“Why?” asked Cindy.
Shane shrugged. “She was just so nice,” he said.
“I heard the two of you were an item for a long time,” Cindy said.
Shane made a face. “I wouldn’t exactly call it an item,” he said. “We dated, stopped and then dated again.”
“I heard you were very important to her,” said Cindy.
“Who told you that, her mother?” asked Shane.
A cooler breeze began to blow up along the shore.
“Yes,” said Cindy.
Shane nodded. “Tiffany always had to put up a front for her mother. She told her mother what she wanted to hear. Tiffany was cool, she knew how to play it.”
“Play what?” asked Cindy, surprised.
“She knew how to get along, not ruffle feathers.”
“Weren’t the two of you an item?” asked Cindy.
Shane put his surfing board down and leaned closer. He seemed very comfortable talking to her.
“Not really,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it an item. We dated on and off. It was casual. She never meant much to me romantically.”
Cindy felt upset. “She didn’t mean much to you?”
“We just had fun together, if you know what I mean?”
“Sex buddies?”
“Something like that. I never meant much to her, either.”
Cindy couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing and wondered how Tiffany would feel if she heard it.
“We both took it for what it was worth,” said Shane, filling her in.
“What was it worth?” Cindy asked him.
“We had a good time together. It calmed our nerves,” Shane looked at Cindy then as if she’d come from a different world. “What a crazy day this is,” he went on. “I never saw mist like this around Christmas. What a terrible time to die. I heard her mother wants to have a mass said for her at church and her father refuses.”
Cindy hadn’t heard that, but she didn’t want to get distracted.
“How do you know your relationship never meant much to Tiffany?” Cindy persisted. Cindy had the impression that Tiffany had cared a great deal about Shane.
“Tiffany and I talked about it,” Shane said plainly. “We didn’t hold anything back. I told her things between us would never go anywhere and she said she felt the same way. It was nice. It freed us.”
Cindy wasn’t sure what to make of this. She wanted to pin Shane down, make him uncomfortable, get to a deeper truth.
“People said you couldn’t take your eyes off her at the engagement party. That you seemed obsessed.”
Shane threw his head back and laughed out loud.
“Me, obsessed with Tiffany? Let me tell you, there were a bunch of creepy people at that party. And whoever told you that is nuts. I was fascinated to see her looking so happy, and curious to see if it were true. I always knew when Tiffany was pretending, which she never did with me.”
“Who were the creepy people at the party?” Cindy pursued it.
“Whoah, that would take all day to tell.”
“I have all the time in the world,” said Cindy.
“Well, maybe you do, but I don’t. I have to be back in a little while. There’s someone waiting for me at home. Guess what? I have a fiancée too.”
“You’re engaged?”
“Sure, to somebody I’ve loved for a long time. It was no big deal to Tiffany either. She knew about her. She wished us well.”
Cindy was silenced. “Do others know that you’re engaged?”
“Of course they do,” Shane said. “Whoever said I was obsessed with Tiffany is nuts. Let me tell you, that crowd loves to gossip and spread rumors. They dream up all kinds of things, don’t have much else on their minds. Me, I love to surf.”
Shane was frank and engaging and Cindy couldn’t help but believe what he said. She was surprised at the picture he painted of Tiffany. This was another person unfolding in front of Cindy’s eyes. It opened the range of possibilities for what could have happened to Tiffany though, and the people who could have been in her life.
“Tell me more about her, Shane,” Cindy said.
“She was caught in the grip of her family” he said. “They expected her to be perfect and she got caught in the trap.”
“And her twin sister, Rori?” Cindy asked suddenly.
“She’s as different from Tiffany as night from day. Rori’s wild, rough, can be pretty nasty. I never spent much time with her.”
“Where were you the time Tiffany was murdered, Shane?”
“I was at a party,” he said. “There were lots of people there who saw me. The police have talked to plenty of them. I had absolutely nothing to do with this at all.”
“Do you have any ideas who did?” Cindy asked.
“I wish I did, believe me. I’d go with you myself and wring the guy’s neck. If I hear anything, I’ll call you. I didn’t love Tiffany, but she was my good friend.”
“I realize,” said Cindy, as it started to rain.