She looked at him more closely. He was at least sixty. Unless he was a relative newcomer to Eagle Rock, he would remember the Lavelle case, might even have known Alicia and her mother. He would certainly have been aware of the rumors flying around at the time. She had come across enough motel and hotel owners in the last couple of years to know they fed on local gossip. What they didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing.

“I’m a private investigator,” she said. “Looking into the Lavelle case.”

Hopper raised an eyebrow. “Now, there’s a blast from the past. Why now?”

“The anniversary is coming up.”

He scratched his beard. “It’s not a special anniversary, is it? Surely it’s not been twenty-five years already?”

“Yes, it has. But I figure when someone is still missing, every year that passes is special.”

Hopper frowned. “I guess. But if you’re a private investigator, someone must’ve hired you to come to Eagle Rock and look into the case.”

Jessica smiled tightly. “Let’s just say I’m here on behalf of an interested party.”

Hopper looked disappointed but said nothing.

“You lived in Eagle Rock long?” she asked.

“All my life. Baby, boy, man.”

“Did you know the Lavelles?”

“The kid I never met, but I’d see the two of them around the neighborhood often.”

“What about the mother? Did you know her?”

“Most folks around here knew Eleanor when she worked at Ace’s Bar. She was hard to forget.”

“In what way?”

“Oh, she was pretty, for sure. One of the reasons Ace Freeman was so quick to give her a job. But she had something else going for her. In a man, I guess you’d call it charisma. A certain kind of charm that can’t be faked—you know what I mean?”

Jessica nodded, but Hopper’s eyes were fixed someplace over her shoulder and almost thirty years in the past. “Where is Eleanor now?” she asked.

Hopper’s eyes refocused, and his bushy white eyebrows bunched together in confusion. “She’s dead.”

Jessica blinked. “Of course.”

They both stood in awkward silence for a couple of seconds.

Then Jessica said, “One more question.”

“Shoot.”

“Where can I find Ace’s Bar?”

Inside, the bar was comfortingly gloomy. The main light source was a dull lamp hanging low over a pool table in the rear of the room and some neon signs advertising domestic beers.

Four booths butted each wall on either side of a U-shaped bar. Fewer than half of the eight booths were occupied. A couple sipping beers and snacking on a basket of fries and chicken wings. An older man with a deck of cards laid out in front of him. A table full of outdoor workers who’d just clocked out for the evening, judging by the eye-watering yellow safety vests and dirty boots they were all wearing.