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“Her personal life is complicated. That’s all I can say.” He stared at Roth expectantly.
“You keep confidences well,” Roth said. “But to help her, I need to know it all.”
“Why do you need to help her? What kind of trouble is she in?”
“She was supposed to meet one of my colleagues and she didn’t show. We can’t locate her and have to fear the worse.” He watched the butcher very closely as he spoke. He appeared disturbed by his declaration.
“I don’t suppose Darren is who reported her missing?” He said it like he doubted it.
“Nope,” Roth shook his head. “We haven’t spoken to the Sheriff yet. Her husband will be the last one on our list to talk to.”
The butcher nodded. “You know,” he said.
“Yes. The question is, how long have you known?”
The butcher took his gloves off and rubbed his forehead. “Aw, damn.”
The pause lasted a few moments. Roth read his name tag. “Al, how long have you known and how’d you find out?”
“She slipped and called him her husband one day when she was really rattled that I didn’t have a pork loin and Darren wanted a pork loin for dinner that night. She’d promised him she’d get one, and it was obvious that she was worried about what would happen when he got home and there was no pork loin. That was about six months ago. We’d always been friendly when she came in and I never had reason to question that Darren was her brother like they’d both always said.” He paused again and shook his head.
“Did you ever see bruises on her, or suspect she was being abused?” Roth asked.
“I never saw anything, but she wore long-sleeved shirts when she shouldn’t have been, so I suspected.”
“Were you going to help her in any way to get away from him?” Roth asked. Was this the friend who backed out calling in a police report to keep the Sheriff busy while Amanda left with Briana?
“No, she was too afraid to, said since I see her every week, Darren would know I was providing her with cover to leave and she feared what he’d do to me. She said he was very jealous. I told her I could take care of myself.”
“Who else would she have confided in? Who else would have helped her?” Roth said.
He shook his head. “I don’t really know. She’s always really tight-lipped about everything in her life. She only opened up to me because she’d slipped, and I think she really needed someone to confide in. I know she frequents the library in town to get books, loves to read and she can get them for free there, so she doesn’t have to ask Darren for money for it. He watches every penny she spends. That’s another thing she told me. Maybe one of the librarians or someone else there. She visits the library every week before she comes here.”
“That’s good to know. Thanks, Al. I have to ask you to keep this conversation confidential. We don’t want our questions to get back to her husband before we’re ready to talk to him.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about that. I’m hoping she just left and is okay,” he said.
“Yeah, but I doubt it,” Roth said. He couldn’t tell this man that she was dead. Not yet.
Roth caught up with Jackson at the front of the store. He was in a checkout lane with a bag of apples. The manager stood near the bagging area and the two of them were engaged in a conversation with the cashier. Not wanting to interrupt, he picked up a bag of chips and a bottle of iced tea and went through another lane. He then waited for Jackson by the car crunching on the chips.
Roth told Jackson what info he’d obtained from the butcher, including the lead about the library. “And the neighbor, Penny Weston said she volunteers at the library as well as shops here on Thursdays. Two points of intersection as well as living within walking distance of Amanda Elsworth.”
“The store manager didn’t know anything about Amanda outside of the lie she and the Sheriff told the whole town, but she did confirm that Penny Weston is the closest thing to a friend that she thought Amanda has. Even the checkout woman said they always come through her register together and chat with her while she’s ringing up their groceries.”
“What do they talk about?” Roth asked.
“Mostly recipes and books,” Jackson said. “But both women confirm that Amanda and Penny go up and down the rows together and talk while they shop.”
“Why did Penny lie to us?” Roth said. “She couldn’t have thought we were questioning her on behalf of Amanda’s husband.”
“We’re going to have to ask her,” Jackson said.
They drove to the library. It was housed in an old farmhouse just outside of town. The different rooms of the house held different types of books, with a lot of comfortable-looking chairs and table seating areas throughout.
“This has to be the cutest library I’ve ever seen,” Roth told the young woman at the front desk in what would have been the living room where they entered.
“We’re very proud of it,” she said, smiling and eyeing the two attractive men. They didn’t get many out of towners during the off season and these two men were not from the area. Winthrop had a population under six thousand during the off season and she’d lived there her entire life. She knew these men were visitors, if nothing else. Their accents gave them away. “Can I help you find something?”
