I opened my mouth to protest, but I closed it when Darrell shot me a look. There was no point in denying it all over again.

“Ruby,” he said again. “Come on.”

She turned her anger down to a simmer. “Fine. If you want a list of the women he was with, get me a copy of the phone book. Ajax wasn’t exactly monogamous, Darrell. I knew that when I married him. I’d made my peace with it.”

I hated to interject again. All I would do was make it worse, but Ruby was lying to us, and I wasn’t sure if Darrell realized it. It was the kind of lie that was likely to fly over a man’s head.

“You came home early to catch him,” I murmured. “You waited up to confront him. That doesn’t sound to me like you were at peace with it. Had something changed lately?”

This time she didn’t lash back at me, but she also didn’t answer my question. Her whole body looked stiff and tense, as if she were holding up a wall that was threatening to fall down on top of her.

“Was it someone special this time?” I went on. “Was it somebody who felt like a threat to your marriage?”

Her knee tapped nervously up and down. “I don’t know who it was.”

“But there was someone in particular?”

“Yes.”

“How did you find out?”

She shrugged. “I’m his wife. I knew. He wasn’t acting the same. He was gone more, sometimes overnight. He’d make up lame excuses. Plus, a couple of weeks ago, I went shopping in the next county over. I stopped in at the jeweler where Ajax got my wedding ring. He asked if I liked the necklace Ajax had given me. Except he hadn’t given me anything like that. I covered, but I think he knew. Ajax didn’t get it for me. He got it for her. And if he was buying her jewelry, then I assume it was serious.”

“But you don’t know who it was?” Darrell asked.

“No.”

“Could she have been married?”

“I have no idea.”

Her voice was clipped, urging us to move on. I was pretty sure that Ruby did know the identity of the other woman—or at least she had a strong suspicion—but she wasn’t willing to tell us. Maybe she couldn’t bear to say the name out loud, as if doing so made everything real.

“Was Ajax having any problems recently?” Darrell asked. “He didn’t say anything to me, but it’s harder to keep things from your wife.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He was edgy. Anxious. I figured it was the affair, but maybe it was something else.”

“What about money?”

“It seemed like we were doing fine. Maybe a little tighter this year, but nothing serious.”