you see her while she was on bedrest?”
“No,” Connie said. “She went to stay with her brother.”
Josie suspected this was a lie. A lie Vera had told to people who were supposed to be close friends. She would know for sure once she heard back from the police in Georgia with respect to their investigation into Floyd Urban.
Connie went on, “I saw her a few times after she came home with Beverly but after that, we drifted apart. Marisol stayed in touch with her, though.”
Marisol said, “You’re wrong. You stayed in touch with her longer than I did.”
Gretchen said, “I didn’t see you in the photos from Vera’s baby shower, Marisol.”
“I was in rehab then.” She laughed humorlessly. “We were all in rehab at one point or another. Except Tara, I suppose.”
“And Whitney,” Connie added.
Marisol put her wine glass down and folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t have a big dramatic story to tell. I just realized that I was taking so many pills that I was sleeping more hours a day than I was awake. I put on a ton of weight. I wasn’t myself. When my husband came home from traveling, it was a struggle to stay awake to spend any time with him. He was worried. He said he didn’t even recognize me. I think he was more worried that I was depressed than anything else. He didn’t even know about the pills. I had to come clean. I told him about everything—how I was bored while he was away, and I’d been getting together with the girls for drinks, which turned into us trying some pills and then me taking them on my own when I wasn’t with the girls. The whole spiral. We talked about it and decided I would go into rehab.”
Connie blurted, “Is that what you call it? That was a lot of rehab for someone who’s on her second glass of wine in the middle of the day.”
Marisol waved a dismissive hand at Connie and sipped her wine again. To Josie and Gretchen she said, “She’s just jealous that I got to really go away for rehab. I didn’t have kids so I went to a swanky place in Colorado.”
“Money well spent, obviously,” Connie spat.
“Oh please,” Marisol said. “I had a problem with pills, not with alcohol.”
Again, Josie tried to bring the conversation back to Vera. “So after you returned from Colorado, Marisol, did you see Vera?”
“Of course. I wanted to see her sweet baby girl. I knew how excited she was about being a mom. I didn’t understand it myself—I never wanted children—but I knew how she felt. I went to see them a few times. But then we lost touch.”
“You didn’t continue to see Vera at the salon?” Josie asked.
“No,” Marisol said. “My husband felt it best I make a clean break from all of my old habits. To him, the salon was the scene of the crime, as it were. So, I went to another one. Eventually, Vera and I fell out of touch. Life went on.”
“Did Whitney continue to see Vera?” Gretchen asked.
Connie said, “Probably, but I’m not sure. Whitney didn’t live around here, so we never saw her.”
Marisol added, “I couldn’t tell you for sure.”
“Did Vera ever tell either of you who Beverly’s father was?” Josie asked.
Connie shook her head.
Marisol said, “No. She just said he didn’t want to be involved. I got the feeling it was a one-night stand sort of thing.”
“Did the two of you stay friends?” Gretchen asked.
The two women looked at one another. Connie said, “We stayed neighbors.”
Marisol raised her glass of wine. “I didn’t have children. When you don’t have children and your friend does, you have nothing in common anymore.”
“We could have stayed close,” Connie said.
“Let me clarify that,” Marisol said. “I don’t like children.”
“These parties you had,” Josie asked. “Was it always just you ladies? Did anyone else ever attend?”
“No,” Connie answered. “Just the girls.”
“Do you know the names of anyone else Vera associated with or was close to? Any other friends, or perhaps the person who supplied the drugs to her?”
“No,” Marisol said. “That was part of the deal. We didn’t want to know. She just always had everything when we wanted it.”
Josie turned to Connie. “You said you went to Vera’s home to help her out when Beverly was small. Was there ever anyone else there?”
Connie shook her head. “No. Just Vera. But she was happy. Overwhelmed and sleep-deprived, yes, like all new mothers, but so