the house to anyone else?”
“I’d have to check her records, but I’m pretty sure that she didn’t. And certainly not since the Todds put in their offer.”
“What about the Todds? Was your agency the only one representing them?”
“We’d better be. They’ve signed an agreement to that effect. We put in too much time and effort to have clients jumping from one agency to another. Becca’s been working with the Todds for almost two months now. This was one of the first houses they looked at, because it met most of the features on their wish list and she was pretty sure the bank would eventually drop the price again. She helped them find financing and she even lined up the inspector after the bank did the repairs. Mr. Todd already did a termite check himself last Tuesday.”
“The Todds own a pest control business,” Richards murmured.
“Did Mrs. Jowett have any problems with the Todds?” Dwight asked.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“What about her personal life? Any problems there?”
Ms. Coyne shook her head. “I never get into an employee’s private life and Becca isn’t one to share intimate details anyhow. I’ve only met her husband twice in passing.”
She hesitated.
“Something?” Dwight prompted.
“It may be my imagination, but in the last few weeks, she’s dropped a few disparaging remarks about him, almost as if she’s quit considering him whenever she decides to work weekends or evening.”
“Well, I certainly don’t mean to be the one to gossip,” Ms. Coyne’s secretary told Mayleen Richards an hour later, “but I’m pretty sure they have separate bedrooms. Last week I was complaining about how my husband’s snoring was keeping me awake at night and she said I ought to do like she did and move him into the guest room.”
“Any new man in her life?” Richards asked.
The secretary shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard, but she really doesn’t talk about her private life much at all. Not to me anyhow.”
Following up on the bit of gossip Judge Knott had passed on to Major Bryant, Richards’s next stop was at the Cut ’n’ Curl, which was where she got her own hair done. She was directed to Charlaine Schulz, the woman who did Rebecca Jowett’s hair and who had the station next to Mayleen’s own beautician.
“She was in here just this past Wednesday to get her split ends trimmed and have her roots touched up,” Charlaine told her. “Not that she has any gray—she’s only thirty-four—but her natural color’s a mousy brown, so the roots need regular work.”
In the picture Dave Jowett had given them when he reported her missing on Monday, Becca Jowett had brown eyes and long dark brown hair that fell in loose swirls around an attractive oval face.
“When I washed her hair, I saw she had a fresh hickey right about here.” Charlaine had beautiful skin that seemed to glow from within as she touched a spot on her smooth neck halfway between her left ear and her collarbone. “She wasn’t happy about it either when I started to tease her. I said, ‘I guess he likes to mark his territory, huh?’ and she made a face and said, ‘First and last time. From now on, this territory’s off-limits to him.’”
“Was she talking about her husband?”
“What do you think, honey?”
“Do you know who the man was?”
Charlaine shook her head. “She never names names.”
“But she does talk about men she’s been with?”
“Not in so many words. Just enough to let me know she’s been cheating on poor Dave for two or three years now.”
“You know him?”
“Oh sure. We were in school together.”
“Does he know about her cheating?”
“Not from me he doesn’t. I did ask her last year if she was going to leave him and she just laughed and said she couldn’t afford to as long as the real estate market was so bad.” The hairdresser paused. “You know, though, she did say that it looked like things might have bottomed out and be ready to take an upswing, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d split up in the next few months. What do you think, Mayleen? You reckon she’s still alive?”
They were finished with the house by noon. The only additional bit of information gained was from scuff marks and light scratches where something heavy had been pulled across the newly refinished wood floor of the living room from the couch to the front door.
“Probably the body wrapped in a tarp or something,” Denning said.
From there to the driveway, a driveway screened by