Gertie sighed. “Why do you have to make everything so difficult?”
Ida Belle shrugged. “Just pointing out all the options. We can’t assume anything until we lay eyes on her.”
“Well, start assuming,” Gertie said and pointed.
I looked up and saw Tiffany exiting the hotel with a young man.
“Does he look familiar to you guys?” I asked.
Ida Belle lifted binoculars and nodded. “I think it’s one of the boys from that photo. One of the rodeo kids Tiffany used to hang out with.”
Gertie grabbed the binoculars. “Kip Ranger.”
We both looked at her.
“What?” she said. “I read the names. His stood out. How many Kips do you know around these parts, and last name Ranger, like the Lone Ranger. It stuck with me.”
“So it wasn’t Liam that Tiffany had reconnected with,” I said. “It was this guy.”
“Who knows how to handle horses,” Gertie said.
“Still doesn’t mean she killed Gil,” Ida Belle said. “But it sure looks suspicious.”
“Looks better for Liam, though,” Gertie said.
“But also brings up the question of what did she want from Liam that day at the butcher shop,” Ida Belle said.
I took a couple pictures with my phone and then we waited while the two of them got into Tiffany’s car and pulled away.
“Do you want to follow them?” Ida Belle asked.
“No. The tracker will let us know where they’re going, but I’m guessing it’s just for something to eat,” I said. “Let’s go tackle the Emilia situation.”
The theater wasn’t open, but a young woman wearing a college insignia T-shirt and a bored expression answered the door when we knocked. I explained that we needed to speak to Lil and she waved us inside without so much as a raised eyebrow and pointed to a set of double doors.
“She was in the theater working on some prop or something last time I was out of the office,” she said. “You don’t mind finding her yourself, do you? I’ve got a chemistry test tomorrow that I’m cramming for. I keep telling my dad I can’t sit in his building all day because I have things to do but he doesn’t listen.”
“No problem at all,” I said and we headed off.
“Good thing we’re not serial killers,” Gertie said. “since she lets anyone have the run of the place.”
“I don’t think she’d care as long as we weren’t here for her,” Ida Belle said.
We located Emilia near the stage, painting a prop. She looked up as we approached and immediately stiffened. Oh yeah, lady. You’re so caught.
“Hi, Lil,” I said. “Or do you still go by Emilia?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lil’s expression was so panicked that I wondered for a moment if she was going to attempt to leap over the prop and run for it. But she must have decided that would be futile because her shoulders slumped and she sighed.
“That was a different part of my life,” she said. “I’m Lil now. Emilia has been gone for a long time.”
“But Gil knew who you were, right?” I asked.
She slumped down on a stool she’d had there for the painting and motioned for us to sit in the front row of seats.
“He knew after I told him,” she said.
“He didn’t recognize you?” Ida Belle asked.
She shook her head, the resigned expression replaced by one of slight disgust. “Gil didn’t notice anything about anyone else.”
“Not even Tiffany?” Gertie asked.
“Gil’s only interest was Gil,” she said. “Tiffany was a trophy to him. Something pretty to sit on the mantel and brag about. I doubt he knew much about her at all.”
“Including why she was so quick to marry a man old enough to be her father?” I asked.
Lil looked down at the ground, a flush creeping up her neck. “That was on me. I should have known, but I was a weak person back then. I thought I had to have a man to get through every day. When Tiffany’s dad died, I lost my husband and my best friend, but I also realized that I’d been taken care of for so long that I didn’t know how to be alone.”
“Was sleeping alone so bad that you’d offer up your daughter in exchange for company?” I asked.
“No!” she said. “It wasn’t like that. I really didn’t know.” She shook her head. “Didn’t want to know, I guess. I know now that I didn’t process things correctly. That I should have never taken up with that creep, but at the time, no one could have told me different.”
“But you still hate Gil for marrying Tiffany,” I said.
She shrugged. “He’s a predator. Just a different sort. She might not have told him what was going on, but he knew how to target people and she was ripe for the picking. I know because I’ve been there myself. Predators know how to spot the weak one in the crowd.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a lot of therapy to understand the dynamic,” Ida Belle said. “Was that while you were in the mental facility?”
She averted her gaze again. “I guess I should have figured you’d know about that too. I sold the house and left right after all that stuff went down. Didn’t keep in touch with anyone from Mudbug, but I guess things still get around.”
She let out a big sigh. “Look, I had a breakdown, all right? And then I made some really bad decisions and needed that stay. It took a while but I realize all the mistakes I made and I wish to God I could take them back, but that’s not an option. The only thing I can do is try to move forward.”
“And did moving forward include trying to renew your relationship with your daughter?” I asked.
“It was the number one thing on my mind,” Lil said. “When I got out, I found an apartment here and started cleaning at one of the hotels. Then I saw a billboard a couple years ago for the theater and there was Gil with that insincere smile of his. In the window was a sign saying they were looking for maintenance help, so I figured if I applied and was hired, that was my sign that it was time to approach Tiffany.”
“But you wanted to scout out the situation first, by watching her husband,” I said.
She nodded. “Do you blame me? It had been years since I’d heard anything about Tiffany. She never did social media and all Gil posted were pictures of himself. I don’t know people in Sinful and wasn’t about to ask people in Mudbug for favors. Not when I’m the reason a monster was living there.”
“I can see where that would have been difficult,” I said. “So you did reconnaissance first.”
“I tried, but I didn’t learn anything about Tiffany,” she said. “That man was completely incapable of thinking about anyone but himself. I spent a couple months lurking around during rehearsal and never once saw her or heard her name. I was starting to think they were no longer married when Brigette asked the others who would be bringing their spouses on the next tour so that she could arrange the hotel rooms properly and he said Tiffany wouldn’t be joining him.”
“Wasn’t he wearing a wedding ring?” I asked. The Headless Horseman hadn’t been wearing one, but it might have been removed at the funeral home while prepping the body.