“I would have taken it seriously,” Marco said, then shrugged. “But I might have laughed a little later.”
Max nodded.
“Did she ever mention it again?” I asked. “From what I’ve learned about her, I suspect she wouldn’t take rejection well.”
“The next time I saw her she pretended like it had never happened,” Max said with a faraway look. “Now that I think about it, that was a week or so before she left town.” He grimaced. “Or was murdered, as the case may be.”
“Who did she come to the tavern with that last time?” I asked.
His mouth twisted to one side. “Dick Stinnett and Molly’s sister, May. A guy named Kyle and a few more I can’t remember.”
“Were Heather and Dick seeing each other?” I asked. “I keep hearing his name in connection with hers.”
He snorted. “No, Dick had it bad for May, only she didn’t seem to notice him until after Heather left. There was a guy who’d occasionally come in with them, and Heather would be hangin’ on his every word, but I don’t know who he was.”
“Could he have been from Ewing?” Marco asked.
“Yeah,” Max said. “Likely not from Drum.”
Marco shot me a glance, confirming he also thought it could be our guy.
The back door banged shut, and Molly called out cheerfully, “Hey, everybody! Good morning!”
“Thanks, Max,” I said as I stopped the recorder and closed my notebook. “This was actually helpful.”
He nodded. “Glad to help. I hope you find the bastard who killed her.”
“Yeah,” I said as I glanced over at Molly in the doorway. “Me too.”
Marco leaned closer and whispered, “Do you want to talk to her alone or with me?”
I gave it a moment’s thought. “I think alone might work better. I’ll introduce it with small talk.”
He nodded. “In that case, I figure I’ll work behind the bar with Max.”
Which reminded me I wasn’t done talking to my boss. “Max, I’m going to need to take off for a few hours this afternoon. I’d like to leave around one thirty, and I’ll try to be back at five for the dinner shift.”
He simply nodded, not that I’d expected anything different. He knew what I was doing with my time.
“One more thing,” I said, holding his gaze. “I might get an important phone call this afternoon, and if it comes in, I’m going to need to drop everything and take it. No one can know anything about it.”
“Okay.” I knew he wanted to ask questions, but I wanted him to maintain plausible deniability. The less he knew, the better.
I got up and headed toward Molly.
“Molly, I hear you did really well yesterday.”
She beamed. “Thanks. Even Ruth didn’t seem to mind me so much.” But she said her name like it had a bad taste.
“Did Max tell you that we have a new waitress starting today? She’ll only be working the lunch shift with us.”
“No, but that’s great. We could sure use the help.”
We only had ten minutes left before the tavern opened, so we got busy refilling salt and pepper shakers.
“Say,” I said, trying to appear nonchalant. “Where does your sister May work?”
She gave me a cautious look. “She doesn’t. She stays at home with her two kids.”
“How long has she been married?”
“About five years.”
I was hoping she’d volunteer more information, but it was obvious I was going to need to be more direct.
“Did she marry someone local?”
“He’s from Ewing. She and her husband live in Piedmont.”
Piedmont was about ten miles northeast of Ewing.
“I know why you’re askin’,” she said with a hint of attitude. “This is about Heather Stone.”
“I’m curious,” I admitted. “I’d like to talk to her, if she’s willing.”
“Why?”
“Because I know she was friendly with Heather. I’m trying to find out what happened.”
“Why don’t you ask Wyatt Drummond? I suspect he had something to do with it.”
“I don’t believe he did,” I said. “Which is why I’d like to talk to May.”
She shook her head. “May won’t want nothin’ to do with it. She was only too happy to leave Drum and all the shit that went down here behind her, especially after what happened with Ruth.”
“What happened?” I asked, scared to hear her answer.
“Ruth’s not who you think she is, you know,” she said, her eyes flashing. “She’s no angel.”
“I have no doubt about that,” I countered. “I have no idea what she’s done in the past. But we’ve worked together practically every day since I started five months ago, and she’s a great coworker and a good friend.”
“That might be the person you know now, but it’s not the person my sister knew.”
“And I have no idea what she did to your sister, so unless you give me specifics, I can’t let that cloud my judgment.”
“How about the fact she slept with May’s first husband while they were married?”
Molly had alluded to this a couple of days ago, but I still had trouble accepting that Ruth would sleep with a married man. Especially since she’d held an almost decade-long grudge against Wyatt for kissing Heather while he was still dating Ruth.
“Is there a problem over here?” Max asked, walking over to us.
“Nope,” Molly said in a snippy tone. “We’re hunky-dory.”
Max gave her a dubious glance, then turned to me. “Ginger’s in the back changin’ into a work shirt. I don’t want her to think we’re anything but one big happy family.”
I set the saltshaker I’d just filled on the table. “I’ll go say hi and show her the ropes. Max, can I talk to you for a moment? I forgot to tell you about an incident last night.”
That wasn’t entirely truthful, but I didn’t want Molly to know I intended to grill him about her sister.
“Yeah, sure.” He glanced back and forth between us, as if trying to understand the nature of the problem he had on his hands, and we headed to the back.
“What was that about?” he asked under his breath.
“Molly’s sister.
