“Last week sometime,” he said. “Can’t remember the exact day but not the weekend. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday.”
“Was he alone?” I asked.
“No. He had his side piece with him.”
“So Dexter must have still been using his apartment even though he stopped paying rent,” I said.
“Hard to pay rent when you don’t work.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us about Dexter that might help us get a feel for him?” I asked.
“Honestly, it sounds like you already know everything there is to know,” Glenn said. “Nutters wasn’t that deep. What you knew and what I told you is probably all there is to it. He didn’t have the smarts to be more.”
“Do you think he could have planned to kill her and make it look like an accident?” Gertie asked.
“Honestly? No,” he said. “Now, could he have gotten mad enough and done something stupid, then tried to cover it up? Sure. And would he have the balls to try to stake a claim on the business? Absolutely. Money was always Dexter’s prime motivator. At least, that’s how it looked to me.”
“Except with the new girlfriend, who probably doesn’t have any,” Gertie said.
“Maybe he met the female version of himself,” Glenn said.
I nodded. “But he’d need his own money to keep her. I don’t suppose you remember her name, do you?”
He smiled. “Actually, I do.”
Chapter Fourteen
I climbed into Ida Belle’s SUV, somewhat pleased that we’d made it out of The Bar without incident. It was both surprising and shocking. Usually places like The Bar combined with people like Gertie led only to trouble. The fact that Ida Belle didn’t even wait for us to put on our seat belts before hauling it out of there told me she was looking to make sure it stayed that way.
“Home?” she asked as she headed toward the highway.
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so. Let’s head back out toward Silas’s place.”
“You know I’m not one to back off from danger,” Gertie said, “but do you think that’s a good idea?”
“I have to agree,” Ida Belle said. “I don’t think you’re going to get any more out of him.”
“I wasn’t thinking about revisiting Silas,” I said. “I thought we’d make a stop at the gas station and see if those two guys sitting out front saw Silas leave Monday afternoon. I figure they sit out there a lot, waiting for something to talk about.”
Ida Belle nodded. “That’s a good idea. It won’t tell us everything, but if those guys saw Silas leave and return, it might give us a window that he could have used to take Molly out.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Then our last stop is the exit to Molly’s house. When we went to drop off Ida Belle’s catering money, I noticed two boys in a tree house right at the exit. I assume they live in the house across the street.”
“Oh!” Gertie’s eyes widened. “They have a clear view of the road. They’d see every car that passed.”
“If they were outside at the time our killer turned in,” Ida Belle said. “And if they are the kind of boys who notice cars.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s a long shot but it’s easy to ask and won’t take much time. I figure it can’t hurt.”
I pulled out my cell phone and did a quick internet search on Marissa Perkins, Dexter’s side piece. I wasn’t expecting to find anything unless it was a short mention about an arrest, but that wasn’t even what popped up on my screen.
“Holy crap,” I said. “Dexter’s girlfriend was a competitive longbow shooter in high school.”
“You sure it’s her?” Gertie asked.
I turned my phone to show her the image. “Eyes like a rat, all arms and legs.”
“Glenn sure nailed that description,” Gertie said.
Ida Belle looked over at me, her eyes narrowed. “An arrow would explain why that hole in Molly’s boat didn’t go all the way through.”
I nodded. “And it explains the variation in pattern. The arrow wasn’t properly tuned. That’s why it had that bit of a run on the right side.”
“Longbow is smart,” Gertie said. “No sound. Gunshots aren’t uncommon around Sinful but they can attract the curious.”
“So she shoots Molly from the bank somewhere and then what?” Ida Belle said. “Molly falls overboard but then how did the hole in the boat get there?”
“Assuming Molly was taken out by an arrow, I can only guess there were two shots,” I said. “If the first missed and Molly turned to look at it when it struck the boat, then the second could have hit her square in the upper back and propelled her overboard, which would explain why there was only blood on the side of the boat and not in the bottom.”
“But there wasn’t an arrow in the boat,” Gertie said.
“She would have retrieved it,” Ida Belle said. “That way, people assumed the hole was made by a bullet. Everyone has a gun. A bullet hole doesn’t narrow things down just in case the cops started looking hard at Dexter and got around to her.”
“Okay,” Gertie said. “I’d buy it, but how do we prove it?”
“Great question,” I said and did another search. “Of course, I can’t find an address for her. But if we can pin down a location, I’d like to get a look at her.”
“What will that tell you?” Gertie asked.
“Maybe nothing,” I said.
“Maybe something,” Ida Belle said.
Ida Belle made quick work of the drive back to Silas’s hometown. The two men we’d seen before were still in front of the gas station in their chairs and perked up when we pulled in. As we climbed out of the SUV, they looked at each other, then began to rise.
It took a bit of time to accomplish and neither looked too steady on their feet, so I didn’t even bother with a threat assessment.
“Evening, ladies,” the first man said. “How can we help you?”
“We saw you earlier today,” the second man said. “You need help finding someplace?”
Since the first man had locked eyes on Ida Belle and seemed to have more than a passing interest, I figured I’d let her take the lead. I gave her a little nudge with my elbow and she smiled at them.
“No, thank you, gentlemen,” she said. “We found the place we were looking for but then we had a question or two about the man who lives there. I saw you when we passed and thought, I bet there’s two young men who have their fingers on the pulse of everything happening in this town. So we figured we’d come back and see if you could help us out.”
I wasn’t sure if calling them ‘young’ or telling them they had their fingers on the pulse of everything clinched it, but either way, it was clear from their expressions that Ida Belle had this one in the bag.
“Well, we’re happy to help you ladies out if we can,” the second man said. “I’m Jeb and this is my brother Wyatt. Who did you visit earlier?”
“Silas Broussard,” Ida Belle said.