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Jennifer sipped some of her water. “We went to high school together.” She paused there, a faint smile revealing a dimple next to her mouth. “Not that there’s anything so special about that, since there’s only one high school in Globe. We didn’t hang out or anything, though. She always ran with the popular crowd, and I was a band nerd.”
I knew there had to be a reason why I found myself liking Jennifer Espinoza, even if I couldn’t comment on her taste in men. “Is Susan the jealous type?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Jennifer replied. “She dated a couple of the football players. Chuck Langdon would know a lot more about her than I would.”
“They went out?” I asked, a little surprised. “I was under the impression that the woman he divorced a few years back was his high school sweetheart.”
“Tracy?” Jennifer said, then went on without waiting for my reply, “Oh, she was. I just mean that there was a group of football players and cheerleaders who hung out together, and Susan was part of that crowd. She went out with Chuck’s best friend Ellis for a while.”
“Maybe I should talk to Ellis,” I suggested.
Jennifer shook her head. “He doesn’t live in Globe anymore. After he graduated, he went to ASU on a football scholarship and never came back. I don’t think he even stayed in Arizona — last I heard, he’d moved to Sacramento.”
Well, Josie had told me that quite a few of the locals never returned to their hometown after college, mostly because Globe didn’t offer a lot of opportunities for employment if you didn’t want to work in the hospitality or retail industries, or in the Freeport mining company where Jennifer herself was employed.
Part of me wanted to run over to Chuck’s place and pick his brain on the subject of Susan Laughlin. However, I knew my chances of actually finding him at home were pretty slim. On weekend afternoons, he and Hazel usually went off somewhere, either hiking or going up to Payson for a change of scenery, or heading into Gilbert or Mesa to do some shopping and go out to dinner. Calvin and I sometimes accompanied them on these outings, except for the times when he had to work, like today.
Anyway, I’d be seeing the whole gang tomorrow night for Halloween. The investigation could wait that long. Like Danny had told me, he had all the time in the world. Also, even though the actual toxicology test was apparently going to take weeks, there was always the chance in the interim that the crime lab would find something in the wine sample the deputies had collected from the crime scene, something that might tell me Susan couldn’t be our perpetrator.
“All right,” I said, trying to sound unconcerned about the whole situation. “I’ll talk to Chuck when I have a chance. If you can think of anyone else, just give me a call at the shop and let me know.”
Jennifer nodded, and was quiet as I reached in my purse so I could get out a business card and hand it to her. Once she’d taken the bit of pale blue card stock from me, she stared down at it for a long moment. Without looking up, she said, “Do you think Danny would come and visit me here?”
The sadness in her voice was so palpable, I could have reached out and cupped it in my hand. Right then, a flash of anger went through me. Danny clearly had no idea how much he’d meant to Jennifer Espinoza, and I hated to see the way she was hurting now.
She deserved a lot better than this.
“I don’t know,” I said, the only answer I could really give her. “But when — if — I see him again, I’ll ask.”
“‘If’?” Jennifer repeated, now looking worried. “Do you think he won’t come back?”
I’d only said “if” because I knew it was better not to be too emphatic when it came to discussing a ghost’s behavior. However, Danny had made it sound as though he’d probably be stuck on this plane until the mystery of his murder was solved, and so I didn’t see any real reason why he wouldn’t return to the shop to get a status update.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure he will,” I said hastily. “It’s just that I can’t really control his comings and goings, so I can’t give a firm answer on when he might drop by again.”
This answer seemed to reassure Jennifer, since she shifted her position in the armchair where she sat so she wasn’t perched on the edge any longer, but now resting against the back. “That’s fine,” she said. “I’d just like to see him again.”
“You might not be able to,” I warned her. “Not everyone can see ghosts.”
Or talk to them,I added mentally, although I wasn’t sure I wanted to rain on her parade quite that much.
Judging by the way her shoulders lifted, she didn’t seem too dissuaded. “That’s all right,” she responded. “I think I’d know if he was here.”
I had to resist the urge to respond to her shrug with one of my own. “Maybe so,” I said lightly. Because it didn’t seem as though she had much more to add on the subject of any possible enemies Danny Ortega might have had, I went on, “Thanks for the information. If you think of anything else, just give me a call.”
“I will,” she said. “But I really can’t think of anyone who hated him so much that they’d want him dead. I know some people called him a player and not the kind of person I should get involved with, but they just didn’t know him very well.”
About all I could do was make a noncommittal sound. It seemed clear enough to me that Jennifer wanted to paint Danny as someone people simply didn’t understand as well as she did, but I wasn’t so sure about that. He’d seemed pretty clear about who he’d been when he was alive, which was anything but the quiet, misunderstood type.
But if Jennifer wanted to fool herself about him, I wasn’t going to try to disabuse her of her fantasies about the man. She’d dated him and I hadn’t, and maybe she really did know more about him than I possibly could.
“It does seem that way,” I agreed, and stood up. “Oh, and — ”
She shot me an expectant look.
“Don’t tell Chief Lewis I was here.”
For the first time, Jennifer sent me an actual grin. It brightened her face and made her brown eyes sparkle, and I thought once again what a jerk Danny Ortega was for leaving her hanging the way he had.
