The first woman who came over was in her late thirties, with brown straggly hair, a cut on her face and grey eyes. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Cindy.
“This is Heidi,” said Barbara as she sat down on the bench and slid too close to Cindy.
“Hi,” Heidi whispered, looking around.
“It’s okay, Heidi,” Barbara said. “It’s fine to talk. No one’s listening.”
“You can’t be too sure,” Heidi murmured.
Barbara picked it right up, “Even if someone here hears you, you’re safe now. You can say whatever you want to.”
Heidi took a deep breath and plunged in.
“Shelly didn’t deserve this,” she said to Cindy in a low, rumbly voice.
Cindy looked in her eyes. They were sad and scattered.
“Of course Shelly didn’t,” Cindy replied. “Did you know her well?”
“She was my counselor for the first three months I was here. Then I was switched to Angie,” said Heidi.
Cindy looked over at Barbara who was listening intently.
“Angie’s another excellent counselor at the Shelter,” Barbara clarified.
“Is Angie still here?” asked Cindy.
“Of course,” Heidi remarked quickly, putting her hand over her mouth. “Why wouldn’t she be? Is she also in danger?”
Barbara put her hand on Heidi’s shoulder. “Angie is not in danger,” Barbara said, “no one here is in danger.”
Heidi looked up at Barbara doubtfully.
“Everyone here was in danger,” Barbara went on calmly, “but that’s over. Not anymore.”
“Were you in danger?” Heidi suddenly asked Cindy.
“Many times,” Cindy said. She didn’t want Heidi to feel that she couldn’t relate. And, Cindy had been in danger working cases, and also during her honeymoon. They could have just as easily killed her along with Clint if she’d been gone to the beach with him that afternoon he’d gone surfing.
“So you know the rap?” Heidi went on.
“I understand danger,” said Cindy carefully. “Tell me more about Shelly. What do you think happened to her?”
“Frankly, I’m not sure,” said Heidi. “But I don’t think it was Anthony. No one here does.”
“You all liked Anthony?” Cindy asked.
“I wouldn’t go that far to say I liked him,” said Heidi, “but he was a decent guy. You know, when you’ve been beaten by someone a long time, you get an instinct for guys who are trouble. I never had that instinct about Anthony.”
“Was there someone else here you had that instinct with?”
“No, not here,” said Heidi. “If you really want to know what I think, I think Shelly must have had a secret life.”
Barbara drew a deep breath in then.
Cindy felt interested. “Really, why?”
“Something about the way she acted. She would never talk about herself. If you asked her about her own life, she got huffy. I always thought she was hiding something.”
“It was her job to focus on you,” said Barbara. “She was being professional.”
“Nah,” Heidi wasn’t buying it. “Angie’s professional too. Angie’s a fantastic counselor, but she talks about herself sometimes, too. That wall isn’t up.”
Cindy listened intently. “Shelly had a wall up?”
Barbara interrupted, “I never heard anyone say that about Shelly before.”
“Well, give Heidi a chance to finish,” said Cindy.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong impression,” Barbara said.
“Every impression is a good impression,” said Cindy. “That’s how we find the killer -we put different pieces together, opposing views, unexpected responses, together they mean a lot.”
Heidi was empowered. “I always felt Shelly had a wall that would go up any second. You never knew when. I even mentioned it to her once, I said who are you, really? I feel strange talking to you. Boy, she didn’t like that. That’s why I switched to Angie.”
Barbara scraped her throat, nervous.
“What did she do when you said that?” said Cindy.
“Something weird, if you asked me,” said Heidi. “Shelly got up, shook herself off, and started walking around. Right then I thought something’s very wrong here.”
“Are you sure this happened?” Barbara seemed put out.
“Positive,” said Heidi. “She was hiding something – something bad.”
Cindy was fascinated. “What was she hiding?”
“I have no idea. If she’d come clean, maybe she’d be alive to tell you herself.”
Cindy was grateful to hear this. The story rang true.
“Is there anything else you want to say?” asked Cindy.
“That’s it. In my opinion Shelly had a secret life and it crept up from behind and bit her. Go find out about it.”
Heidi scraped the bench back and got up then, looking victorious.
“Thanks so much Heidi,” Cindy said, getting up with her, as Heidi turned and walked out the cafeteria door.
“You can’t believe everything they tell you,” Barbara said the minute Heidi was out of earshot. “Some of them imagine things, others develop delusions from all their abuse, become paranoid.”