Page 89 of Death on Gallows Path

Yet . . . that earlier reaction . . .

“Did you hear Damon yelling at Pammy other times?”

“A few. More often at Lucifer. Swearing a lot. And on the phone — when he’d take calls. A lot of times he ignored calls.”

“Do you know what people were calling about or what he was swearing about?”

She picked up a leftover napkin, rubbing her already cleaned fingers on it.

“No.”

That I didn’t believe.

“You knew Jean Hoskins, didn’t you?”

Willow developed a fascination with the leftover paper napkin, folding and refolding it. “All my life.”

“And you’re still helping Oscar with Quasar,” I pursued.

Her only answer was folding and refolding.

“You knew there was a problem about money between them and Damon.”

“Wasn’t a problem. He stole their money.”

“What happened?” Clara asked with empathy.

But Willow stood. “I have to go. Class.”

She took the napkin with her.

Willow was hiding something. Possibly multiple somethings.

* * * *

Clara would not let me apologize for being responsible for Willow cutting things short.

More than that, she seemed on the verge of being irked with me for picking on her friend — me.

After stopping at home to let Gracie and Murph out, I gave Murph his goodies, put Gracie in the car, then picked up Clara and LuLu at their house to head for training.

That’s when I tried to apologize. Clara would have none of it.

“We needed to try. Besides, the way Willow reacted was revealing. I’d say she’s scared Oscar’s involved. Or she is and she’s smart enough to know what Damon did to Oscar and Jean gives her a motive.”

While not ready to let myself completely off the hook, I also didn’t want to argue. Time to change the subject.

“Interesting what Willow said about Zoley coming downstairs, thinking Willow arriving to get Izolde was someone else,” I said. “Would Zoley do that if she thought it was Bryon — the most likely person to show up, since it was his house? Especially if he’s the one who hit her.”

“No. So, who did she think was coming?” She looked over at me as I parked across from Zepke’s. “Damon? Pammy?”

“We might have been able to ask Willow, if I hadn’t—”

“Stop it.”

Since we’d reached Zepke’s, I did.

* * * *