Page 65 of Death on Gallows Path

“Uh-huh. Interesting about Willow’s connection to Oscar. That’s something to pursue.”

“Agreed. But while we’re here, we have things to follow up on. New areas of the elephant. Like what I said about the Swindells going out to dinner. And what you said about talking to people who interacted with them, observed them — especially observed Damon.”

And where would they go to dinner? The Tavern.

“Clara, you are brilliant.”

She grinned. “We have to wait a little longer for customers to leave.”

“Perfect.”

We rocked more.

After looking around, presumably to be sure we were alone, Clara said, “I was thinking about suspects. The spouse, of course.”

“Question would be why now.”

“Thought your question was why here? — that’s what you said at Gallows Path.”

“Both — why there and why now.”

“Well, if we interpreted the interaction between Damon and Zoley right, along with what Berrie said—”

I made a sound.

“I know,” Clara said. “But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t hear things that would add up to a jealous wife.”

“But does that give Pammy a motive now? Because Berrie said it had been going on for a while. Not to mention you spotting a likely new woman.”

“The new woman was the tipping point?” she proposed.

“She was okay with her husband messing around with her best friend, but not a new woman?”

“All right, all right. But if Zoley’s been replaced — woman scorned? Plus, the bruise on Zoley’s cheek. If that came from Bryon . . . Say he just found out.”

“Kind of slow on the uptake, if we’re relying on Berrie saying it had been going on for a while.”

“Mmm. Ruby, too.” She agreed, then hedged. “But some husbands are slow on the uptake and Bryon didn’t seem like the jealous kind. Or, really, the kind who noticed his wife a lot.”

She stopped rocking.

“What if Damon hit her? If she’s after him about the new woman — which would fit with him blowing her off at that first class — I could see him reacting that way.” She interrupted herself to ask, “Why are you shaking your head?”

“I’m not saying no, but there’s something wonky with the timing.”

I recapped what I’d learned about bruises, then followed up with Kit’s tutorial on concealing them with stage — and presumably regular — makeup.

“For her to need as much makeup to try to cover a bruise as she had on Thursday night,” I finished, “she would have had to acquire the bruise two to five days earlier, maybe stretch it to six. And the bruise starting earlier might help explain why she had so much less makeup on yesterday, yet no sign of a bruise.”

“But she had no bruise at the first class, two days before the one when she had on gobs of makeup,” Clara said.

“Exactly. There’s—”

Clara jumped up from her rocker as a gray-haired couple came out of the front door and started for the stairs. “The last customers. C’mon, before they lock the door.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

No one was at the host’s station, but we spotted the man we sought at a high table in the bar area to our right.