Ajax asked the question so smoothly that Penny answered without thinking.

“Hal—the senior associate—he’s pretty sure we’ll win if it goes to trial. He thought the depositions made the women look bad. Not sympathetic. Maybe he was right, but I’m not so sure. I mean, I’m not a lawyer, but their stories sounded pretty convincing to me. But Hal said our witness would offset whatever they claimed and make it sound like the women just wanted money.”

“Your witness?”

“A woman named Ruby,” Penny said.

Ajax got up from the chair quickly at the mention of his wife’s name. “Okay. Thanks. Penny, you’ve been a big help.”

Penny stood up, too. “You won’t tell anyone that I talked to you?”

Ajax put a finger over his lips and winked. “You’re an anonymous source. Just like Deep Throat. But hey, I could use your help on something else.”

“What?”

“People are bound to be talking about Gordon’s murder. You might hear things. Stories about Gordon, theories about what happened to him. If anything comes up that you think I should know about, you just call the sheriff’s office and ask to talk to Ajax. We can meet somewhere private. No one has to know. Okay?”

Penny nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah. Okay.”

Ajax and I left the motel together. We walked across the parking lot, but then I made an excuse to go back. “Hang on, I forgot my notebook.”

I jogged back across the parking lot. Penny answered the door, and I pointed at the dresser where I’d left my notepad. I nudged past her to retrieve it, but she didn’t move from the doorway. It was clear she wanted me gone.

I came up beside her again and spoke softly. “A monster?”

“It was a poor choice of words, that’s all.”

“I don’t think so, Penny. His son Jay called him the same thing. I was wondering if you talked to Jay one of the times you were in the house.”

“No, I didn’t.”

I waited, a clock ticking in my head. If we took much longer, Ajax would come back, and I didn’t think Penny would open up about any of this with a man. “Come on, it’s just you and me. What really happened?”

She hesitated. “Jay may have heard me talking to one of the paralegals.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m the one who called Gordon a monster,” she admitted. “It was me.”

“Why?”

Penny bit her lip and said nothing.

“Why did you say that?” I pressed her again.