Violet asked them to wait while she and Trudy changed clothes, and moments later the four of them sat at the round table in the kitchen. Trudy’s hands worried the hem of her shirt, while Violet pressed hers together under the table.

“Mrs. Malone, we’ve received word that your husband hasn’t shown up at work for nearly three weeks,” Officer Lawson said. “A few of his employees grew concerned when they weren’t able to track him down. No one answered the phone at his—at your—house. Do you know where he is?”

Trudy shook her head.

“Are you not concerned about his absence?”

When Trudy didn’t answer, he looked at Violet, then back at Trudy. “Ma’am?”

“Of course she’s concerned,” Violet answered. “We both are. Trudy’s been so worried, she can’t even speak. But this is what Jay does. He disappears without warning. Days at a time, occasionally weeks. He never tells my sister when he’s leaving or where he’s going.”

“So neither of you have seen him?”

“No, sir. Not in weeks.”

Lawson checked a note in his pad. “We asked around and it seems the last place anyone saw him was at the Showboat the evening of May sixth. He participated in illegal gambling on the lower deck of the boat, then was seen leaving later that night with a woman. I understand that woman was not you.” He eyed Trudy, an eyebrow raised.

Trudy reached for his pad and pen, raised her own eyebrows in question.

“She needs to write a note,” Violet said.

“She needs—? Okay. Sure.” He turned a page and handed it to Trudy along with his pen.

I was not with Jay that night. He left and never came home, she wrote in a shaky slant, then slid the pad back to the officer.

He read her words and nodded. “When we spoke with the owner of the Showboat, he did tell us Jay had gotten himself into some debt with a few regulars there. Do you know anything about that?”

“I don’t think my sister had much to do with their finances,” Violet said quietly. “Jay took care of all that.”

“If you didn’t know anything about the finances, then you may not know he sold his ice cream shops shortly before his disappearance. Is that a correct assumption?”

Violet and Trudy exchanged a glance. A delicate line marred the space between Trudy’s brows.

“No, we didn’t know that.”

Officer Hutchins had sat back in his chair, arms crossed, watching the exchange. Now he narrowed his eyes at Violet. “I remember you.”

Violet held his gaze.

“You came to talk to us about Jay Malone.”

Next to her Trudy shifted, and Violet could feel her sister’s eyes on her cheek. “I did. You told me all about how good a man Jay is. How upstanding. Gambling, debt, leaving his wife—doesn’t sound too upstanding to me.”

Hutchins was the first to break eye contact. He clenched his jaw and uncrossed his arms, then leaned forward. “Regardless of all that, is there anything more either of you can tell us about where Jay could be? You have to admit, it’s unusual for someone to disappear into thin air like this. There’s usually an answer.”