“He didn’t have to. One of your neighbors saw him going into your place last January. Do you think I can’t read a calendar? You’re a worthless little slut. Everyone around here knows the truth.”

She was out of control, but I let it go. Her husband had just been murdered, and she was lashing out at anyone she could. I happened to be in the firing line. But I struggled not to scream back at her.

“Look, Ruby, I know how horrible this is, and I know how scared you are for the kids. You don’t have to believe me about this, but I never slept with Ajax. Never, not once, not ever. It didn’t happen. This isn’t his baby. I swear.”

I saw the look in her eyes. She wasn’t convinced.

“Fine,” I said, giving up. “Believe whatever you want. Right now, the main thing is, someone killed your husband. Darrell’s trying to figure out who it was, and he needs to talk to you.” I cupped my belly, where you were kicking for all you were worth, sweetheart. “Unless you somehow think I managed to do that in my condition, too.”

Ruby inhaled sharply, her nostrils flaring like a thoroughbred on the racecourse. She stormed past me. I followed, crossing through the living room, where several of our high school friends had heard the whole argument. They all shot me looks that said they didn’t believe me, either. I guess I’m naive. All year, people around town had apparently been speculating about me and Ajax, and I didn’t even know it. None of the stories had gotten back to me, I suppose because people were too nice or too embarrassed to tell me what others were saying. Ajax himself hadn’t seemed any different with me when I went back to work as the department secretary. Maybe he was less flirtatious, but I wrote that off to him having no interest in sleeping with me while I was pregnant.

I made my way to the room off the garage that Ajax had used as his beer-drinking rec room, complete with a Centipede game machine and full-size pool table. Playboy posters of naked women filled the walls. Ruby sat on a brown leather sofa. Darrell was already at Ajax’s rolltop desk, removing papers from a drawer and stuffing them into a box. I sat down on the other end of the sofa, and Ruby’s hostility blew at me like a cold wind.

“What are you doing with all that?” Ruby asked Darrell.

“We have to take everything from his desk and review it.”

“Why?”

“I need to go through Ajax’s papers, in case there’s anything that would tell us who killed him. Threats, that kind of thing.”

“Well, I need it all back,” Ruby said. “I have bills to pay. With Ajax gone, it’s up to me.”