Cissy threw her hair back off her face, as if dismissing her mother. The two of them couldn’t have been more opposite.
“Say what you want,” Cissy flung at her, “I thought it. And so did some of my friends. In fact, one of my friends, Alma, was going to speak to Tiffany about Shane. She never got a chance to though.” Cissy grew quiet, suddenly. “There’s a lot of things none of us will ever get a chance to say to Tiffany now.”
“I’m sorry,” said Cindy.
“Yeah, I know,” said Cissy, “but it’s not going to bring her back from the dead.”
“You’re out of line, Cissy,” Mr. Crane chided.
“What did you think about Tiffany’s relationship with your brother?” Mattheus jumped in, obviously wanting more.
“Tad was happy with her,” Cissy answered abruptly. “It was obvious. She brought him out of his shell. Tad has a tendency to brood. You hardly saw it though when he was with Tiffany. I was happy for both of them. Tiffany looked up to him, too. She needed him around her.”
Cindy wondered why. “What was it about Tad that drew Tiffany to him?” she asked.
“That’s a ridiculous question,” Mr. Crane was offended. “You’re way out of line.”
Cissy got quiet though and her cheeks flushed.
“That’s a question a lot of us asked ourselves all along,” she said.
“I think this is quite enough,” Mrs. Crane drew a deep breath. “None of us have any idea what draws one person to another. And, obviously Cissy is completely on edge, fantasizing and talking uncontrollably.”
“She’s been very helpful to us,” Cindy said kindly.
“Really, how?” said Mr. Crane. “By suggesting you interview Shane? I know who he is. He might have been jealous of Tiffany’s engagement, but it’s hard to believe he’s a homicidal maniac. And that’s what we’re dealing with here, is it not?”
“Yes, it is,” said Mattheus, plainly.
“A homicidal maniac?” Cissy echoed, breathlessly.
“I think that’s about it for now,” Mr. Crane turned, as if to leave.
“Is there a maniac loose on the island?” Cissy asked quickly. “Is anyone else in danger?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” said Cindy.
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Cissy repeated.
“Okay, this is more than enough,” Mr. Crane repeated, motioning to the door.
Cindy and Mattheus got up. “Thanks so much for your time,” Cindy said to all of them.
“Just go and check out Shane,” Cissy hissed loudly as they walked to the door.
Cindy and Mattheus drove back to the hotel quietly, going over the interview.
“That sister’s a piece of work,” Mattheus said.
Cindy liked her. “She doesn’t hold anything back.”
“She’s a nervous wreck,” said Mattheus.
“Cut her some slack, her brother’s fiancée just died.”
Mattheus nodded. “Sure, I’ll cut her all the slack in the world, but she’s a time bomb living in a mausoleum. Her mother hates her. So does her father.”
Cindy had noticed before that Mattheus could jump to quick conclusions about people. He summed things up too quickly.
“You can’t say that,” said Cindy. “She’s different from them, very different. They were scared to have her talk too much.”
“What are they scared about?” asked Mattheus. “What do they think she’ll spill?”
Cindy sighed. She hadn’t felt that the interview yielded much and didn’t want to get lost focusing on Tad’s family.
“People like are always scared of revealing anything about their lives. They live in hiding, that’s their mode,” said Cindy. “Even their place is bare and empty.”
Mattheus turned his head and smiled at Cindy. “I love the way you put things,” he said.
Cindy was pleased. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “the most important piece of information we got from the interview was to go and interview Shane. That’s the second person who said so.”
Mattheus shrugged as he drove. “Who else?”
“Tiffany’s mother also suspects him.”
“So, you go interview him,” Mattheus said. “I want to focus on Petrovich. There’s a gold mine waiting for us there.”
CHAPTER 8
Mattheus wanted to go back to the hotel to do more research on the Russian Mogul before he went to the party that night. It wouldn’t be hard to find Shane, and Cindy planned to go and talk to him alone. Mattheus told her he wasn’t sure how important the interview would be. He felt Tad’s sister might be enjoying the drama, blowing it all up inordinately. He wasn’t convinced that Cindy would come up with anything special at all.
When Cindy got back to the hotel she called Tiffany’s mother to get Shane’s address and let her know what they’d found so far.
As soon as the phone rang Meryl picked it up, as if she’d been sitting nearby, waiting.
“What do you have? Tell me?” she uttered breathlessly.
“We’re just getting going,” Cindy tried to calm her down. “We’ve met with the police –”.