Page 50 of To Die For

“So did they talk to anyone while they were here? Anyone come over to greet them?”

She thought about this for a few moments before shaking her head. “No. They just come in, ate, and left. Nothin’ special.”

“You said the police asked you questions?”

“Yeah. After them folks were found dead in their car. Drug overdose, so’s I heard. They asked me if they looked juiced or anythin’, like they’d taken a hit of somethin’. I told them, yeah, they did look jumpy and out of sorts.” She lowered her voice. “I got experience with drugs and such and know the signs. You see it everywhere these days. Bad as it’s ever been, to my mind.”

“So, to be clear, you thought they were drug users?”

“Well, yeah. Felt sorry for the girl. Parents on that stuff? Not good for her.”

“They might have been jumpy because they were nervous about something,” suggested Devine.

“Yeah, maybe,” she said skeptically.

“Did any of them say anything to you as to why they had come to Ricketts? Like you said, you don’t really get tourists this time of year. Were they meeting someone?”

She drummed her fingers on the table while she thought about this. “No. I do ’member askin’ where they was comin’ in from, and the man said, somethin’ or other place. I, uh, I don’t really recall it.”

“And did you see where they went after they left here?”

She shook her head. “Nope. They just paid the check and that was that. I had other tables to look after. I don’t do my job, I ain’t got no job, hon. Gonna work till I drop as it is. No nest egg for this gal.”

“I take it you pull long hours here?”

“I work the breakfast, lunch, and early dinner crowd. Six thirty in the morning till five thirty at night. And by then I am dog-tired. But the tips ain’t bad most times.”

He handed her his card. “Okay, thanks. Anything else occurs to you, let me know.”

She stared at the card like there was a threat written on it. Then she put it away and said, “Now, what can I get you to drink? IPAs are good and we got some Blue Moon on tap.”

Devine rose and said, “I think I’ll have to pass for now.”

As she walked away, Devine managed to take her picture with his phone. He sent it off to Emerson Campbell with a request.

He walked out thinking her opinion on the drug use had not rung true, both because he had several accounts saying the opposite,andthe woman looked everywhere except at him when she had said it.

It’s a good thing for me that most people are terrible liars.

Hon.

CHAPTER

22

THE COPS WERE STILL INtheir car. For such a small town, Devine wondered how many uniforms there were. In Putnam, Maine, there were only two officers, and that number included the police chief.

However, as he glanced through the cruiser’s window, he noted that neither of them was Eric King. Devine had Googled the man and gotten his picture. His Wikipedia page looked like it had been written by the police chief himself, with multiple screens of accolades.

He looked around the rustic storefronts and saw a number of modern surveillance cameras. He wondered what the odds were of his getting to look at the feed on them from the day the Odoms had been in town.

The phraseWhen hell freezes overcame to mind. But maybe there was another avenue. He texted Campbell and told him where he was and what he needed, giving specific details. Two minutes later he got a curt response.

On it.

He still didn’t know where the meeting with the two men had taken place or what was in the duffel given to the Odoms. Maybe cash? The police probably had impounded the Odoms’ car, but he didn’t expect much cooperation from them.

So what the hell are you doing here, Devine?

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