“You think with a click of a button you put someone in the past?” Cindy kept at it, feeling more and more sickened with each word Frank uttered. “Did you tell Ronnelle she was being defriended?”
“No, of course I didn’t tell her,” said Frank. “I only told her that Ann knew something was wrong and we were coming down here to reconcile.”
“Oh God,” breathed Cindy, a sharp pain stabbing through her head. “Then what happened to Ann? What happened to her, Frank?”
“I have no idea,” Frank mumbled. “I’ve thought about it every day. I think about it constantly. Maybe one of the guys who did the hotel murders came after Ann by mistake. Maybe they thought I was a big hitter. I wasn’t. Maybe somebody told them I was.”
“Why would they do that? Who would tell them?” Cindy was unstoppable.
Frank dissolved onto a chair then and started sobbing again, “Believe me, believe me, I have no idea.”
To her deep consternation, Cindy believed him.
“What do I do now?” Frank asked, a little boy suddenly.
“The police are looking for you,” Cindy said quietly.
“They’re pinning it on me?” he was beside himself.
“They want to, but they don’t have enough direct evidence,” Cindy said. “They’ll need a confession.”
“But I didn’t do it,” Frank wailed again.
“I know, I know,” said Cindy both wanting to soothe him and hating him at the same time.
“Let me go back and talk to Mattheus about this. The best protection for you will be for us to find the real killer.”
Frank looked up at her gratitude shining from his bloodshot eyes. “I never thought what I did would lead to this ever,” he mumbled, “you’ve got to believe me.”
“I do,” Cindy said.
*
Cindy was tremendously relieved to find Mattheus waiting in her room when she got back to the hotel. It seemed like forever since they’d caught up.
“Where were you?” Mattheus seemed agitated when she walked into the room. “I expected you here long ago. How long could it have taken to get back from the Cricket Match?”
The Cricket Match seemed like years ago to Cindy.
“You haven’t told any of us what you felt about your talk with Ronnelle yet,” Mattheus proclaimed. “Everyone’s waiting to hear your take on it.”
“You mean the police?” asked Cindy.
“Of course the police. Who else?” asked Mattheus.
Cindy had been so caught up with her interview with Frank she’d completely forgotten to call into the police about her talk with Ronnelle.
“I got distracted,” she said to Mattheus now.
He looked at her strangely.
“Right after I spoke to Ronnelle, I went to talk to Frank,” she proclaimed.
“What?” The hairs seemed to stand up on Mattheus’s neck. “Where is he? We’ve been searching high and low.”
“Calm down, Mattheus, listen to me,” said Cindy.
But Mattheus was having trouble taking it in. “How the hell did you find him? Why didn’t you call me immediately and let me know?”
“I wanted to see him alone,” said Cindy. “It would be less threatening for him that way.”
“We’ve been searching for him high and low,” Mattheus repeated.
“I know, but I needed to see him alone,” Cindy’s voice got louder.
“You should have told us where he was anyway,” Mattheus insisted.
“Not at all,” Cindy declared. “He’s my brother in law.”
“You’ve withheld important information from a murder investigation,” Mattheus sounded grim.
“What are you going to do now? Lock me up?” asked Cindy, upset by his response.
“Tell me about both interviews,” Mattheus was forcing himself to calm down and listen.
“Do you really want to hear?” asked Cindy.
“Of course I do, how could you ask me that?” said Mattheus. “I was just worried about you. No one knew where you were.”
“My interview with Ronnelle yielded nothing at first,” Cindy decided to get it all out. “She’s charming, delightful -.”
“How well I know,” Mattheus chimed in.
“You know?” Cindy flinched and continued. “Ronnelle told me again that she had no idea who Frank was. I told her he defriended her on Facebook and she just shrugged it off and laughed and said she didn’t even know she’d been defriended. The police heard all this on the recording.”
“But we want to know what you think,” Mattheus repeated.
“I think it’s entirely possible,” Cindy said.
“And I agree,” Mattheus concurred.
“So then just before I left, for no reason at all I happened to ask Ronnelle where she was from. She lightly replied Wisconsin.” Cindy paused.
“So?” asked Mattheus.
“So Ann and Frank are from Wisconsin,” said Cindy disconsolately.
“Well, that’s something,” Mattheus yielded a moment, “but not much. Entirely circumstantial.”
But Cindy was on fire. “Then, when I got back to the hotel, unexpectedly, my Uncle Charlie came to my room. He’d heard that the police were looking for Frank and decided to give me his address.”
Mattheus whistled under his breath. “He knew where Frank was all along?”
“No, Ben knew. He finally told Charlie,” said Cindy.