“What are you talking about?” Olivia felt a chill run up her arms. She suddenly wanted to get up and run as far away as she could. Was Deanne crazy? Was she just a part of Todd’s cruel family, trying to take Olivia down?
Deanne’s eyes narrowed. “I have to be frank with you, Olivia, don’t I?” she said.
“Yes, of course you do,” Olivia barely murmured. It was one thing to be frank, of course, and another thing cruel. Olivia wasn’t sure which one Deanne was being.
“We have to check out everyone who could be involved with Todd’s death,” Deanne continued. “And I need your help.”
“You have my help,” said Olivia, spellbound. “Todd has my help. I’m here to help him.”
Deanne seemed glad to hear that. “Todd cared about you, for sure,” she went on, “I’m not minimizing that. But you weren’t the only one. There were others in Todd’s life. Todd and Mina were still dating when he died. He saw her every time he came down to Key West.”
“I don’t believe you,” Olivia cried out, sharp tears suddenly stinging her eyes.
“I’m sorry, but that’s the way he was.” Deanne was unmovable. “If anyone was going to get engaged to Todd, it should have been Mina, not you. Every single person is saying that.”
“Why should I believe you?” Olivia flung her head back, determined to hold her ground.
“Because we need all the help we can get in finding the truth.” Deanne’s eyes were now flashing.
Olivia felt as though the ground were falling out beneath her. “You think Mina killed Todd?” she asked, her heart pounding.
“Unlikely, but possible,” said Deanne. “Face it, it’s extremely odd that Todd would come down to Key West to get engaged to someone else. That’s cruelty.”
“But he loved me,” Olivia said in a small voice. “He wanted to share his favorite place with me.”
“It’s cruelty!” Deanne insisted. “Who even knows whether or not Mina heard about the upcoming engagement before it happened?”
“Did she say she did?” Olivia tried her best to regain some semblance of calm and clarity.
“No, but it’s a question I’m asking myself and so are the police!” Deanne went on avidly. “The police have spoken to Mina about it, but she has an airtight alibi for the night Todd died. And, except for possible motive, there’s nothing else linking her to his death.”
Olivia was horrified. “Tomas doesn’t have a decent alibi so they’re holding him instead,” she mused.
“Exactly,” said Deanne, staring at Mina’s photo again. “Actually, we’re all also wondering whether Todd told you about Mina before you got engaged.”
“Not a word,” said Olivia in a thin voice, trying to put the pieces together.
“That’s not like him, either,” Deanne mumbled. “Todd definitely had his own strange ways, but usually he told the truth.”
Olivia was getting such a mixed picture of Todd. She was glad to hear that Todd usually told the truth, which meant that he had loved her. But she also wondered if this wasn’t all Deanne’s fantasy. Olivia needed facts and she needed them badly.
“Todd and Mina had been dating for two years?” Olivia asked again.
“Yes, and I tried to tell Mina he’d never marry her, over and over, but she wouldn’t listen.” Deanne threw Olivia a strange look. “I knew Todd would never marry her! Actually, we all knew it. And Todd wasn’t going to marry you, either. Ever!”
“Wrong there.” Now Olivia was outraged. “He definitely was going to marry me,”
she insisted. “We were engaged!” It was enough that she’d lost Todd. She refused to allow Deanne to destroy all her memories of him.
“Your engagement was just an empty gesture,” Deanne said, brushing her moist hair off her face. “I don’t know how you got Todd to propose, though. Nobody does. Now that’s something worth investigating. There were plenty of women who tried over the years, but nothing worked. He always backed out. He had to, had no choice! It was a reflex action he had no control over.”
“Maybe he backed out because he was waiting for me,” Olivia replied in a trembling voice. “It was different with us. Todd proposed because he loved me.”
“It wasn’t different,” Deanne insisted. “You must have frightened him, big time. Did you threaten him, tell him you were leaving?”
“I’ve heard enough of this junk.” Olivia was furious.
“You must have frightened him.” Deanne’s eyes grew narrow. “You must have bullied him into giving you the ring. Everyone knows that you’re not as innocent as you seem!”
Olivia lurched away from Deanne. “Go to hell,” she shot back at her. “You lured me down here under false pretenses! Who’s the one who’s not so innocent?”
“What false pretenses?” Deanne was stung. “I told you I wanted to talk to you about Todd.”
“You don’t want to talk to me, you want to crush me!” Olivia yelled back. “You’re all jealous of me and you hate me.”
“I don’t hate anybody,” Deanne insisted.
“You can’t stand that Todd finally had a real love, someone he wanted to be with forever.”
“How dare you?” Deanne began trembling then. “Who are you anyway? A stray person, an intruder!”
“No, I’m not an intruder.” Olivia felt a fierce strength surging through her. “I’m the woman your brother loved and decided to marry. You’re the one who refuses to accept it. You’re the one who’s rejecting me and also him.”
Deanne became frozen and silent as Olivia spoke. “I never rejected Todd and I never will,” she replied. “I spent my entire life being good to him.”
“But if you do this to me, you’re rejecting Todd also,” Olivia insisted. “I’m the woman he chose!”
“He didn’t choose you.” Deanne could not bear it.
“Of course he did,” Olivia insisted. “I wouldn’t be here now if he hadn’t. Look at me, Deanne.”
Deanne’s eyes fluttered uneasily as Olivia spoke. She could not meet her glance.
“Listen,” Deanne said finally, “I don’t want to hurt you. We just both have to look the truth in the eye. We have to do it for Todd’s sake. He’s gone, he needs us. He deserves it, doesn’t he?”
At that moment Olivia wasn’t at all sure what Todd deserved, or his crazed family.
“Todd was a ladies’ man, he couldn’t help himself,” Deanne went on fervently. “You can ask anyone, everyone knew. He always had a few girlfriends at the same time. He needed it, couldn’t bear the thought of being left alone, with no one waiting in the wings. The idea of that made him nuts.”
Olivia had no idea who the person was that Deanne had been describing. It certainly wasn’t the man she’d known and loved. “That’s not the man I know.” Olivia could barely get the words out.
“But that’s the man he was,” Deanne shot back. “No one thought Todd could ever willingly get engaged or marry. My family especially does not believe it. And whether you actually got engaged or not, believe me, Todd would never have walked you down the aisle.”
“Oh yes he would have!” Olivia was beside herself. How dare this woman try to rip her dreams to shreds?
“Never!” Deanne’s voice became garbled. “The relationship could not have ended well.” Deanne’s eyes grew wide then and filled with pain. “And it didn’t, did it?”
Olivia knew she had to gather herself and she stood to leave. The rest of Todd’s family was nasty and crazy, why should Deanne be any different? Olivia understood now why Todd refused to include them in Todd and Olivia’s relationship.
Deanne grabbed her wrist. “Here,” she said, handing her a piece of paper. “It’s Mina’s number.”
Olivia was horrified. “And what do you want me to do with this?” she asked.
“Call her,” Deanne demanded.
Why would I ever do that?” Olivia asked.
“Because she won’t talk to me. To any of us,” Deanne said. “We need to know the truth. And maybe she’ll talk to you.”
Olivia turned and shook her arm free and walked quickly out of the villa.
Deanne followed her.
“Are you devastated?” Deanne called out behind her.
“About what?” Olivia asked, not slowing down.
“Are you devastated to find out that he was still seeing Mina when he was with you?”
Olivia kept walking. Was Deanne getting some weird thrill out of this? She didn’t want to give Deanne the satisfaction of a response.
Olivia walked out the gate and slammed it behind her, hurrying to get away. The last thing she needed now was to run into someone else from Todd’s family. She’d had enough of them all for a lifetime.
Olivia felt the number in her hand burn like a living thing.
Mina. It hurt too much.
When she got down the block, Olivia curled herself up in a ball and wept.