One Foot in the Grave (Carly Moore #3) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,101
of any more questions to ask him, so I cast a glance at Marco, who gave a small shake of his head.
“Dick if you think of anything that will help, would you give me a call at Max’s Tavern and leave a message?”
“You work at Max’s?” he asked, looking like he was having second thoughts about talking to us so openly.
“Carly does,” Marco said, “but we’re here for Hilde. My mom has been friends with her for years.”
That seemed to appease Dick, but he still looked nervous. Like maybe he’d said too much. “Yeah. If I think of anything, I’ll call.”
We thanked him for talking to us and got back in the car.
“We’re headed to the thrift store next, aren’t we?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Marco said in a gruff tone as he buckled his seat belt. “Paul Conrad’s involved in this, and we’re going to find evidence to prove it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tammy was working at the register when we walked into Helping Hands Thrift Store, and she recognized me right away. “Hey,” she called out. “Did that recorder work out for you?”
She didn’t have any customers, so I headed straight toward her, which was a one-eighty from the plan Marco and I had come up with—to buy something and talk to her as we checked out, but this seemed like a more natural segue to asking her questions.
“Actually,” I said, stopping in front of her, while Marco stayed a couple of feet behind me to my right. “It did, but I was hoping to get some more tapes.”
“I’m pretty sure we don’t have any here, but you can check in the back.” She thumbed toward the electronics section.
“Actually, that’s not why I’m here,” I said hesitantly, hoping I wasn’t screwing this up. “I’m Carly and this is Marco,” I said, gesturing to him behind me. “And we’re friends of Hilde Browning.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know any Hildes.”
“Hilde is Heather Stone’s aunt,” I said.
She shook her head again. “Should I know her?”
“Heather’s body was uncovered at the Drummond resort construction site,” Marco said.
“Oh, I heard about that. Awful business, but I’m not sure what it has to do with me.”
“We heard your ex-husband is now married to Heather’s best friend,” I said. When she didn’t respond, I asked, “Were you previously married to Paul Conrad?”
She made a face as though she’d just eaten something sour. “What do you want to know about that bastard?”
“I’m going to take that as a yes,” I said.
“Oh, that’s him all right. Fucking asshole.” Her eyes narrowed. “This Heather’s best friend was Mitzi Ziegler?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “We heard that he was sleeping with Mitzi while you two were getting divorced.”
She snorted. “Much sooner than that. And I’m sure she wasn’t the first.”
“You think he had other affairs?” Marco asked.
“I know he did,” she said in disgust, “although he would never admit it. But I found more than a few receipts for the Mountain View Lodge, so I followed him there one night. He went into a motel room for a few hours, and when he came out, he was with some woman.” She shook her head. “Would you believe he still tried to deny it?”
“Was it Mitzi?” I asked.
“No,” she said in a stern tone. “That was months before he was sleepin’ with Mitzi.”
“But you don’t know who that woman was?” I asked.
“No. Never figured it out. I think he stopped seeing her after that…or he was more careful. He got sloppy with Mitzi.”
“If I showed you a photo, would you recognize her?” Marco asked.
“I don’t know,” Tammy said, pursing lips.
“Could you take a look and see?” Marco asked as he pulled out his phone and let her have a look at it.
She handed the phone back to Marco. “I don’t know if that was her or not.”
“Do you know if Paul took a trip to Tulsa about eight years ago?” Marco asked.
She squinted up at him. “What? No. Paul hated to travel. Although he took Mitzi to Atlanta after we got divorced. He never took me, even after all my beggin’.” Her jaw clenched. “Bastard. I left him after I caught them in my bed. My attorney petitioned for me to get the house, and the judge granted it to me while we were in mediation, but a few weeks later Paul broke in and claimed it was his. He had several deputies with him to have me physically removed, so I moved in with my mother.” She shuddered.