being a detective, to come home, live a normal life and stay away from Mattheus.”
Cindy’s face flushed beet red. “What’s wrong with Mattheus?”
“Ann never trusted the guy, she never trusted the relationship,” Frank’s eyes narrowed and his voice lowered. “She said you never knew the first things about guys, always got the lousy ones.”
Sharp pain twisted in Cindy’s heart as Frank spoke. Cindy knew that was the way the family saw her, as a strange loser who didn’t fit in.
“Your mother agreed with her,” Frank added for good measure. “They were both thrilled when you found Clint, didn’t know how it happened. But that good luck didn’t last long.”
Cindy felt herself going cold. “There was nothing wrong with our relationship. Clint was killed,” she reminded Frank.
“I know, I know,” he muttered. “But wasn’t he involved in something shady too?”
“Just the opposite,” Cindy stood from her seat and then quickly sat down again. “Clint was a whistle blower, told the truth. He was after justice.”
“Oh yeah,” said Frank, rubbing his face.
“It’s not going to do you any good to turn this on me now,” Cindy saw right through Frank. “Ann’s death had nothing to do with me.”
“Did I say it did? Ever? You just asked me what made her upset? She was worried about you, that’s all that I said. In fact, she visited you right before she came down. She met you at the airport, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” said Cindy in a small voice.
“It was more important to her to pick you up at the airport than to have an extra day down here with me,” Frank blurted out.
Cindy ran her hand through her long, wavy hair, trying to take the tangles out of it.
“Maybe if your sister came down a day sooner this wouldn’t have happened?” Frank’s voice suddenly grew loud and unruly.
“Or maybe she would have died a day earlier?” Cindy shot back, feeling a wave of hatred for her brother in law run through every cell of her body.
Frank caught himself then and stopped talking. “Look, I’m sorry, Cindy,” he said finally. “You and I never got along so great. But I’m sorry for what I said. I’m grateful to you, I really am.”
“You were the last one who saw Ann before she died, Frank,” Cindy responded professionally.
“You know something, even though you don’t know you know it. It’s not conscious, you’re not aware. I have to dig in and ask questions like this to bring it to your mind.”
“Go ahead, ask questions,” he said sadly.
“How were things between you and Ann?” Cindy went on.
“They were good, they were fine,” said Frank. “We were married a long time, I took good care of her.”
“Why were you taking this vacation, out of the blue?” Cindy persisted.
“It wasn’t out of the blue. We always talked about getting away together for a few days. I wanted to make her happy, make the time special for her.”
“That’s why you bought her yellow tulips?” asked Cindy.