He shrugged. “Darla was my wife. I was just trying to look out for her.”

“Lying to the police doesn’t bother you?”

Stevenson chuckled. “It didn’t then, and it wouldn’t bother me none now either. Not one little bit.”

“Even though Darla was the last person to see Eleanor alive?”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, sweetheart. The guy who slit Eleanor’s throat was the last person to see her alive. I was with Darla the whole night after she left the house on Morrison. Hours before the cops said Eleanor died. I know Darla didn’t do it, and I didn’t see any point in telling the police about the fight and having them point the finger at her. Poor gal was in a bad enough state as it was when she found out Eleanor was dead. The last words they’d spoken to each other were said in anger. Can you imagine how that made Darla feel?”

“What did they argue about?”

“Eleanor was planning on splitting town. Darla got upset. They argued. She left. That’s all I know.”

Jessica was silent for a moment, then said, “I need to go powder my nose.”

She moved off the stool and stumbled slightly as she grabbed her bag. The room had taken on a warm, fuzzy glow. She squinted at the far wall and saw two doors and a pink neon sign for restrooms behind the pool table.

“Same again?” asked Stevenson.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Jessica headed for the rear of the room and paused at the pool table to allow a cute college guy to hit his shot before squeezing past and heading for the ladies’ room. Sandwiched between the two restroom doors was an old bulletin board made up of a cork surface behind a locked glass panel, designed to prevent drunken patrons from tampering with the displayed contents. The glass was covered in a layer of grime, and the gig flyers and drinks promos behind it were decades old. The bulletin board, like the rest of Ace’s Bar, hadn’t been updated in years. There were photos, too, the fashion and hairstyles suggesting they’d been taken a long time ago. Back in the days when people actually went to those one-hour photo places to have their film developed, before the rise of social media meant sharing pictures online instead.

Jessica immediately spotted a couple of photos of Eleanor Lavelle, her long red hair making her easy to pick out among the dozens of smiling faces. In one, Ace Freeman stood grinning behind the bar with his arm slung across Eleanor’s shoulders. In another, Eleanor and a much younger Darla Kennedy held up shot glasses in each hand to the camera. They were both laughing, their cheeks flushed with booze and youth and happiness.