Page 67 of Death on Gallows Path

He breathed in through his nose, held it a moment, then released it. “Mostly bragging.”

“All of them?”

“Damon. Not saying the others wouldn’t, but they don’t — didn’t — have much opportunity with him holding forth. He’s the best golfer, the best businessman, the best at besting everybody else’s best.”

In addition to not respecting the bragging, Rich clearly didn’t believe Damon Swindell had a right to those claims.

“Were there any changes in his topics lately?”

An excellent question from Clara.

Unfortunately, after considering it, Rich said, “Nothing I heard about. They were in Thursday, early dinner, and it was pretty much his standard fare.”

“What about the others?”

“Like I said, they never had a chance to say much.”

I thought about the tension at Thursday night’s training.

“Including Bryon Georger?” I asked.

“You mean did he speak up? Nope. The times I saw the group together, he seemed mostly zoned out. Not like he was on something and he never drank much. But like he’d mentally transported himself elsewhere, like one of those Buddhist monks.”

Interesting.

Though, Bryon had not given a Zen vibe at dog training.

“Did you hear if they’d had any discussion about adopting dogs?” I asked. “Each couple adopted a puppy, in the past month or so.”

He frowned. “One of the staff said something a while ago about how he wouldn’t let Damon Swindell adopt a rabid porcupine, much less a dog. And the guy bussing their table said Damon was bragging about the dog’s breeding lines.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “One of the wives brought up going to training together and it fast became a grudge match.”

“Grudge match?” I suspected Clara knew the phrase from sports coverage by way of her husband, but asked to draw details.

“My dog can beat your dog,” he said.

“The wives, too, or . . .” She let it trail off.

“Damon and Bryon. Not the wives. Except . . . They were the ones who said the purpose was to get the dogs trained.”

He’d emphasized said slightly.

“You didn’t think so?” I asked.

“Nothing I could know for sure. It was the way they talked about the dogs. They asked the server if he had a recommendation for training classes and he recommended Leo at Zepke’s. But when he asked to see pictures of the puppies, they didn’t have any.”

He sounded disapproving enough to make it clear he was a dog lover.

Nobody would catch me without photos of Gracie on my phone. The same held true for Clara, Ned, and Teague with their dogs. In fact, we had pictures of each other’s dogs on our phones.

I couldn’t imagine any of the other humans in the training class not having photos of their dogs.

“Did you see Damon here with other people? Not that group of four?”

His tongue pushed out one side of his bottom lip. “Sometimes.”

“Anything specific that stands out to you?” Clara had recognized his uneasiness.

“There was a kind of incident not long ago with Damon in the bar area. Regulars were in to watch a game. And Damon came in with a guy—”