tavern, Marco mouthed.
I nodded, then asked, “Did Heather tell you much about Wyatt’s plan to ask Bart Drummond for the tavern?”
“She was the one who cooked it up. She manipulated Wyatt for weeks until he gave his father an ultimatum—either give him the tavern or he would walk away from the family. Neither one of them expected Bart to call them on it, which was shortsighted on their part. Bart doesn’t let other people control him. Anyone from Drum knows that, but I think Heather had convinced Wyatt that his father had invested too much time and energy in him to just let him go.”
“It backfired,” I said, “but Heather had a plan B. Or she made one.”
May didn’t say anything for several seconds.
I decided to lie. “We already know that Heather set Wyatt up with the DUI and breaking and entering arrest.”
She was silent for longer this time, and when she spoke, her voice was shaky. “Who told you that?”
Not an admission, but it was pretty far from a denial. “Someone who chooses to stay anonymous.” It didn’t take a genius to see I was scaring her off, so I switched gears. “The Drummonds paid Heather to leave town, but Mitzi told me that Heather said she had an idea for getting a bigger payout. Do you know what it was?”
“No, she wouldn’t tell me, but she insinuated she was workin’ with someone. While I wasn’t crazy about the idea of manipulatin’ people, I was happy she might be stayin’, even if she was defyin’ Bart Drummond. She said she wasn’t afraid of him.”
I took a moment, knowing that I needed to be careful with my next question. “How would you describe your relationship with Heather?”
“I know what Mitzi likely told you, but it ain’t true,” she said angrily. “I like men. Did I love her? Yeah, in a messed-up way, because she made me alienate everyone else in my life until there was only her, but we weren’t like that.”
“May, I don’t care about your sexual preferences,” I assured her. “Who you chose to love or sleep with is your own business. I’m just making sure I have all the puzzle pieces so I can figure out what really happened.”
“Okay,” she said in a softer tone. “Heather hooked up with some guy from her salon, but it only lasted a few weeks. He broke it off after his wife found out, but she didn’t tell a lot of people because she didn’t want anyone to know he’d rejected her. She was talkin’ about someone called Peep by then. Most people thought it was some cute name for the salon guy, but I think it was the person helpin’ her. Maybe even someone she’d found to get drugs for her.”
“Drugs?” I asked in surprise. Marco looked just as shocked.
May was silent for a moment. “I heard her talkin’ to someone on the phone, telling them she needed enough to make a grown man unconscious so she could put him in a compromisin’ position without wakin’ him up.”
“She was planning to set up Wyatt?” I asked.
“No,” she said slowly. “I think she was talkin’ about Bart. She pulled me aside before she left the party. Said she’d been plannin’ to blackmail Bart, but she was startin’ to chicken out. She’d decided it would be best if she really did leave. I begged her to stay, but she said I’d been a good friend and then told me goodbye.”
“Did she tell you where she was going?” I asked.
“No, but her aunt Hilde told me that she got a postcard from Tulsa. I was so hurt she hadn’t sent me one, but then I realized it was just Heather being Heather. Honestly, Hilde was lucky to hear from her at all.” She paused. “Although I guess maybe she didn’t.”
“Do you have any idea who she was talkin’ to about the drugs?” I asked.
“No, but I know she was meetin’ someone at the Mountain View Lodge. She got Mitzi fired over it.”
“Do you know how many times?”
“Two. Maybe three…that I know about. But I think some of those times were with the guy from the salon.”
“Do you know if she knew Paul Conrad?”
“She never mentioned him,” May said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. She mentioned getting stopped by a sheriff’s deputy who didn’t give her a ticket. In retrospect, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Paul pulling her over to get her number.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“Do you know when that