Page 85 of Half Baked

“No other rumors?” I asked carefully. “Anything so outrageous no one believed it?”

She hesitated. “Well…there was one.”

“Yes?”

“One person claimed she had a secret lover who had a shady past. Everyone laughed at that.”

“Who was saying that?” I asked.

“It was all so long ago,” Connie said soothingly. “Let it be water under the bridge, Maddie.” She obviously didn’t want to tell me.

“I’m not going to attack her or anything,” I said. “I just want to talk to her.”

“That’s really not a good idea.”

I could let this go and hope Everly would tell us what we needed to know, but knowing Everly, she’d refuse to tell us anything. Or she’d give us just enough to tease us but nothing we could use. If the woman Connie was referring to knew something, then she was a better source. But I’d have to sully my mother’s shiny reputation to get her to share it.

“Connie, if I tell you something in confidence, do you promise not to tell anyone?” I asked, already regretting this course of action, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop now. We were getting closer. I could feel it. “I think my motherdidhave a secret lover.”

The silence on the other side was ominous.

I continued. “I’m trying to find out who he was.”

“I don’t believe it,” she said, incredulous. “Andrea never dated anyone. Like ever. We used to tease her about it, but she claimed she didn’t need a man in her life.”

“I know,” I said. “I didn’t even know about him, but that’s not surprising since she told numerous people she wouldn’t bring a man intomylife. I suspect she kept this man quiet to keep from hurting me.”

Which was funny since keeping him a secret had ultimately hurt me too.

“You promise you won’t be too hard on her?” Connie asked. “The poor soul only told one other person, who told everyone else.”

“Who did she tell?”

“Debbie Townsend, but she died about five years ago. Cancer got her. Debbie loved to gossip, God rest her soul. But this woman was new to the group and didn’t know Debbie was a blabbermouth. She feltterribleabout it. Especially after Andrea died.”

“So who told Debbie?” I asked, trying to hide my impatience. I wished she’d just spit out the name already.

“Gina.” She hesitated. “Gina Moore.”

I racked my memory to see if I remembered her name but came up with nothing. “Did she work at the high school?”

“No. She was a bookkeeper. Rumor had it she’d worked at the Mad Hatter’s before taking the bookkeeper job in town, but no one ever had any proof. When I met her at her first club meeting, she was working for an accountant downtown. In fact, she was engaged to him. I can’t remember her maiden name. In any case, she didn’t last long. She wasn’t high class enough for the likes of Everly, so she either quit or Everly ran her off about a year after she joined. Which was such a shame because your mother had invited her.”

“Do you know if she’s still married to her husband?”

“Oh, yes. And they still work together too. They’re one of those rare couples who seem to fall more and more in love the longer they’re together.”

I didn’t need to ask her who Gina’s husband was. Moore Accounting and Bookkeeping was downtown, a block from Déjà Brew. I’d seen Arthur Moore in the coffee shop. I’d probably seen his wife before without realizing she had any connection to me.

“Thank you, Connie. I really appreciate you telling me.”

“If you want to know more about your mother, how about we meet for lunch soon? There’s more to her than this awful Everly business.”

“Thanks,” I said, tears burning my eyes. “I’d like that.”

I hung up and shifted in my seat to face Noah. “We have time to stop by Moore Accounting and talk to Gina before we head to my house.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

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