Why does Hick resent Franklin's treatment of Missy in the novel, White Houses?

Hick finds Franklin's treatment of Missy to be callous and cruel. Franklin merely sent a statement to be read at Missy's funeral, he made no effort to visit Missy after her stroke despite the fact that she asked for him continuously, and he didn't attend her funeral. Hick is appalled at Franklin's treatment of his former lover, and the statement that makes no reference to their personal relationship, praising only her "Faithful and painstaking...devotion to duty" (116). This causes Hick to surmise that Franklin is partially responsible for Missy's death. "He ate her," she tells Eleanor, "For twenty years. Those were the bones" (116).