Alma joined Rori, inspecting different shirts.
“And Alma’s latched onto Rori now that Tiffany’s dead,” Wynn continued. “Alma was always lost without a best friend to latch onto.”
“Do either of them have any idea who might have done this?” Cindy asked.
“We’ve all been talking about that constantly,” said Wynn.
Rori turned around and looked at Cindy and Wynn before she went into the dressing room.
“You girls talking about us behind our backs?” she asked.
“Why would you think that?” said Wynn, perturbed.
“Because you are,” said Rori, disappearing behind the silk sheets of the dressing room.
“Are the two of you close?” Cindy asked, as Rori went in to try on the dress.
“I can’t say so. I’ve tried with her over the years,” said Wynn. “It just never worked. It was
different with Tiffany, she was everyone’s dream. Rori was the rebel. It was how she got attention, by overpowering everyone else.”
Rori came out looking stunning in a tightly fitted, very short bright green silk dress, with a halter
top, that was backless.
“I’ll take it,” she said, turning around in front of the mirror.
“You look beautiful,” Cindy said and meant it. Rori was stunning, even though she had an edge about her, marked by a tattoo of a butterfly perched on her left shoulder.
“Thanks,” said Rori surprised.
“Come sit over here a minute,” said Cindy, motioning to the bench she was sitting on.
Rori came and sat next to her. Then Alma followed close behind.
“We need time to talk,” said Cindy.
“We have plenty of time. Right now all we have is time. We’ll all go out for coffee after I get what I need,” said Rori. Then she got up to go try on another dress. “I want that dress over there in red,” she said and started to grab it, as if there had to be something to make up for the loss of her twin sister. “And I want that red necklace, too.”
Alma didn’t join Rori, but stayed behind with Cindy.
“Rori isn’t the most polite,” Alma started. “People get insulted - take her the wrong way. I even heard a few people say that the killer may have killed the wrong twin by mistake.”
“That’s horrible,” Wynn’s face puckered. “Don’t you dare let Rori hear you say that.”
“She’s heard it herself,” said Alma. “She just laughed and said, “it’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone gets me. I’m not weak, like Tiffany.”
Cindy turned to Wynn. “Is there any truth in that? Was someone aiming for Rori?”
“Of course not,” said Wynn. “People may be put off with her, but no one would want to kill her. Nothing ever got that far.”
“And what about Tiffany?” Cindy asked, “how was she weak?”
“Tiffany let her mother drag her around by the nose,” Alma continued, “Rori hated that. It made her nauseous.”
“Rori and Tiffany weren’t close?” Cindy asked.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Wynn interrupted. “People can have disagreements and love each other.”
“What do you say, Alma?” Cindy asked.
“I don’t know for sure. It really bothered Rori though that their mother loved Tad so much. She often said that it was her mother who was making Tiffany marry Tad. Or, that Tiffany was doing it to be a good girl.”
“Rori didn’t think Tiffany loved Tad?” Cindy was startled.
“Tiffany loved Tad,” Wynn insisted.
“Rori wasn’t sure,” Alma continued. “But Tiffany did love making her mother happy and Rori hated it. She wouldn’t take any of her mom’s crap.”
“What kind of crap?” asked Cindy.
“Her mom can be pretty willful and dominating.”
Cindy suddenly felt afraid for all of them. “With fits of depression?” Cindy added.
“That’s putting it mildly,” said Alma.
“Enough,” Wynn broke in. “My mom’s done as good a job as she’s capable of. She’s loved all her daughters, whatever Rori thinks. Rori plays the devil’s advocate. She always has. You say night, she’ll say day.”
“I never said their mother didn’t love them,” said Alma, nervous.
Just then Rori came bopping over, her arms filled with two dresses, a necklace and a shirt.
“Not a bad day,” she said lightly, tossing a look at what Cindy was wearing. “Why don’t you get yourself a few things, too?” Rori asked, pointing to a part of the store filled with colorful, gauze, flowered dresses. “You’re actually very pretty. If you’d upgrade your image, you’d really be something else!”
Cindy was stung, despite herself.
“Come on, I’ll look with you,” said Rori.
Not only didn’t Cindy want to buy anything, she doubted if she could even afford a shirt here.
“You never know who you’ll meet on the island,” Rori continued. “Lots of great guys come down during holiday season. For all you know, the perfect guy for you will appear right at your hotel.”
“I’ve already had the perfect guy for me,” Cindy said sharply, offended.
“Really?” said Rori, taken aback.