Page 80 of Little Last Words

“Yes, dear.” She opened the car door and stepped out, poking her head back inside to say, “Well, I’m sure you’d like to get back to work. I’ll leave you to it. The faster you solve this case, the faster we can start planning your wedding. I cannot wait! Toodles.”

CHAPTER31

“Ithought it would be easier to call you than to text you back,” Simone said. “You have a few minutes to chat?”

“I do,” I said.

“Do you still need a ride, because I can come pick you up right now if you do.”

“I’m fine. False alarm.”

I gave her a brief overview of my day so far, including the unannounced visit by my mother, which made her laugh. Then I asked her to fill me in on what she’d been up to since I’d seen her that morning.

“For starters, I haven’t spoken to Jack Becker yet,” she said. “I stopped by his house, and he wasn’t there. I can try again.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have a few questions for him. What about Kate and Jolie Ramsey?”

“I just spoke to them.”

“What did they have to say?”

“Kate cried a lot. She kept recalling different memories they all had with Penelope through the years. Kate had gotten together with her a few times over the last month. She described Penelope as one of the kindest people she knew. Then Jolie rolled her eyes, chiming in by saying ‘kind’ wasn’t the right word. ‘Naïve’ was a much better one.”

“Naïve in what way?”

“Jolie said Penelope had a bad habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt, whether they deserved it or not.”

I wondered if Penelope had let someone into her life without realizing they were the type of person who’d come to harm her one day.

“Did Kate or Jolie have any ideas about who may have had a motive to kill Penelope?” I asked.

“They both thought Dean was responsible. I told them he had an alibi, and Jolie said even if he did, it doesn’t mean he didn’t hire someone to kill her.”

“Dean has plenty of issues, but he doesn’t seem smart enough to pull something like that off. I’m convinced he was not involved in Penelope’s death. What else did they say?”

There was a pause, and I heard what sounded like papers being shuffled around.

“Just looking at my notes here,” Simone said. “There were a couple of things I wanted to tell you. For starters, Penelope texted Kate a few days before she died and said she was dating someone new, and she couldn’t wait to tell her all about him next time they got together.”

“Penelope didn’t happen to say the guy’s name, did she?”

“She didn’t. Kate let me read the text exchange, and there were no details given about him. It was obvious by the exclamation points Penelope used and the way she talked that she was excited about the guy.”

“My mother heard a rumor that Penelope was seen at a diner with a man the week before she died.”

“What diner?”

“I don’t know. She’s trying to find out.”

“If it was in Cambria, there aren’t many around. I bet it would be easy to confirm whether it’s true or not.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I’ll stop by a few of them and show Penelope’s picture around before I head home.”

“I bet you won’t even need it. By now, everyone knows about her and has seen her on the news or in the paper, I’m sure.”

“What did Jolie have to say? Did you ask her if she was at the Untamed Shrew with Penelope the night my brother was there?”

“I did, and yes, Jolie was there. A week before she’d reached out to Penelope to suggest they get together. She wanted to make amends.”