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The last thing I wanted was a motorbike dropping on my head when I was halfway through my burger, thank you very much.
“What did you find out?” I asked.
Ash undid the zip of her jumper and shrugged out of it, then put it on the seat beside her. “Michael Swann is out of town. It couldn’t have been him.”
“How did you find that out?”
“His wife dabbles in watercolour painting and came into the store today. She mentioned that she’s been loving having some quiet time at the farm to paint because he’s been at his sister’s. She just had a baby, apparently. He’s been out of town since the day before Declan was killed, so it couldn’t have been him.”
I sighed. “Balls. Although I suppose that’s one person off the list.”
“Yup.” She shifted until she was comfortable. “So who does that leave us with? Stephanie, Guy, and Alan?”
I quickly told her what Stan had shared with us over the fence last night, since she already knew about my conversation with Steph. Naturally, I’d texted her as soon as Steph and I had parted ways, and so she already knew everything we’d spoken about on the beach.
“Wow,” Ash said. “So, they had a really volatile working relationship, didn’t they?”
“It certainly wasn’t a happy one recently. Not to mention the whole accident thing. I just can’t get over that there were two of them on Declan’s work sites. Especially ones where he’d benefit from the person’s death. It’s a bit suspicious, isn’t it?”
“Definitely suspect,” she agreed. “Honestly, how did that vile creature ever get any business? Surely someone knew how shady he was.”
I shrugged, fidgeting with the edge of the menu. “You’d think, but by all accounts, he seems like a textbook abuser when you peel back the shiny suits. Everything he did to Steph—groomed her to be his wife when she was barely an adult, isolated her from her friends and family, controlled all their finances… If nothing else, abusers are good at covering their tracks and putting on a mask for everyone else. That’s why their tactics are so effective.”
“And the fact he was trying to make the divorce as difficult as possible and she’s living with a friend rather than being able to pay her own way is just another way of controlling her,” Ash pointed out. “He was tying her to him as long as possible, and he won either way. She either took less money to get away from him or she kept fighting and they stayed married longer. Do you think she killed him?”
“I don’t know. I keep going between yes and no. She seems both gutted and totally unbothered at the same time, it’s weird.”
“You’re right. I popped into the café this morning to grab a coffee before I opened, and she was having breakfast in there with Shane. She didn’t seem all that devastated to me, but I suppose I only saw her for a few minutes.”
“Who’s Shane?” I frowned, although the name sounded vaguely familiar to me. “I thought she wasn’t supposed to be seeing anyone.”
“She’s not, apparently. Shane is the friend she’s staying with. Honestly, she’s always been a bit of an outsider. Ever since she moved here, she’s never really tried to connect with anyone. Don’t get me wrong, she’s nice to everyone, but she’s not really involved in the community.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Small towns like this are weird if you aren’t used to it. Everyone is up everyone else’s arse. Look at us right now. We’re up so many arses we might as well get our faces printed on butt plugs.”
“And you’ve not been here for years.” Ash grinned. “I don’t know, I always thought she was a bit stuck up, you know? Rich husband, big house, nice cars. She never really came into town often. I think Nicole did her hair once, actually. I’m getting mine cut tomorrow, so I can ask her and see what she knows.”
“Won’t she be suspicious about that?”
“Have you ever been in a hair salon? Those things are gossip central, Lottie. If you want information, that’s the place to go.”
That was true.
Hairdressers could talk for hours. And were unusually interested in whether I was going anywhere nice on my holidays this year.
I was not. Sadly.
“That’s true,” I mused. “Does she really not have any friends?”
“Other than Shane? I’ve never seen her with anyone, and even then, I didn’t even know they were friends until I found out Stephanie and Declan were divorcing.”
That was sad.
No wonder she’d offloaded on me.
The womanneededa friend.
“Who is he, anyway?” I asked, stirring the ice in my glass with my straw.
