“What?”
I turned around. Penny Ramsey had found a cocktail table by herself. She sipped from a glass of white wine in front of her, and she primped her hair and smiled nervously as the men in the bar whistled at the display of her cleavage. But unbeknownst to Penny, Ruby had spotted her, too. Like the black clouds of a storm front coming, Ruby stalked toward Penny across the 126, and silence fell over the bar, table by table, as Ajax’s widow zeroed in on Ajax’s mistress.
Penny didn’t notice Ruby until the two women were eye to eye. By then, it was too late to leave. When Penny tried to back away, Ruby grabbed her wrist and held it while Penny struggled. Ruby twisted the chain of Penny’s necklace around one of her fingers.
“He gave this to you?” she asked, tightening the necklace like a knot around Penny’s throat.
“That’s none of your business,” she retorted. “Let go of me.”
“You were sleeping with my husband. That makes it my business.”
“He didn’t love you anymore.”
“And you think he loved you? You’re a fool.”
“He did love me. He told me. You’re just jealous.”
“Jealous of a nothing little wallflower like you? The only thing that makes me jealous is this necklace. I want it, and you’re going to give it to me.”
Ruby bunched her fist together and yanked the necklace off Penny’s neck. Penny tried to grab it from her, but Ruby held it out of her reach, letting the chain dangle from her hand.
“Give that back,” Penny snapped.
“If my husband bought it, then it’s mine. Now be a good tramp and go away.”
“Give it back!”
“I said, stuff your boobs back in your coat and get the hell out of here.”
“No, I won’t. I want my necklace.”
“It’s mine now, so you can just go. Understand?”
Penny leaned into Ruby’s face as she swiped at the necklace again. “Ajax said it was over between the two of you. He was going to leave you.”
Ruby growled from deep in her chest, an animal cry of rage. “You. Little. Liar!”
Her face flushed deep red, practically matching the fire of her hair. With a scream, she flung the necklace into the crowd. Then she grabbed Penny’s wineglass and smashed it down on the table, making jagged edges like teeth. With a swish of her arm, she scored Penny’s cheek with the broken glass, cutting deep, bloody gashes into her skin.
“See how many men you get with that face, you home-wrecking bitch,” Ruby sneered.
Penny stared in silent shock as blood flooded onto her hands.
Then, with a wild scream, she toppled the table, and the two women attacked each other.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Why are you talking to me?” Penny shouted at us in the sheriff’s office. “You should be talking to her! She’s the one who started it. She’s the one who did this. Look at me! I mean, look at me!”
Penny touched the gauze pad covering the stitches on her face and began to sob. Darrell and I waited before we tried to say anything more. Despite the late hour, the office buzzed with activity behind us. We’d had to wake up Jerry, who wasn’t happy about the fight, and the sheriff’s wife had gone to Ruby’s house to pick up her kids from the babysitter. Ruby herself was in a holding cell in the basement.
“We are talking to her,” Darrell said quietly. “She’s under arrest.”
“Good!”
“We’ll charge her for the assault on you,” Darrell added. “If that’s what you want.”
Penny looked up from the box of tissues we’d given her. “If that’s what I want? Of course that’s what I want!”
“I thought we might be able to deal with this some other way.”
“Look what she did to me!” Penny screamed again. “The doctor says there could be nerve damage. I’ll have huge scars!”
“I understand. What Ruby did to you was awful. But Ruby’s a mom with three kids, Penny. Ajax was just killed, so she’s on her own to take care of those kids now. And you need to remember—”
I knew he was going to add: You were sleeping with her husband.
But he held back from saying that. He didn’t need to. I watched Penny bite her lip and finish the sentence in her head. Her hands were folded in front of her on the table, and she rubbed her thumbs nervously together.
“Just think about it,” Darrell added. “Okay?”
Penny shrugged but didn’t answer.
“We’d also like to talk to you about Ajax,” I interjected.
“What about him?”
“Given your relationship, you might be able to help us figure out what happened to him.”
“I have no idea. I can’t believe he’s dead.”
“When did you start seeing him?”
Penny sniffled. “About six months ago. It was right after Ms. Svitak came to town to take over the case. I thought I was going to lose my job, but she said she wanted people with history working on the lawsuit. So she kept me on. I decided to take a night out to celebrate, and I went to the 126. That’s where I bumped into Ajax.”
“Did you talk to him, or did he talk to you?”
“He saw me and came over to the bar.” She shook her head with awe. “I mean, he was so handsome. I thought that the first time I met him, but I didn’t think he’d ever be interested in me. But we talked, and we had a few drinks, and then he took me back to my motel. Honestly, I figured that would be the end, you know, a one-night stand. I really didn’t care. But he called and said he wanted to see me again. We began to meet up whenever we could.”
“Did it bother you that he was married?”
“That was between him and Ruby, not me. Plus, I was all by myself in this place. I liked having somebody to be with.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Thursday. We had drinks together at the 126.”
“Wasn’t Ajax concerned about people seeing you together?”
“We pretended it was an accident that we sat next to each other at the bar. I mean, I’m sure people knew, but we played it cool. Afterward, I met him at his house. Ruby was away with the kids, so we were able to stay there and use his bed. I liked that. I stayed with him all night.”
“What time did you leave?”
“About seven in the morning. He had to go to work, and so did I. That was the last time I saw him.”
Darrell leaned forward with a curious expression. “Did you see him on Friday night? Or on Saturday?”
Penny’s brow wrinkled unhappily. “No. He had to work.”
Darrell shook his head. “He didn’t. He wasn’t on the schedule this weekend.”
“Well, that’s what he told me.”
“Even if he was working, why wouldn’t you have seen him after his shift was done?” I asked.
“I called, but he wasn’t home.”
“When did you call?”
“Both nights. Friday and Saturday. There was no answer.”
“Did that concern you?”
“No. I figured he had to work late. And it’s not like I could leave a message or anything. He told me never to do that, in case Ruby picked it up.”
“Did you go to his house?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why not? Did you think you’d find him with somebody else?”
“There was no one else. He loved me.”
I could see her trying to convince herself. “Penny, Ajax is dead. You need to tell us the truth. You thought he wasn’t alone, right? He wasn’t answering the phone, because he had somebody else with him.”
She lowered her eyes and gave the smallest of nods. “Sometimes, even when I knew Ruby wasn’t around, he didn’t call me. So I wondered.”