“I wouldn’t do that,” said Cindy grimly.
Raina put her hands on her hips, “Oh no? Exactly why not?” Something in Cindy’s demeanor obviously got to her, though. She calmed down and waited to hear more.
“Please sit down on the couch, Raina,” Cindy took command.
To Cindy’s surprise Raina walked to the couch and sat down.
Cindy followed along. “Getting ready to fly out tomorrow I hear,” said Cindy.
“Yes, I am,” said Raina, definitively. “Something wrong with that?”
“Is Lynch going with you?” Cindy asked.
“Of course he is,” said Raina, chagrined. “Hasn’t he been through enough? It’s high time for him to get out of here.”
“Tara’s not getting out of here, though,” mused Cindy, “and from what I hear neither is Aldon. He can barely get up out of bed.”
“Okay,” Raina barked, “enough of this charade, what’s going on?”
“I need to talk to you,” said Cindy.
“Oh really?” said Raina, “the last time we talked you promised that news would not get out about Lynch’s son. It’s all over the place now.”
“That wasn’t in my control,” said Cindy.
“Do you even begin to realize how this news is going to affect our business and family?” Raina snapped at her.
Once again Cindy noted that Raina was more concerned with her business and family than she was about the murder. “What about Tara?” Cindy replied. “I haven’t heard a word of concern for her from you.”
Insulted, Raina flung her head back. “And why should I feel concern for her? Did she feel concern for me? Did she really care about Lynch or our family? Do you know how much time and money I spent preparing for this wedding? And she was ready to throw it over in a minute flat. She didn’t care for a second who she humiliated.”
“She wasn’t thinking about it that way,” Cindy tried to defend her. “It was her whole life at stake.”
“And what about mine?” Raina’s voice grew louder and grating. “And look what’s happened to her whole life now!”
Cindy shuddered. “This is a tragedy,” she said softly.
“And I’m sure her stupid father Aldon had plenty to do with it, too,” Raina came back at her.
“You can’t stand him, can you?” asked Cindy, wanting to egg her on.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Raina’s back arched and she smiled strangely. “I don’t know who he thinks he is. Nothing is ever good enough for him, especially our family. He finds fault with every little thing we do.”
“That must have hurt,” said Cindy.
Raina laughed in a raucous way. “Aldon hurt me? I wouldn’t say so. The moment we met he took a dislike to me, and also to Lynch. Then when he heard about Lynch’s son, that really gave him ammunition. Deep down I know he was happy about it. He tried to pin me down and talk about it, but I wouldn’t give him the time of day.” Raina laughed loudly again. “But when he started calling Lynch, that was too much. I got on the phone and told him straight to bug off.”
“How did he take that?” Cindy was stunned.
“He didn’t like it, but who the hell cared. I told him the wedding was going on no matter how he felt. He didn’t matter, he was a bystander.”
“The father of the bride a bystander?” said Cindy appalled.
“That’s all he was, a wicked bystander,” Raina repeated. “I’m sure he got through to Tara though. After she found out about the boy, she got more and more nervous and decided she couldn’t go through with the wedding. That was just unacceptable. It was a side of her I never saw. I begged her not to call it off, but she wouldn’t listen to a thing I said. Imagine that! She just wanted have her way, no matter how it affected everybody. She even told Lynch that it was their decision and had nothing to do with me.”
“Wasn’t that true?” Cindy tried to intervene, but Raina was on a roll and couldn’t hear a thing.
“People like that bring a terrible fate on themselves,” Raina’s breath came quickly now.
“You’re saying Tara deserved to die?” asked Cindy, appalled.
“Don’t twist my words,” Raina rolled right over her. “I’m saying the beautiful bride was creating a power struggle about who was most important to my son.”
“How did she do that?” Cindy picked up on it.
“Lynch was backed into a corner and finally told me.” Raina wiped her hands on her slacks. “Finally, he was backed into a corner and told me that Tara was always complaining to him about me. That didn’t sit well at all. She was trying to get him to hate me. I warned him not to listen.”
“What did he say?” asked Cindy.
“He begged me not to make him choose between the woman he loved and me. He said he couldn’t bear to lose either of us. That didn’t surprise me. Deep down Lynch always was very sensitive. Of course I had no desire to make him choose. It was her poisoning him, not me.”
“The situation must have been unbearable for him,” said Cindy.