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“Youknew where she was drilling. You didn’t tell him?”
“No!” she cried. “I don’t like Ellen. I’ve made no secret of that. But I would never vandalize someone’s property.”
He hadn’t asked that. He’d only asked if she’d told Jordan where Ellen had been working. “Then...would you mind letting me know where you were last night?”
Her body went rigid and anger flashed in her eyes. “I don’t have to answer to you. You’re not a police officer,” she snapped and went in, letting the screen slam behind her before also slamming the heavier main door with a loud bang.
Twenty-One
Ellen’s phone lit up where it was charging on her nightstand, waking her from a deep sleep. She’d meant to get up and fix the sink in her guest bath, but she’d never actually done it. After talking to Ross, she’d been so exhausted she’d immediately fallen asleep, was still in her robe.
So...who was trying to reach her at—she saw the numerals on her alarm clock as she grabbed her phone—nine thirty?
It was Rocko Schneider from Burgers and Shakes. Ellen couldn’t believe it when she saw his name on her screen. How dare he call her after how he’d behaved the last time they talked? She’d had Talulah return his ten bucks. Other than accepting that tip, which she hadn’t known how to refuse because she was so preoccupied with Hendrix and Leo and their lady friend at the time, she’d done nothing wrong.
With a sigh, she let the call transfer to voice mail. No way was she going to wake up enough to talk to him right now. She probably wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep if she did, and she was eager to snuggle down and drift off again. Whatever she’d been planning to do before bed could wait.
But then a thought occurred to her. It couldn’t have been Rocko who’d sabotaged the well, could it? Would he do something like that?
He’d definitely been unhappy when she’d turned him down for dinner. Or had he mentioned his attraction to her to his ex-wife, and Debbie was the one who’d taken revenge? She’d nearly run over her last romantic rival. Ellen wouldn’t put anything past her.
Sliding up so that she had her back to the headboard, Ellen took a moment to gather her wits. Then she returned his call.
“Hello?”
He sounded wide-awake, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Most other people probably hadn’t gone to bed yet. “It’s Ellen,” she said. “You just called me?”
“I did. I was leaving a message, telling you to call me back, which you can now ignore. What are you doing?”
“I was asleep.” She didn’t bother to hide the irritation she felt. She’d tried hard enough to be nice to Rocko—without much positive reinforcement. “Did you get the ten dollars I sent back to you through Talulah?”
“Yeah. I feel...kinda like a dick for what I said. I’m sorry.”
Was that what he was calling about? Because she didn’t want his apology any more than she wanted anything else from him. She wished he’d just go on with his life and let her go on with hers. “No problem.”
“You’re not mad at me, are you?”
“No.” She thought of the mysterious geode which had arrived the night he’d called to ask her out. “You didn’t give me a geode you now want back, too, did you?”
“Awhat?”
“Never mind.” She was already regretting waking up for this. “What is it you need, Rocko?”
“I don’t need anything. I just... I wanted to let you know about something that happened last night that struck me as kind of odd, considering what Jay Haslem told me about his well when he was at my burger joint a few hours ago.”
The drowsiness weighing on her limbs and eyelids fell away as his statement registered. Did he know who’d sabotaged the well? Was it a white Audi with Oregon plates? “What’d you see?” she asked.
“I was out joyriding with my new girl—”
“You’re seeing someone?” she said.Joyriding? New girl?His diction alone highlighted the age difference between them.
“You know Maribeth Woodson, don’t you?”
She worked at the front desk of the veterinary clinic. Ellen knew that much, but not because she had reason to visit the vet. She wasn’t home enough to have a pet. It was just general knowledge from seeing her around town and knowing people who knew her. “I’m familiar with who she is. It’s not like we’ve had much occasion to interact.”
“Well, I was taking her for a ride on my motorcycle around midnight. We were the only ones on the road, so we were just flying along, enjoying the freedom, when a white truck pulled out onto the highwayrightin front of us.”
“You didn’t smash into it...”
