"She wouldn't have minded his retaining his anonymity. Annie acknowledged his need to do so by her suicide. But I'm sure she was pleased he abided by her wishes and didn't betray her life to her family."
"Well, at least her secret is still intact, even if it's now being preserved by Claire for all the wrong reasons."
"Do you think the reverend loved her? As strongly as she loved him?"
"Who knows? I'd guess he cared for her, in his own way. But beyond that, I don't have much sympathy for him or what he did."
"I'd like to believe he truly loved her. It makes the story much nicer."
"Cynthia, you are a confirmed romantic. You're letting this saintly man of the cloth off a bit easy, aren't you? He was a married minister, preaching the good book on Sunday and boffing a hooker a couple of nights a week! He probably had a charge card up and down Second Street!"
"Nonsense! It's not as if he visited the cribs and houses, looking for prostitutes!" she said sternly. "He simply fell in love after he met her, while doing God's work."
"Okay, let me get this straight," Dean said. "You're saying it's sinful if you go to a whore house, but take-out service is acceptable?"
"I'm not condoning what he did, but I'm not completely condemning it either! Only God judges."
"Rev. Martin was one of God's employees. He, if anyone, should have known better. Annie's death was a direct result of him and his actions."
"I don't care. It's a beautiful story. She really loved him. He gave her a diamond, didn't he?"
Dean wanted to add the cheapskate didn't even buy it-he swiped it from a dead hooker. But instead, her told Cynthia the story of the message Annie scratched on her windowpane.
"'So in love, says everyone.' That's beautiful, isn't it?" she said wistfully.
"Wasn't everyone a bit of an exaggeration?"
Cynthia ignored him. "If it was Bird Song where Annie lived, perhaps the scratched window pane is still here!"
"That's more of a stretch than trying to fit Gladys Turnbull in Annie's white dress. Even if it was Bird Song where she stayed, the place must have been altered a dozen times in the last century."
"Well," Cynthia said, "perhaps her ghost survived. You said Effie claimed she saw it."
Dean smiled. "Do you believe in ghosts?" he asked.
She thought a moment before answering. "Yes and no. I don't believe in white-sheeted spirits that scare little boys or drag chains around or only come out in cemeteries on Halloween."
"So what's the 'yes' part?" he asked.