by Jaden Skye
“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.”
Cindy was quick on the uptake. “Are you invalidating Heidi’s experience?”
“Not at all,” said Barbara emphatically, “I’m just trying to be clear. I’m not saying it’s not her experience, but I never heard anyone say anything at all like that about Shelly. Not once.”
“Well, let’s hear what others have to tell us now,” said Cindy. Obviously Barbara had an image of Shelly that she didn’t want interfered with. It wouldn’t look good for the Shelter either if it came out that one of their counselors had been disturbed.
One woman after another came to Cindy’s table and told her tidbits about Shelly. Most said she was kind and thoughtful, that she went out of her way to do whatever she could. Some said they could call her whenever they needed to, no matter what time of day or night. When Cindy asked if they thought that Shelly had a wall up, no one else said they did.
Rheba, a tall, overweight woman, with a pretty face and frizzy hair, came running up to Cindy’s table when it was her turn. She was convinced that someone from Anthony’s fan club killed Shelly off.
“It’s pretty obvious to me,” said Rheba. “I don’t know why it isn’t obvious to everyone else. Anthony’s fan club was growing and the fans were crazy about him. He’s a gorgeous guy who makes hot, sexy music. Shelly didn’t like these fans one bit. You can’t blame her for that, can you? They call at all hours, send emails and texts – love, love, love him! And, he’s her man!”
“That can’t be easy,” said Cindy.
“One of them had to have gotten pissed off, – jealous that Shelly had Anthony all to herself. I even mentioned that to her once. You know what she did?”
“What?” asked Cindy, entranced.
“She threw back her head and laughed. Too hard, if you asked me.”
“You hit the spot?” asked Cindy.
“Sure did,”Rheba insisted. “You know, Shelly showed up at all Anthony’s concerts, sat in the front row, and pulled him away the minute it was over. It didn’t leave much over for the fans.”
“How do you know that?” asked Cindy, fascinated.
“Common knowledge,” said Rheba, “the gals at this place talked about it all the time. They felt badly for her when another concert was coming.”
“And Anthony would just get up and leave when the concert was done?”
“Yup,” said Rheba, “that guy really loved her. She wrapped him around her finger with a string. You should have seen him sitting here waiting for her to get off work, like a lonely puppy dog.”
This was good information. It gripped Cindy.
“Do you happen know any of his fans?” she asked immediately. “Was there one in particular? Did Shelly ever mention anyone’s name?”
“No, nothing like that,” said Rheba. “But it shouldn’t be too hard to check it out.”
“Absolutely. I’m going to look right into this.”
“Great,” said Rheba, smiling a huge, toothy smile. “Let me know what you find out. You know, maybe someday I’ll be a detective, too.”
After she left Cindy took a momen
t alone with Barbara.
“I’ve heard that theory before,” said Barbara. “It’s plausible, not completely off the wall.”
“No, it isn’t,” said Cindy.
“Fans become crazy and obsessed,” Barbara continued.
“But I heard the story slightly differently,” said Cindy. “I heard that Anthony and Shelly had started fighting at the concerts, that he wanted to stay longer and she wouldn’t have it.”
“Yeah,” said Barbara, “I heard that, too. In fact, I asked her about it. She just laughed and said, that Anthony loved it that she wouldn’t let him stay. It made him feel great that Shelly wanted him all for herself.”
“Then why were they fighting about it?” asked Cindy.
“That’s for you to find out,” said Barbara, “you’re the detective, not me.”
The next woman on line, Frieda, got up and came over before they even motioned to her. She was very tall, thin and angular with slightly sunken eyes.
“This is Frieda,” Barbara introduced her immediately as soon as she came to the table.
“I’m so glad you’re here, said Frieda to Cindy, confidentially. There’s no one with any clout with the law that I’ve been able to talk to about this.”
“I’m glad to be here too,” said Cindy.
“I’ve had a theory all along,” Frieda plunged in then without a moment’s hesitation. “There’s someone else in the picture. Shelly had another boyfriend besides Anthony. “
“Oh brother,” said Barbara under her breath.
“Why did you think that?” asked Cindy, ruffled. She’d actually had the same feeling herself.
“Just something about the way she was with Anthony. Let him wait here for her too long, just took him for granted. I never once saw her excited to see him, either. He was much more excited to see her.”
“Was Shelly your counselor?” asked Cindy.
“In the beginning,” said Frieda. “Then I switched to Angie.”
Again? Cindy took note. “Why?”
“Shelly could get pretty distracted at times, even distant, like she wasn’t there.”
Barbara scraped her throat. “Did you put that in the record?” she asked Frieda, looking at Cindy out of the corner of her eye.
“No, I didn’t,” said Frieda, “just told the office I’d like someone else. We’re encouraged to change counselors when we feel we need to, aren’t we?” she defended herself.
“Of course,” said Barbara. “I was just curious. Did you mention to Angie, that Shelly was distant and distracted?”
“Never,” said Frieda. “Why should I get her in trouble? She was fine most of the time, but then, once in a while, something came over her and it scared me. I wanted to get away.”
“What was it?” asked Cindy, alerted.
“I don’t know.”
“Try to pinpoint it,” Cindy insisted. Frieda had her finger on the pulse of something important, and Cindy needed to know more about it.
“I can’t pinpoint it,” said Frieda, a bit shaky. “I would just get a creepy feeling from time to time. It was like she wasn’t even in the room, like I was talking to an empty shell.” Frieda shuddered, “everyone here says to trust your instincts, so I did, and switched to Angie.”
“I understand,” said Cindy.
“Understand what?” asked Barbara, alarmed.
“Understand that when you trust your gut, it’s always the right thing to do,” Cindy said.
Frieda smiled wanly, seemingly relieved. “I didn’t mean to hurt her or anything,” said Frieda.
“You didn’t do anything to hurt Shelly,” said Cindy.
Frieda sat up straighter and stared at Cindy then, “How do you know that?”
“Well, I don’t, of course,” said Cindy. “
“I may have hurt her by dumping her and going to someone else” Frieda smiled thinly, displaying a row of tiny teeth.
“It’s possible that Shelly felt badly,” said Cindy, “but from what you told me, it’s okay to switch -probably happens routinely.”
“It does,” Barbara cut in swiftly. “In fact, we encourage it. We want every resident to be comfortable with their counselor. Frieda didn’t do anything to hurt Angie. Lots of the women here think that they’ve done something to hurt someone else, when it’s they themselves who have been hurt.” Barbara looked sidelong at Frieda.” Frieda is not only the victim of abuse, she’s also the victim of her own guilt.”
“But I’m doing great with Angie now,” Frieda perked up. Then she turned back to Cindy. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more about Shelly’s life. I wish I could, why don’t you go and talk to Angie about it yourself?”
“That’s a wonderful suggestion,” said Cindy.” I definitely will.”
“Do it as soon as you can, too,” Frieda suddenly looked wan again, and her hands tightened into little fists. “You’ve got to find the killer! Quick! Or someone else here will turn up dead.”
CHAPTER 14
As Cindy drove back to the hotel in the cab, she couldn’t wait to see Mattheus and talk this all over with him. She needed him to be as he’d always been, strong, clear, a sounding board. They had to work their way through these details together and decide what to do next. Now Cindy wondered what state of mind she’d find Mattheus in. Sometimes he was more like his old self, at other times, he was reeling under the next shock wave of revelations he’d received. Despite some lovely moments, things were definitely different between them now. She wasn’t ever really sure right now what he was doing or where he’d be.
Cindy knew Mattheus had been planning to go to Rancher’s Bar and speak to Tommy. He’d also mentioned that Tommy didn’t get in until early evening, so there was a good chance, Mattheus would be at the hotel now. Cindy hoped so, really needed to see him.
To her relief, when Cindy got to the hotel, there was a note waiting for her from him at the front desk. I’m in the cocktail lounge down the hill from the pool, if you get in before five and want to talk.
That itself was odd. Why was he spending time in the cocktail lounge, rather than chasing down other possible leads. Usually, Mattheus would be at the Police Station, going over reports, checking facts, making calls. Cindy had to step back a moment and remind herself - this was Mattheus’s wife who’d been found murdered only a little over a week ago. This was someone he was still in love with, though he may not have realized it before. Cindy hadn’t realized it either.
She took his note, walked out of the lobby and turned down the sloping hill towards the cocktail lounge behind the pool.
*
The cocktail lounge was housed in a straw hut, with a bamboo roof, and surrounded by potted plants which added to its charm. Cindy had been there for a few moments a day or so ago. She walked in now and saw Mattheus, half asleep in a comfortable revolving chair in the corner with soft, gentle breezes blowing on him.
Cindy sat down in the chair opposite him quietly, not wanting to wake him roughly.
“I’m completely awake,” Mattheus surprised her, opening one eye, as she sat down.
“This is a great spot,” said Cindy, relaxing for a moment herself.
Mattheus opened both eyes then. “Tough day?” he asked.
“Long day,” said Cindy, “and fascinating, too.”
He perked up and sat up. “What’s so fascinating?”
The waiter came over and Cindy ordered a glass of wine. It was the end of the day and she needed to unwind.
“The women at the Shelter are fantastic,” said Cindy. “They’re strong, gutsy, they knew Shelly well and had a lot to say about what happened.”
Mattheus pursed his lips together. “Okay, shoot,” he said. “Any hard evidence?”
“Not yet,” said Cindy, “but plenty of important observations.”
“Like what? Cut to the chase.”
Cindy hardly knew where to begin. Anything she said would be painful for him. She decided to start with the most abstract points first.
“Wel
l, one of the women found Shelly strange and distant at times. When she spoke to her, it was as if she weren’t there.”
“That’s a lousy thing to say about Shelly,” Mattheus muttered. “Ungrateful bitch.”
“What?” Cindy was shocked.
“I mean there’s Shelly working in a rotten situation, giving her all and this damn fool talks bad about her right after she died? Who the hell is that lady to call Shelly strange? It makes my blood boil. There was nothing at all strange about Shelly.”
Whoah, thought Cindy. She had no idea he’d react like that. She’d hoped he might add something to the observation, remember times when Shelly had been distant with him as well. It seemed impossible to get through to him now. He was protecting the image he had of Shelly with his very life. Why wouldn’t he let himself see other aspects of her, what was he so scared of?
If Cindy didn’t break through this defense, there was no way Mattheus would be able to be of help. And, there was no way he’d ever be able to put his relationship with Shelly behind him, or go on in his life with someone else.
“Don’t you think there were things about Shelly that you were completely unaware of?” Cindy asked him pointedly.
Mattheus let out a long breath. “Sure,” he said, “I mean who knows everyone completely?”
“This is more intense than that, Mattheus,” Cindy went on. “I mean, not everyone goes missing.”
“That’s true,” said Mattheus, irritated. “What’s your point?”
“In order to find the killer, we have to find out more about who Shelly was. Who were her enemies, what fights did she have, did she offend someone?”
Mattheus threw his head back and rubbed his hands over his face.
“I know,” Mattheus conceded, “even though it’s crushing me.”
Cindy became silent for a long moment.
“It would crush any guy,” Mattheus went on.
“Of course it would,” said Cindy, as an afternoon breeze blew up. “It’s devastating to be lied to.”
“Shelly didn’t lie to me,” Mattheus’s face grew red.
“She disappeared and never told you,” said Cindy.
“That’s not the same as lying.”
