Page 83 of Half Baked

“Sorry to keep you,” I said absently. “Thank you.”

She nodded and shut the door. Noah and I stepped away from her car so she could pull out of the space.

“At least we have a full name now,” Noah said. “It gives me a place to start looking.”

“He wasn’t just a drug dealer. He was a witness against a drug kingpin,” I said in a stupor. “This just keeps getting worse.”

“Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “We can discuss it on the way to the car.”

We started walking. “We need to find someone else who knew my mother and isn’t afraid to tell me the truth.”

“It would be interesting to talk to someone who didn’t like her.”

I stopped walking and turned to face him. “I know exactly who we need to talk to.”

His brow lifted. “The woman from the women’s club?”

“Everly Barton and my mother were in the women’s club together, and she’s vindictive as hell. I can easily see her gathering information to use against my mother.”

His forehead creased. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because she’s the current president of the club. She was the one who kept getting your name wrong during our self-defense demonstration in November.”

His eyes shot wide, and then a grin spread across his face. “This sounds interesting. Let’s go have a chat with Everly.”

ChapterTwenty-Two

Maddie

“Do you know if Everly has a job?” Noah asked as we got into the car.

“If I had to guess, the answer would be a big fat no. Her husband is an attorney, and she prides herself on running her little world.”

“So she might not be home?” he asked.

“Who knows? I don’t keep up with the happenings of the women’s club, not after Aunt Deidre’s dementia worsened, but I might know someone who does. Want me to call her?”

“Go for it. I’ll ask Neil if he can dig up anything on Gordon Somato. If he testified against a large drug dealer, we should be able to find something.” He reached for his phone and started typing.

When I’d gone to the women’s club meeting with Deidre in November, I’d met a woman who had told me she wanted to help with my aunt. I hadn’t taken her up on it, but now I realized I’d been foolish not to. Aunt Deidre had lost Uncle Albert, and other than her neighbor Margarete, she was surrounded by unfamiliar faces—Linda, her home care worker, and Mallory. She probably would have fared better if I’d invited her friends to drop by for visits.

But dwelling on that now wouldn’t help anything, so I searched my phone for Connie Smelton, the woman I’d met at the fateful women’s meeting. She was a receptionist at a realtor’s office, which probably put her in the path of lots of people.

She’d likely be at work, so I pulled up the number for the office and called it, hoping Connie was there today.

“Bob Parker Realty,” a friendly woman said when she answered. “Connie speaking. How can I help you?”

“Connie?” I said tentatively. It suddenly occurred to me that she might not remember me. “It’s Maddie Baker. Deidre’s niece.”

“Oh, Maddie!” she cried out gleefully. “I’m so glad you called. How’s Deidre doing?”

I switched to speaker phone so Noah could hear. He was still parked in the school parking lot, waiting for an address. “Honestly, she’s slipping faster than I hoped, but that’s not why I’m calling. I wanted to ask you about Everly Barton.”

“Oh,” she said in disgust. “You must have heard what she did.”

I turned to look at Noah as I said, “What did she do?”

“You didn’t hear about her kicking Deidre out of the women’s club?”

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