Ruby had a lush shag of deep mahogany hair that hung well below her shoulders. She was bony and small, except for the basketball-sized bump in her stomach. After she’d left the mine, they’d had two kids back to back, and the third was due in the next month or so. Her face was Barbie-doll pretty, in the same Ken-doll way that Ajax was handsome. She had fair skin, a sharp little dimpled chin, and big green eyes that could turn from sweet to ferocious in a blink. The genetic combination of Ruby and Ajax was undeniably impressive. Their kids were gorgeous.

She tramped through the snow. It was cold outside, but she wore no coat, just a holiday sweater and jeans. I knew she was coming to talk to me, so I got out of the car and lit a cigarette as I leaned against the door.

“Hi, Ruby.”

“Rebecca.”

“How are you? Feeling okay?”

“Fine.”

“Number three won’t be long now, huh?”

“No, not long.”

“Good.”

That was all we said, but I heard a different, unspoken conversation going on between us. Ruby knew what her husband was like. She knew that Ajax cheated on her every chance he got, because you couldn’t keep that kind of thing quiet in Black Wolf County. But Ruby was also intent on making sure that no matter who Ajax slept with, he always came home to her and her kids. She’d mess up any woman who tried to get in the middle of her marriage, and the look in her green eyes told me that she thought I was exactly the kind of woman who might try to do that. I was trying just as hard to tell her that nothing was going on between me and Ajax.

Finally, Ruby got more pointed.

“So where’s Darrell? Don’t you usually ride with him?”

“He asked me and Ajax to do an interview.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Gordon Brink got killed,” I added.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“So that’s all it is,” I told her, which was as close as I could get to saying out loud that I wasn’t trying to steal her husband.

“I suppose you’re talking to Norm,” Ruby said.

I covered my surprise that she’d guessed right. “Well, we’ll be talking to everyone who knew Brink. That’s how these things go.”

“You should start with Norm, that’s all I’ll say.”

“Why?”

“Ajax didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“About Norm and Gordon.”

“No, what about them?”