She knew that her partner was the star of the show and had teased him more than once that they had these dustups every once in a while just to get him to come out and play referee.
“Well, I can’t say as I’m surprised, that girl was always running all over the place.”
“What do you mean Mrs. Connors?”
“We saw her, didn’t we Lenore? Speeding by in that fancy car of hers.”
“When was this?” The conversation had taken a turn she had not expected and she drew her note pad from her pocket where she always kept it. This neighborhood was well out of the way and didn’t strike her, as the sort of place the fashionable Mrs. Davis would frequent.
“Oh, must’ve been the day before she died if memory serves me right. She was heading to that old barn down at the end of Miller road.” Mrs. Connors pointed in the direction of the barn as Mrs. Ivory nodded her head in agreement.
Miller road was one of the only deserted streets in the whole town. It was home to a plantation that had long been out of existence. Last she’d heard some developer had bought the place and was planning to put up some kind of strip mall but the city council had vetoed the deal and it had been sitting empty ever since, for a good five years now.
“What was she doing there?”
“How would we know Celia? All I know is Lenore called me over to tell me all about it. Said she’d been driving like a bat outta hell too. And then the funniest thing, but I could swear I saw a man following after her a little while after.”
“I told you that was her husband Constance.”
“Now what sense would that make? They have that big beautiful old house, why would they need to go to the barn to do what they were doing?”
“And how do you know what they were doing Mrs. Connors?”
“Well she had hay in her hair, how else did it get there if she wasn’t…you know?”
“How do you know she had grass in her hair?” The old woman didn’t answer, just turned and ran into her house next door.
“I’ll be right back Celia.” Her voice came back to them in a shout. She came back a few short minutes later with a pair of the oldest binoculars Detective Sparks had ever seen. “Whenever I see anything out of place around here I use these. Used to belong to my daddy. They’re mighty powerful, not like these new fangled plastic contraptions they make nowadays. I can see the mole on Lenore’s ass with these at a hundred yards.”
“I don’t have a mole on my ass you old biddy.” Mrs. Ivory huffed with indignation.
“It’s just a for instance Lenore, keep your knickers on. These young people; always think they know everything.” She rolled her eyes at the woman who was all of two years younger than her.
The two women started bickering until officer Bailey called them back to order. “Now if you saw that it was her, how come you didn’t see the man who was following her?”
“His windows were tinted and he was moving too fast like he had somewhere to be in a hurry.”
“I still say it was the husband. I’ve seen the two of them back and forth down there a time or two in the past…”
“How sure are you Mrs. Ivory that it was Niall Davis that you saw going back and forth to the barn with his wife?”
“Well, I never did see his face I just supposed…” Her words tapered off with a bit of a confused look on her face.
“See, I told you, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. That Niall Davis has always been a prissy one, no way in hell would he be caught dead rolling around in that old broken down old barn.”
Detective Sparks’ mind was already working. She knew that both Niall Davis and Riley O’Rourke drove cars with tinted windows, but so did a few others in the town. It was something to look into. “Thank you very much ladies, we’ll be off now.”
“Did we help any Celia, officer Bailey?” Mrs. Connors called after their retreating backs.
“You certainly have, thanks again, and if you think of anything else please give us a call.”
She didn’t bother giving them a card since they already had a drawer full from all the times they’d been out here. Both ladies batted their lashes at officer Bailey as he said his goodbyes. As she walked away she could hear them arguing with each other before she’d even cleared the walkway.
“What do you think Pete?” She asked as soon as he got into the car beside her. “I think we’re going to check out the old barn.” She nodded her head feeling a real sense of excitement for the first time since she stood over what had been left of poor Sonya Davis the day before. No matter what the woman had done she didn’t deserve what had been done to her.
She drove out to the broken down old barn in the middle of nowhere, thinking that maybe Mrs. Ivory was right. She couldn’t see the esteemed Niall Davis coming to a place like this. Unless he’d come here to catch his wife in the act. The women hadn’t seen any other vehicles on the road that day though, and there had been no mention of anyone else being in the car with her.
So that leaves the only other alternative; that Mrs. Ivory had been wrong in her assessment that it had been Niall Davis’ car following his wife and it had indeed been whoever she was having an affair with.