“I’ve been in love with him ever since I was fourteen. That’s nine years. And don’t laugh.”
Shayne said, “I’m not laughing, Ann.” He took a sip of brandy and waited for her to continue.
“Most people do. They started laughing nine years ago when I first started chasing after him. Maybe it was a silly girl crush in the beginning, but it turned into love, as soon as I was old enough to know what love really is.”
“Did Ralph reciprocate?”
“He was beginning to. I was wearing him down, all right. Psychologists say that any normal person will respond to adoration. Ralph was always sweet to me. I’d see him on vacations when he was away at college, and later when he came back to Wilmington to work there. We weren’t actually engaged,” she went on with the appearance of striving to be honest and objective, “but he was coming to it. Then he met Nora, and everything was ruined.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A little more than a year.” Ann sighed and took a drink of black coffee laced with cognac. “Everything was different after that. Ralph changed completely. I don’t know how she managed it.” Her hand trembled as she set the cup down, splashing the contents into the saucer. “She just flung her sex in his face, I guess. He was always so shy and sweet. She just overwhelmed him.” Ann paused to puff on her cigarette. She made a distasteful grimace, and mashed it out. “Nora had had enough experience, God knows, and knew how to get a man she wanted. And she decided she wanted Ralph.”
Shayne was silent for a moment, thinking hard. “And you say Nora had been having an affair with your father prior to this?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t Ralph mind?”