She stared at him and blinked. Admittedly, life did go on. But he and Jeremy had just been talking to a murder suspect, and even though he didn’t know it, she was still feeling the effects of the experience at the cemetery and worrying that one of her friends was married to a murderer. “Costume?”
“Yes, costume. The thing you’re supposed to wear when they drive you through town on a horse-drawn float,” Joe said.
“Oh, right. Ginny’s making it for me,” Rowenna told him.
“What happened in Boston?” Brad asked tensely, his impatience with the current conversation obvious.
“He isn’t our man,” Jeremy said.
“The guy wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed,” Joe said wearily. “Quite frankly, he wouldn’t have been capable of pulling off anything as complex as Mary’s abduction, and I doubt he had anything to do with Dinah Green’s death, either.”
Brad looked at the other two men. “I know I’m playing devil’s advocate here—” He stopped and flushed at his own choice of words. “Look, you know I think it was that Damien guy, but even so…sometimes perps act dumb on purpose.”
“Not this guy,” Joe said confidently. “Trust me, he’s a fair amount of brawn and not a hell of a lot of brain.”
“And he had an alibi for Halloween,” Jeremy added.
“Airtight?” Brad asked.
“Sugar-Plum tight,” Joe muttered.
Rowenna looked at Jeremy, who explained, “He used a credit card to buy liquor for a hooker named Sugar Plum, and the timing clears him in Mary’s disappearance. The Boston cops checked it all out.”
“So it was a waste of time,” Brad said. “And Mary is still out there somewhere.”
“It’s never a waste of time to eliminate a suspect,” Joe said.
Rowenna was eager to finish the meal and get a chance to talk to Jeremy alone, so she could tell him about Adam. “Let’s order, shall we?”
The calamari arrived, and they put in their entrée orders.
When the waiter had gone, Jeremy leaned toward Brad and said, “Richardson was with Dinah Green at the bar, and then he says he left. He claims he offered to walk her to her car—which was parked by the cemetery—but she said she wanted to stay and talk to someone she had met earlier in the day.”
Brad shook his head. “So…?”
“So Hugh went into the computer and pulled up all his receipts for that night so we can get at least a partial idea of who was there,” Jeremy went on.
“It was Damien,” Brad said stubbornly.
“Could be,” Joe agreed. “But whoever the hell he really is—because I can pretty much guarantee you his real name isn’t Damien—he disappeared into thin air…or back into his own skin, his own life. We have to track him down.”
Brad looked glum. “He might not even have been the one who paid the bill. Or maybe he paid cash. If Dinah Green and Mary were even abducted by the same man.”
“It’s something to start with, at least,” Jeremy said. “Brad, one way or another, we’ll track down everyone in the bar that night, I promise you. And Zach is coming up to help.”
“Great. He can look for a needle in a haystack, too,” Brad said.
Joe cleared his throat. “Quit bitching and be glad you have friends with resources the cops can’t afford—like extra manpower. Every qualified person working this case is something you should be grateful for.”
Rowenna quickly lowered her head, hiding a smile, surprised that Joe had so quickly leaped to Jeremy’s defense.
When she looked up again, Brad’s face was flushed.
“You don’t understand,” he said. “You don’t know what it’s like to love someone and be desperately afraid that they’re going to turn up dead.”
“Yes, I do,” Joe said harshly, staring at Brad, who had the grace to look abashed.
Rowenna wondered if he knew that Jonathan Brentwood had been killed in the service or if he had just gathered from Joe’s speech that there was a story to be told.
“What time is Zach coming?” she asked Jeremy, trying to move past the awkward moment.
“Not till late this afternoon. It was the earliest flight he could get.”
“So what’s your plan now?” she asked him.
“Are you thinking of doing some more research this afternoon?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said slowly. An idea had occurred to her; it had been forming since she had been at Eve’s shop, looking at Adam’s book, and she was interested in following up her theory. But she still needed to talk to Jeremy—alone—before dusk came and Adam and Eve closed up for the night.
“I’m assigning two officers to follow up on the list Jeremy got from Hugh. They’ll find out exactly who was in the bar that night, and who talked to Dinah before she left,” Joe said.
“I’m going to take a drive,” Jeremy said.
“A drive?” she asked, surprised.
He shrugged. “I want to go see if there’s anything out where Ginny saw those lights,” he explained.
“She’s…getting old. Slipping a bit,” Joe warned Jeremy.
“I know. Rowenna told me. But I still want to see what’s out there.” He turned to Rowenna. “I’ll come get you at the museum before dusk. I promise.”