I eyed him. “Joey, how are you doing? You’ve been on my mind. I know losing Hailey had to be a terrible loss for you.”
He turned to me and frowned. “I still can’t get over it. She’s gone. I keep thinking I’m going to pick up the phone and call her, but then I remember she’s not here anymore.”
“It has to be incredibly hard,” Christy said, walking in a small circle near where I was still seated.
He nodded. “I never thought I would have to live through something like this. When you’re young, you don’t think about things like that.”
“That’s the truth,” I said sympathetically. But how broken up was he? He had already asked another girl out and given her similar barrettes to the ones he had given his deceased girlfriend. “You know what was odd?”
He looked at me and shook his head. “What’s odd?”
“When Hailey’s body was found, there was this cute little white plastic barrette found nearby. And then the matching barrette was found a week later. At first, we thought they probably belonged to a child who played on the playground, but then we realize that these were vintage barrettes and most kids today wouldn’t be wearing a pair like that. Isn’t that odd?”
He stared at me and swallowed. “Vintage barrettes?”
I nodded. “And then what’s even odder, is Hailey’s best friend, Shayna Gates, came to work for us at the candy store today and she was wearing a similar pair. But hers were yellow ducks, and Hailey’s were white poodles. They look like they probably belonged to the same set.”
He swallowed again and went pale. “I gave those barrettes to Hailey. I thought they were cute when I saw them on an auction site. And I gave a pair to Shayna, too.” He shrugged. “Hailey always liked vintage things, and I intended to give the yellow ones to her, but she died before they came in the mail. What else was I going to do with them?”
“You gave your girlfriend’s barrettes to another girl? Her best friend?” Christy asked. “And then you asked her out?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess I did. Like I said, what else was I going to do with them. Shayna’s just a friend. It wasn’t a date date. Just dinner.” He shrugged again.
“Did you also kill your girlfriend?” Christy asked. “Did you kill her so you could be with her best friend?”
I stared at Christy, but she ignored me.
“Are you out of your mind? I would never kill her.” His hands clenched into fists and his eyes went wide. “You know who killed her? It was Betty Mays. She couldn’t stand Hailey. I told Hailey to quit her job and stay away from her, but she wouldn’t do it. Or maybe it was her college professor. That guy is creepy. I don’t know who did it, but I know I didn’t.”
“Why should we believe you?” Christy asked.
“I guess you don’t have to believe me, but just because we argued once in a while doesn’t mean that I would kill her. Why would I? I don’t have a reason to kill her.”
“Because you thought she was fooling around with her professor,” I reminded him. “And he’s some old guy, and it hurt your pride to know she was doing that.”
His eyes went big, and he shook his head. “Look, I don’t really know that she was ever fooling around with her college professor. I just wanted her to stay away from him because he’s creepy. Those parties he had were creepy, too. But I never accused her of having an affair with him, and to my knowledge, she didn’t.”
I sat back in my chair, taking this in. Had we jumped to conclusions when he talked about Frank Gillespie? I’d been sure that he thought Hailey was having an affair with him.
He crossed his arms in front of himself. “Look, the only killer in this town is Betty Mays. She called Hailey and asked her to meet her at the park to look at their booth for the Vendors’ fair Thursday evening. Hailey was annoyed because it was her day off, but she went anyway. I worked late, and I didn’t expect to see her until the next day, but she never called me.”
“You really think Betty did it?” I asked, feeling a bit deflated. A minute ago I had been certain he had killed Hailey.
He shrugged. “Or maybe it was her college professor, like I said. Maybe he was hitting on her, and she refused him, and he killed her. I told that to the detective. He’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?”
I nodded. “Yes, he is.”
“Well, I was here at work the night she died. You can ask my boss. Not that it’s any of your business.”
I glanced at Christy. We’d forgotten to ask if he had an alibi or not.
Christy sat down in the chair and removed the boots, and put her shoes back on. “When these boots go on sale, I’ll be back in to get a pair.”
He snorted and shook his head. “I don’t care if you ever come back into this store again. Did I kill my girlfriend?” He shook his head. “You two are crazy.”
“Oh, don’t be that way. I need these boots,” she said. When she had her shoes on, we hurried to the door.
“Better find them at another store then. You aren’t welcome back here.” He grabbed the box of boots and stomped to the backroom.
“That didn’t go so well,” Christy said when we were outside on the sidewalk.
“You think?” I asked her.
We had just made another mistake. Ethan was going to have a fit if he found out what we’d done.
Chapter Nineteen
We stepped out onto the sidewalk and
