CHAPTER 28
My next interviewee, Bev Meyers, showed up just then, and I didn’t have any answers, anyway. Bev’s face was rutted with lines of hard living. Her eyebrows were drawn on, she wore blue eyeshadow, and her hot-pink lipstick was bleeding into the wrinkles around her mouth. Bev had the tan of a long-time Floridian who eschewed sunscreen. Her bleach-blond hair was piled up in a messy bun. According to Bev’s application, she was fifty-two but she looked older than Vivi. She had a killer smile and a firm handshake.
“It looks like your most recent job was in Cheyenne, Wyoming,” I said. She worked at a bar there for two years and also listed jobs such as ranch hand and cook. What brought her down here? I guess I’d have to reassess my speculation about her tan.
“Lived there all my life, but my daughter married an Air Force officer and then landed here. She just had a baby, and I wanted to be closer.”
Her voice sounded like she gargled daily with shards of glass, but I’m guessing she used to be a smoker. Bev certainly didn’t reek of smoke now.
“That’s lovely. So are you really looking for a job as a cook or wanting to work as a ranch hand?” Finding her a job as a cook wouldn’t be hard, but the ranch hand would be more of a stretch. Although last winter, Vivi had tried to set me up with a man who owned a ranch. Maybe he needed help. I don’t know why I felt the need to find everyone who came in the perfect job.
Bev gave me a funny look. “No, honey, I like working in bars. I like being around interesting people, and bars are full of them. My mom always said I was born with the gift of gab.”
She looked me right in the eye as she said it.
“The view sure is pretty, and this place seems homey. It looks like a good place to work.”
“I enjoy being here.”
“Where are you from originally, because you talk faster than the natives I’ve met?”
Ten minutes later, she knew pretty much my entire life story. Bev was a good listener. I hadn’t told her about the murder that occurred last summer or that I was part owner. That could come later if we called her back for another interview.
We stood. “Thanks for coming in,” I said. “I’ll be in touch when we’ve completed our interviews.”
“Thanks, hon. It was nice talking to you,” Bev said.
“You, too.” I smiled as she left.
* * *
I opened the bar, and Tonya walked back in. I was surprised to see her. She plopped at the bar.
“A prosecco, please,” she said. “I’m celebrating and came to toast you.”
“I take it Wade hired you?” I opened a bottle of prosecco and poured the bubbly liquid into a coupe glass.
“Fancy glass,” Tonya said as I placed it in front of her.
“You didn’t have coupe glasses where you worked?” I asked.
“No, just flutes.”
“Flutes definitely have their advantages. They are easier to hold and less likely to spill when you clink them together.” I smiled at her. “It’s rumored that the coupe glass was modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breast.”
Tonya laughed and held the glass up. “Hmmmm, I guess she wasn’t exactly busty, judging by the size of this.”
I laughed, too. “No matter where the design came from, the larger surface allows more air to interact with any sparkling wine, which in turn allows the flavors and aromas to develop. And then you get a more rounded tasting experience. Lots of people think the flute allows the wine to stay bubblier and that the bubbles go flat in a coupe, but that’s a myth.”
“Mine never lasts long enough to worry about the bubbles going flat,” Tonya said.
I laughed again. “Mine either.” More customers came in, so I moved away and got down to business.
* * *
Cindy came in at five to four. I’d asked Vivi if I could use her office for the interview since we were busy. I didn’t tell her I wanted it for privacy or about Cindy’s connection to Enrique. I might confess it all later, but for now, I wanted to see how things played out. Cindy’s hair wasn’t gelled up in spikes, and the red tips were gone. Her outfit was way more modest than it had been the day I’d seen her at Two Bobs. She had on a short-sleeved dress in a floral pattern that hit just above her knee.
I wasn’t sure she’d recognize me from Two Bobs. It would be better if she didn’t. So I let her approach Joaquín and pretended not to watch her say she was here for an interview. Joaquín waved me over.
“This is Cindy,” Joaquín said. “She’s your four o’clock interview.”
“Great—thanks, Joaquín,” I said. “Come with me.” I led her into Vivi’s office and closed the door most of the way. If things got ugly, I wanted to be able to make a fast exit.
“Are you interviewing a lot of people?” Cindy asked. “Thanks for seeking me out. That has to be a first.”
We sat down. Me behind Vivi’s desk and her across from me. She crossed and uncrossed her legs several times. Nervous. I was nervous, too, but I hoped it didn’t show.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ve had quite a bit of interest. Tell me why you are interested in this job.” I wanted to get to more personal questions, but I also had to be careful about what I asked. The last thing I needed was to get sued for asking something I couldn’t legally ask. I’d read up on interviews after the first two I’d done.
“I looked at your hours, and I think I’d like the schedule better than that of my current job.”
Her resume hadn’t been updated to say she’d left Two Bobs.
“Plus, I like the idea of a smaller bar. It allows you to really connect with the patrons in a way I can’t at my current position.”
That was a good answer. But it seemed like she connected with Enrique without any difficulty. Or maybe with a lot of difficulty, if she was jealous of his interactions with the other women there.
She tilted her head to one side. “You look kind of familiar.”
Oh, no. I’d put on a headband to hold my hair back from my face in hopes of looking slightly different. I also had on a lot less makeup than the day she’d seen me. “People always say I look like Rachel Bilson.”
“Interesting. I don’t see it.”
Whatever. “Tell me about a time you were in a difficult situation at work and how you handled it.”
“I had a customer complain about a drink and then got them a new one.”
Not exactly unheard of in the world of bars, and it didn’t get me any closer to the subject of Enrique. “How about working with a difficult fellow employee?”
Her face reddened a little bit. “One of the bartenders kept asking me out and made some rude statements. But I told him it was never going to happen, and he left me alone.”
Again, nothing useful. “Were you ever in a relationship with anyone at work?” I wasn’t just skating on thin ice here. I’d gone through it and plunged into icy, dark water, but I was getting a little desperate for answers.
“Yes,” she said, and then she started sobbing.
Oh, dear. I wasn’t expecting that. “I’m sorry.” I found a box of tissues in one of Vivi’s desk drawers and handed it over to her.
She blew her nose and seemed to calm down. “I have a new no-man policy in place. I’m going to date myself for a while until I’m ready to venture out in the dating world. I have terrible taste in men.”
“Been there, dated that,” I said.
“Thank you. I’m sorry for my outburst. It’s just this man led me on, and then he was murdered.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “Are you talking about Enrique? I read about that online. I’m so sorry.”
She nodded and teared up again. “He acted like I was the only one, and then I found out he was also sleeping with several of the other waitresses and who knows who else.”
“When’s the last time you saw him?” Way out of the realm of interview questions, but I think I could make the case that at this point, we were just having a chat.
“The night he was murdered. We met down at the state beach.” She pointed to the right, toward where Vivi’s family used to own land. “Another waitress showed up, and she caught us kissing.”
“What was she doing there? How did she even know you’d be there?”
“Either she followed us there, or Enrique told her where we’d be. That actually sounds like something he would do. He loved the competition for his attention.”
“Was she angry at him?”
“No. That’s what was really crazy. She was mad at me.”
“I never get how women are mad at the other woman instead of the cheating sneaky man.”
“Me either.” She looked at me more closely.
Oh, oh.
“You were at Two Bobs with Enrique. I brought you up a Bushwacker.”
She must be a good waitress if she remembered that. I squinted at her like I was trying to remember her.
“That was you?” I asked. “You look different.”
“I needed a change after Enrique.”
“I think he roofied me that day. Have you heard anything about him doing that to anyone else?”
Cindy got very pale. Was it guilt?
“Once I found out he’d been cheating, I started talking to the other waitresses, but I never heard anything like that. You’d have to be a monster to do that.” She paused. “Were you seeing him, too?” Her voice wobbled a little.
I shook my head. “No. He was signed up for the barback competition, and I was just checking out who I was up against.” That led me to another thought. “Do you know who Lisa Kelley is?”
“Wonder Woman? Of course.”
“Did you see her in the bar the night Enrique died?”
Lisa thought for a moment. “She was in there early in the evening with that guy with the French name. Maybe around eight.”
“How about later?” Ralph had said he heard Lisa was one of the last people seen with Enrique.
“Not that I remember. The three of them left together around eight-fifty, and then Enrique came back alone around nine-twenty.” She glanced down at the crumbled tissue in her hand. “I know it’s pathetic that I’m so aware of his comings and goings.”
“Have you talked to anyone from the sheriff’s department about Enrique?” I hoped so, because Deputy Biffle must be looking at Cindy as a suspect, too.
“No. I left town after I walked out of Two Bobs that night. I needed to clear my head, so I went to visit a friend in Mobile. Then I heard about what happened to Enrique. I knew it wouldn’t look good for me. They might think I killed him. One of my bartending friends at Two Bobs told me to lay low.”
“You need to call Deputy Biffle. He’s leading the investigation. Better to get it over with and get your name cleared.” If her name could be cleared. While she looked all pathetic and sad, she might have left town to get her cover story perfected. I’d certainly be letting Deputy Biffle know that Cindy was back in town. And since I had her address on her application, I’d be happy to provide him with that, too.
“I’ll do it.” She paused. “I’m not even sure if I want to work in a bar anymore,” Cindy said. “The whole thing with Enrique has traumatized me. I just don’t have a lot of experience doing anything else.”
“What do you like to do?” Here I go again.
“I like spending time with my grandmother and her friends. I take care of them when they need help.”
I couldn’t stop myself. I opened my phone and typed in a few key search words. “Some of the home healthcare places are hiring, and one of the assisted living places in Destin is, too. Maybe you should check them out before you make a decision.” I hoped I wasn’t sending them a killer.
“I’m going to do that. Thank you.”
* * *
Cindy left. I sat in the office for a few minutes, thinking about my conversation with her. She didn’t seem upset enough to have killed Enrique, but she might have been one of the last people to see him alive. And I didn’t know her well enough to know if all those tears were for show or not. Maybe she recognized me right away and went with it.
I sent Deputy Biffle a quick text, telling him Cindy was back in town. I mentioned that Cindy and the other waitress might be two of the last people to see Enrique. I waited a couple of minutes for an answer, but there wasn’t one, so I walked back out to the bar.
Joaquín looked at me. “She looked happy. Did you offer her the job?”
I didn’t really want to answer that question. “No. Of course not. I wouldn’t do that without having her talk with you and Vivi.” I hoped that would throw him off the scent.
He shook his head. “You found her another job, didn’t you?”
“More like I suggested another job,” I admitted.
“And what about the applicants that came in this morning?” He raised one well-manicured eyebrow at me.
“One is starting as a sous chef at the Briny Pirate tomorrow.”
“And the other?”
“I was thinking of calling her back to interview with you, but I wanted to talk it over with you and Vivi before I did.”
“Get out. Chloe’s employment agency might have found us an employee.”
I shook my head at him, scooped up an order pad, and went back to work, but before I could, my phone rang. It was Johnny. Maybe this time it would be good news.
“Chloe, you have to quit contacting Deputy Biffle every time you think you know something.”
He skipped the pleasantries and went right for my throat. “How do you even know I’ve been doing that?”
“Doesn’t matter. If you have information to pass on, bring it to me, and I’ll decide if we pass it on to Deputy Biffle or not.”
“But I’ve always shared information with him in the past.”
“I understand, but it’s different this time.”
“Because I’m a suspect?”
“Person of interest.”
“Whatever. Deputy Biffle hasn’t ever called me in for another interview. That must be good, right?”
Johnny sighed. “He will. Like I said before, don’t go without me.”
Every nerve in my body seemed to stab into a muscle, which then contracted. Fear. “I won’t. Do you know why he wants to talk to me again?”
“Not for sure.”
Johnny seemed to know everything else. Why not this? Something that was really important.
“My guess is that he’s trying to shake you up. Don’t let him. You’re innocent.”
With that, he hung up. I looked around the bar.
“Are you okay, Chloe?” Joaquín stared at me. “You’re whiter than usual.”
I managed a laugh at that. “I’m fine.” There was nothing I could do right now, so I got back to work.
* * *
Vivi came in just before I left at seven. Things were quiet, and most of our customers were outside on the deck, enjoying the last rays of light. Joaquín and I were standing behind the bar, checking inventory.
“Really, Chloe, sometimes I just don’t understand you,” Vivi said.