I wasn’t about to answer him, and it occurred to me that Neely Kate was more pissed than I’d realized. Why else would she have told Joe something that was sure to make him ask uncomfortable questions?

“What?” he finally asked, shuffling his feet a little. “Don’t you know who she’s seein’?”

“That’s Neely Kate’s business to tell you, not mine.”

“Why hasn’t she told me before now?”

“You’ll have to ask her that.”

He was silent for several seconds. “I screwed up big time.”

“Bigger than you know,” I said, then crossed my arms. “People have a habit of running out on her, Joe. Her momma, her boyfriends, her stupid husband.”

“I didn’t run out on her, Rose,” he said defensively. “I postponed painting my house.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Do you seriously still see it that way, or are you just tryin’ to find a way to make yourself feel better about all of this?”

He started to say something, then wisely shut his mouth.

“She treasures every moment you spend together, and if you don’t feel the same way, then maybe you should just leave her be before you hurt her again by picking some woman you just started dating over your sister.”

“Is this over Dena?” he asked, starting to get ticked. “Are you jealous of her?”

I stared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Contrition filled his eyes.

I dropped my arms and took a step toward him. “Look,” I said with a sharp edge. “I realize that you’re still gettin’ used to paying for your mistakes, but you need to admit to your screwup and try fixin’ it, not find someone else to blame.”

He sobered. “You’re right.”

I pursed my lips. “Well, that’s a good start.”

He took a second, then said, “Are you two really working to prove Patsy Sue Clydehopper is innocent?”

“Looks like we are.”

His mouth twisted to the side. “I don’t like it, but I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.” When I didn’t say anything, he said, “And you’re workin’ with Kermit Cooper?”

“Of course we are.”

He shook his head with a frown. “I’d still like to know how that arrangement came to pass. You realize he’s the laziest PI in the history of PIs?”

I lifted my eyebrows. “You don’t say.”

He pushed out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “You two are dead set on becoming PIs?”

I almost told him that Neely Kate was the one who was fixated on it, but that would be a half-truth. She’d dragged me into it, sure, but I’d come to realize that I liked it. “Yeah,” I said with a smug grin. “We are. And turns out we’re pretty good at it.” There was something else I needed to ask him about, but I had to keep it casual. “What were you saying about a guy getting killed north of us?”

“A guy was shot right off the country road, a few miles north of you. Looks like he was run off the road and shot trying to crawl away from the accident.”

I covered my mouth with my hand while my stomach roiled. “Who was it?”

“We don’t know yet. He didn’t have any ID on him, but his truck matched the description of a getaway car at a robbery yesterday.”

“What kind of robbery?”

“A pawn shop. Ripper Pawn.”

That place was owned by Hugh and Kip Wagner, and until very recently, Kip Wagner used to run with Buck Reynolds. This had to be related to Marshall’s injury—maybe he’d been injured in the same incident, or maybe the dead man was his friend who’d supposedly fled the county. But while I was relieved James hadn’t been a part of it, there was no getting around the fact that it was a sad situation, and one that might get Neely Kate and me into a boatload of trouble. “It sounds so cold-blooded.”

“It was. But like I said, I doubt it has anything to do with Patsy Sue and Carol Ann.”

“Do you think Patsy killed her cousin?” I asked.

He gave me a wistful look. “Do you remember when we were first together, and you were dead set on proving Bruce Wayne innocent of murder?”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “How could I forget?” We’d been so happy then.

He swallowed, looking sad as he said in a low voice, “And do you remember what I told you when you suggested the murder victim’s bookie might have killed him?”

I blushed at the memory. We’d been naked in bed. And unbeknownst to me at the time, the bookie had been Skeeter Malcolm. “You told me to be careful about making assumptions. Just because something fits the empty spot doesn’t mean it belongs there.”

“That’s right. Too many people are arrested on sloppy police work based on the easy assumption.”

“So you think Patsy’s innocent?” I asked.

“I don’t have enough evidence to make a determination one way or the other, but you two need to be careful lookin’ into Carol Ann’s murder. Patsy’s a loose cannon. You should get another client.” Then he hastily added, “Not that I’m tellin’ either of you what to do.”

Months ago, I would have blasted him for trying to control me, but now I realized he was genuinely worried about me and Neely Kate and wanted us to be safe. Maybe that was because he’d changed too. Back then, he wouldn’t have kindly requested that we be careful. He would have blown up.

“Look at us,” I said with a mischievous grin. “We’re growin’ up.”

He laughed. “It’s about damn time, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.”

“Joe!” Dena shouted from across the street. “I’ve been waiting on you for ten minutes.” Dena stalked across the street, took a good look at me, and her eyes narrowed. “I thought you were goin’ to make peace with Neely Kate, not have a cozy chat with Rose.”

Joe’s eyes flew wide as we both realized how this might look. We stood about a foot and a half apart, deep in conversation.

“Dena,” I said, “it’s not how it looks.”

“And how does it look?” she asked with both hands on her hips.

I shot a panicked look at Joe, terrified of saying the wrong thing and getting him into more trouble. “Dena, I realize things got a little tense yesterday, but I’d really like for us to get along.”

“Things got tense?” she asked with cocked eyebrows. “I’m not sure what you’re talkin’ about, but if you felt some tension, then maybe you need some time away from Joe.”

I shot a stunned look up at Joe, unsure of what to say, and from the look on his face, he was equally at a loss.

“Oh, my stars and garters,” Neely Kate exclaimed from in front of our office. “Will you listen to yourself, Dena? Threatened much?” Then, as though she couldn’t bother to waste another moment on the woman, she turned her back and shut the door. “Come on, Rose. I got the files we need from your desk. Our first client is waiting.” She walked to the passenger side of the truck, her arms loaded with both of our purses and a tote bag.

“I’m sorry, Joe,” I whispered as I passed him, walking toward the truck. When I climbed inside, Neely Kate was fuming, and I was pretty sure that Dena wasn’t the only one she was ticked at.

“Why were you talkin’ to Joe?” she asked once we were on the other side of the square.

I wasn’t going to lie. “We were talkin’ about you. And the guy who was murdered a few miles from us. And Patsy.”

“What about me?”

“I told him he screwed up big time.” I took a breath. “Look, you have every right to be ticked at him, but he’s devastated that he hurt you. You should give him a second chance.”

“He’s already done it three times, and I’ll bet twenty bucks he’ll do it again.” Her voice was tight.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because of how he reacted when Dena attacked you. He didn’t defend you. He just let her blast you for no good reason.”

“We were standin’ close,” I said. “I guess I understand why she jumped to that conclusion.”

“Was something goin’ on?” she asked.

“No! Of course not! We were talking about . . .” I took a breath. “Joe told me he was worried about us workin’ this case, but he didn’t demand we stop, and I thanked him for his concern. Then we laughed at how much we’ve both grown up since we were able to settle things civilly rather than lashing out like we would have done a few months ago. We probably looked relaxed.”

“She’s barely been dating him two weeks, and she’s already jealous of who he talks to. Either she trusts him or she doesn’t, and I’m not falling for any cockamamie stories about trusting him but not the women he’s with.” She shook her head, getting angrier by the second. “Joe’s lettin’ her control him. He’s found himself another Hilary.”

“What? How can you say that?” I asked in shock. “Dena’s nothin’ like Hilary!”

“Hilary tried to run his life. And now Dena’s doin’ the same thing and don’t you deny it,” she said with plenty of attitude. “The next time he has plans with me that don’t suit her, he’ll cancel again. Mark my words.”

I wanted to protest, but I could see she might be right, not that I was happy about it. “I hope you’re wrong.”

“Hmph,” she grunted. “What did he say about the guy who’d been shot?”

“That his truck was run off the road a few miles up the county road from us. He was shot as he was crawling away from the wreckage, murdered in cold blood—”

“Oh my word!”

“I know, but Joe said his truck matched the description of a getaway car used to flee a robbery at Ripper Pawn. Which is owned by Kip Wagner, not James.”

“Did he tell you the guy’s name?”

“He said he didn’t know it, that he didn’t have any ID on him.”

“Do you think it might have been Marshall’s friend?” Neely Kate asked.

“The thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t have much time to look into Marshall. He went to Fenton County High School and was in Future Farmers of America. He got a ribbon for entering a calf into a competition. That’s as far as I got.”

“Not exactly screaming that he’s a criminal.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Joe’s pretty sure it’s not related to Carol Ann’s murder. He also thinks Patsy’s unbalanced.”

“I know she’s unbalanced,” Neely Kate said. “But she’s still innocent.”

“Okay,” I said. “It’s on us to prove it. Did you call her husband yet?”

“Yeah, Calvin says he can see us in his office at 11:34. According to him, she never came home last night.”

“Eleven thirty-four? Why the odd time?”

“I don’t know, but he told me that we couldn’t arrive a minute sooner. He even synchronized our watches.”

“But you don’t have a watch,” I pointed out.

She shot me a grin. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

We got through our two appointments in plenty of time and parked in front of the building of Hebert Manufacturing at 11:30.

“Are we really going to wait out here until 11:34?” I asked.

She shrugged. “That’s what he said. Not a minute sooner.” Then her eyes lit up. “But I think my watch just broke. Let’s go see what happens if we show up early.”

We headed down a hall toward the offices, and when we entered, I was surprised to see a larger room with eight desks, lined with several offices with closed doors. The only person in sight was a woman who looked like she was in her fifties, although from the appearance of her tiny-waisted dress, she hadn’t let herself go. The frown on her face made it clear she wasn’t happy to see us. The nameplate on her desk read, June Goldman, Secretary, and it was placed square in front of the office that said, Calvin Clydehopper, Executive Vice President.

The clock on the wall read 11:32.

“There’s two of you?” she asked in dismay.

I glanced at Neely Kate, then back at her. “Is that a problem?”

“How can you be so brazen?” she demanded.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” I said. “We have an 11:34 appointment, ma’am.”

She became even more outraged. “Mr. Clydehopper is currently goin’ through a personal tragedy. Shame on you girls for tryin’ to take advantage of that.”

Neely Kate stared at her in disbelief. “How are we takin’ advantage of him when we have an appointment?”

“Then why don’t I see it on the books?” the older woman asked.

“I don’t know,” Neely Kate said. “Why don’t you ask Calvin since he’s the one who made the appointment?”

“I make all the appointments now,” she said. “Patsy insists they come through me, and I didn’t put you in the books, so run along and find some other man to dally with.” Then she made a shooing motion.

I realized she thought we were there to fool around with Calvin in his office. After the wave of nausea passed, I plastered on what I hoped was an official-looking expression and lowered my voice. “Ma’am. I’m Rose Gardner, and this is Neely Kate Rivers. Patsy hired us to help find out who killed her cousin.”

Her outrage faded slightly. “I thought the sheriff’s department was looking into it.”

“And they are,” I said in my best reassuring tone, “but the more hands on deck, the better, right?”

Neely Kate leaned forward and said in a subdued tone, “So as you can see, it’s very important we speak to Mr. Clydehopper.”

Her eyes grew to the size of silver dollars. “You think he did it?”

“We’re just askin’ routine questions, ma’am,” Neely Kate said in a tone that made her sound like someone on a cop show.

“In fact, can we ask you a few questions first?” I asked.

Her hand lifted to her chest. “Me?”

“Yeah,” I said, making my tone breezier. “When we walked in, you thought we were up to no good with Calvin. Why?”

“Well . . . ,” she said, looking flustered. “Everyone else is gone, for one thing.”

“Where are they?” Neely Kate asked.

“It’s Monday. They’re at the weekly staff meeting.”

“Why aren’t you there?” I asked.

“I used to go, but Patsy asked me to stay in the office whenever Calvin’s in.”

“And screen who has access to him?” I asked.

Her face flushed. “He just can’t help himself.”

“So you treat him like a three-year-old at daycare?” Neely Kate asked in disbelief.

I shot her a dark look, but she ignored me.

My best friend put a hand on her hip. “Honey, I know a thing or two about men, and here’s one thing I know—if they want to cheat, they’re going to cheat. You standin’ guard isn’t gonna stop him.”

A hard look filled the woman’s eyes. “Like I said, I don’t see your name on the books. No appointment, no access.” She’d clearly decided our detective story was a ruse. Did women actually lie to get access to Calvin?

Calvin’s office was only six feet behind her, and I considered storming past her and barging in, but we needed to handle this differently than we would have in the past. We were professionals now.

Apparently Neely Kate had other ideas. “Calvin Clydehopper!” she shouted. “You get your keister out here right now!”

Seconds later, his office door burst open, and he stood in the doorway with wild eyes. “What?”

June Goldman looked like she wanted to wring our necks. “It looks like your 11:34 appointment is here.”

He blinked rapidly, his gaze darting from his secretary to us before returning to his office. “Come in.”

He turned around to go back inside, leaving us to follow.

“Keep the door open,” June barked.

“You’re not the boss of me, June!” Calvin shouted. “I can shut my office door if I want to!” Since I was the last one to enter the room, he shot me a challenging look. “Shut the door.”

“Don’t you dare!” June shouted.

I was more scared of June than Calvin, but we needed answers, so I didn’t want to piss him off. “How about I split the difference and leave it halfway open?”

“A quarter,” Calvin grunted as he sat in the chair behind his desk.

I did as he asked, relieved that June didn’t protest, but then the next thing I knew, she burst in with a stenographer’s notebook and a pen, her reading glasses perched on the end of her nose.

“I’ll just take a few notes.”

Calvin looked fit to be tied, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Calvin,” I said, doing a poor job of hiding my exasperation, “when was the last time you saw Patsy Sue?”

“After the picnic,” he said, shuffling a stack of papers on his desk, clearly flustered. Then he gave Neely Kate a pointed look. “Why do I have to tell all y’all this when I already told the sheriff deputy?”

“Because,” Neely Kate said, “like I told you on the phone, we’re workin’ for Patsy.”

“Why on earth would Patsy hire y’all to find her cousin’s killer? She hated Carol Ann, and I mean hated with a capital ‘H.’”

I frowned. This wasn’t exactly helping Patsy’s case.

Neely Kate shifted her weight. “By chance, did you happen to mention that to the sheriff’s deputy?”

“I told him they didn’t get along, but that was no secret. Anybody who didn’t know must have figured it out at the picnic yesterday. But I didn’t tell the cops that she hated her. I’m no fool. I know my wife’s the prime suspect.”

Seemed like an intelligent man would realize why a “prime suspect” would hire a pair of detectives to clear her name, but I doubted he’d thank me for saying so.

“Do you think she did it?” Neely Kate asked.

He leaned back in his chair and pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his forehead. “Patsy Sue’s capable of a great many things, but cold-blooded murder’s not one of them.” He tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket.

“You said you saw Patsy after the picnic,” I said. “I take it you both went home?”

“Yeah. We were covered in pies and fried chicken. We needed to shower and change, but Patsy was none too happy with the idea of messing up Baby Spice. She didn’t want grease and pie filling on the leather seats, so we called an Uber.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Henryetta has Uber?”

Neely Kate leaned closer to me and said as an aside, “Officer Ernie drives it on his off days to earn some extra money.”

“But Officer Ernie was on duty,” I said, casting a glance at her. “He was in the thick of it.”

“Literally, from the sounds of it,” Neely Kate added.

“Yeah, he was,” Calvin said. “He needed to change too, so he dropped us off before he went home.”

“Wait,” I said, holding up a hand. “You said you took an Uber. Did he charge you for the ride?”

“Yeah, but he gave us a discount on account it was in the back of his police car and not his Trans Am.”

I was pretty doggone sure that was against the law, but I’d figure out what to do with that piece of information later. “Okay, so Ernie took you home and then what?”

“Patsy was a-hollerin’ the whole way home. Ernie asked her to keep it down, but she wasn’t havin’ any of that and told him off too.”

I almost felt sorry for the officer. The Clydehoppers lived on the edge of town. He’d probably spent a good fifteen minutes in the car with them.

“Then what happened?” Neely Kate asked.

“We fought over who got to take the first shower, and Patsy won. Again.”

“I know for a fact that you have two showers in your house, Calvin,” Neely Kate said with a glare. “You could have taken one downstairs.”

I shot a glance to Neely Kate, wondering how she knew about this other shower and its location, but shook my head. Who was I to question her mystical powers?

“You said she won again,” I said. “Does she usually win?”

He pointed to his secretary. “Exhibit A. Patsy hired her to guard my office.”

I wondered what kind of pull Patsy Sue had that she could influence the hiring decisions of a company neither she nor her husband owned. “So Patsy took the shower first and you waited,” I said. “Then you took one after her.”

“Yeah,” he said with a sheepish look, staring down at his desk. He fiddled with the corner of a stack of papers.

“You called Carol Ann while Patsy was in the shower,” Neely Kate said in an accusatory tone. “And Patsy caught you.”

His gaze jerked up. “I had to make sure she was okay.”

“And was she?” I asked, trying to soften my question.

“She was upset, of course. Patsy has a way of gettin’ under her skin.”

“And smashin’ pie all over the outside of it,” Neely Kate said under her breath as she scribbled in her notebook.

Calvin looked properly chastised, but Neely Kate looked like she had a bone to pick, and we wouldn’t get in his good graces if she carried on accusing him of cheating on his wife.

“Neely Kate, why don’t you go outside to ask June some questions while I talk to Calvin about his afternoon with Patsy.”

Her mouth gaped as she jerked her head to face me, but then she cast a quick glance at Calvin, who already looked pink-cheeked and irritated. Understanding filled her eyes. “Yeah. That’s a good idea. Let’s go back to your desk, June.”

“I’m not leavin’ him alone with this woman.”

I could understand her distrust of Calvin—obviously he’d used his office for all his rendezvous—but now she was besmirching my character. “The only interest I have in Calvin Clydehopper is what he knows about Patsy.” Then I softened my tone. “June, if you’re acting like Calvin’s guard dog, then you obviously care about Patsy, right?”

“I had no idea she was a suspect.”

“We want to help clear her name. That’s all. If you let us do our jobs, we’ll get to the bottom of this a whole lot sooner.”

She nodded and dabbed the corner of her eye with a wadded tissue she pulled from her pocket. “Okay.”

I gave her a warm smile. “Good. Now you two go get started.”

June walked out first with Neely Kate following behind. She cast an apologetic glance at me as she shut the door.

I sat down in the chair in front of Calvin’s desk. “Calvin, I have no idea what kind of relationship you have with your wife. Honestly, it’s none of my business, but there are certain things I need to know to help Patsy.”

He cast a glance at the door. “I don’t want this gettin’ all over town.”

“I promise we won’t take what we learn from you and gossip about it.”

He watched me for a moment as though waiting for some cartoonish confirmation that I was lying. After a few seconds, he nodded and swallowed. “If it will help Patsy . . .”

I gave him a smile of encouragement.

“Patsy and I have never had a . . . traditional marriage.”

“How so?” I asked, cringing. I hated being intrusive, but I suspected these were things I needed to know.

“We used to have an open relationship. Patsy knows I like a little variety and she used to tolerate it. In fact, she used to go to Little Rock and seek out a few relationships of her own. But she’s become less tolerant.”

“Hence June,” I said.

“Exactly.” He looked up at me with pleading eyes. “Carol Ann didn’t mean anything to me.”

“But you slept with her anyway?” I asked, working hard to keep the accusation out of my voice.

He looked down at his desk and nodded. “She was . . . fun.”

“When did Patsy find out?”

“Yesterday when Carol Ann sent her two photos of us.”

“She sent them after you got home from the picnic?” I asked.

“Yeah. My phone call only riled her up. She said she wanted the whole world to know about us. The next thing I knew, she’d sent Patsy those photos.”

“What time was that?” I asked.

“About three.”

That didn’t sound good, especially since Patsy hadn’t called me until after seven. That was four hours unaccounted for. “Carol Ann checked into the motel on Saturday night. Did you know that?”

His cheeks turned pinker as he nodded. “I went to see her Saturday night. That’s when she got the photos.”

Oh crap. “And something in the photos told Patsy they’d been taken recently.”

“Yeah. She recognized my . . .” He coughed. “Tie.”

“How did she—oh . . .” I felt my cheeks flush. But this was no time for modesty. I might have just figured out who’d supplied the murder weapon. “What did the tie look like?”

His head jerked up and anger filled his eyes. “What difference does it make?”

“Humor me,” I said with a soft smile. I didn’t want to tell him the real reason. As far as I knew, the sheriff’s department hadn’t released the cause of death. “I want to verify with Patsy Sue that’s what she saw. Just dottin’ the i’s and crossin’ the t’s.”

He cleared his throat. “It was blue. With white whales on it.”

This case had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.