“That’s not what she says. You disappeared the same weekend as Violet. She was devastated. Even now she says you were the love of her life. ‘A bad boy, but so adorable.’ Her words.”

“Are you matchmaking?”

I laughed. “I don’t know. Are you available?”

“Actually, I am. My wife ran off with my secretary eighteen months ago. Talk about a loss. The wife, I don’t miss. My secretary was the most efficient woman I ever met in my life.”

“Liza’s married name is Clements. She’s in the phone book. If you remember anything else, I’d appreciate your giving me a call.”

“Will do,” he said, and clicked off.

I tried Liza’s number. She was either out or screening her calls, so I left a message on her machine, asking her to get back to me. My purpose had nothing to do with her erstwhile boyfriend. She’d lied to me about Foley and I wanted to know why. I glanced at my watch. It was 4:35, and at best I owed Daisy another hour and a half. It’s not that I was punching a time clock, but I felt honor-bound. The problem was there was almost no point in confronting anyone else because who’d be dumb enough to volunteer the truth? You’d have to be a fool to admit anything when most claims couldn’t be proved or refuted after thirty-four years. The best I could hope for was to encourage folks to rat each other out. Even then, the answers wouldn’t be definitive. A clever killer would make it his business to implicate someone else. In any event, the problem wasn’t mine to solve. The sheriff’s department was handling the homicide, mustering all the authority, expertise, and technical advances at their disposal. All I needed to do, with Daisy’s permission, was to pass along my report, which might or might not help.

However.

Ty Eddings had given me one small lead to pursue. If anyone was going to know who once owned a black Chevrolet pickup it would be the man who sold them. I’d talked to Chet Cramer twice and he’d struck me as a nice enough man. He knew his inventory and his customers, and he was passionate about both. What harm would it do to run the question by him? For the second time that afternoon, I picked up my jacket and shoulder bag and went out to my car.