“I live with my grandmother in a cabin a few miles down the road. My mother passed, and my grandmother was lonely.”

Ellie smiled. “It’s nice that she has you for company.”

Maria seemed pleased.

Ellie reached into a cupboard and took out a big frying pan. “We’d better get started. It’s only my second day, and I’m still trying to figure things out.”

But she had already taken a couple of cartons of eggs and a mound of bacon out of the big Sub-Zero refrigerator. The kitchen was huge and modern, all stainless steel with long stainless counters, glossy white cabinets, and commercial-grade appliances.

This was a working ranch miles from the nearest café. Every day, there was a hungry crew to feed.

Maria started frying bacon while Ellie scrambled the eggs, the two of them sliding into an easy routine. Ellie hadn’t cooked for a crowd in years, but as she’d figured, it all came back without much effort.

“I heard some gossip in town,” she said as she stirred the eggs, brown shells with bright yellow yolks from ranch chickens. Kade had actually been the source of some of the information, but she needed to keep him out of it. “I guess Kade’s late wife’s missing car was recently discovered. I heard she was murdered.”

Maria nodded. “Sí, she was killed years ago, but the sheriff only just found her car. Señor Kade was very upset.”

“They say the husband is always the first person the police suspect. I’m surprised they never considered Kade could have done it.”

“Oh, for a while, they thought he did. After his wife’s body was found, the police were here almost every day. But there was no proof Señor Kade was involved.” She looked up at Ellie with big dark eyes. “If they’d seen the way he grieved, they would have known he was innocent.”

But Ellie had seen the guilt he still carried. Was it possible after he’d caught Heather cheating, he’d been angry enough to kill her?

It was unlikely the man who had killed her would hire a detective to find out the truth, and from what Kade had said, since his wife had gone missing, she was the second investigator he had employed.

“So you’ve worked for Kade for quite some time?” Ellie asked, watching the eggs thickening in the skillet.

Maria nodded. “I’ve known him since before I started high school. My mother worked for him. I helped her after school and on weekends. After my mother was killed in a car accident, I moved in with my grandmother. Señor Kade hired Mabel, but he let me keep my job here on the ranch. He’s been very good to my family and me.”

Ellie filed the information away.