"Man, I don’t know what to tell you. I was pretty drunk. I passed out pretty early that night."
"So you didn’t see Lynn fighting with anyone? Maybe earlier when you were in the bar?" Sam asked.
"I know Amber and Lynn got into it a little bit." Josh shrugged. "Makes sense, right? Tara would be pissed if we broke up and I showed up with another girl. But it wasn’t that way with Lynn and Noah because Lynn had broken up with him. But Amber is not part of our group. She’s a little different. More high strung. I guess maybe she didn’t trust Noah or something. I’ve seen her and Lynn get into it a few other times, but it usually just blows over."
"What about Noah and Lynn? Did they argue?"
Josh shook his head. "Nope. It was a little awkward at work when they first broke up, but they seemed to have smoothed everything over. I didn’t see any animosity between them. Honestly, man, none of us could have killed her. You don’t think it was Noah or Amber, do you?"
Sam answered his question with one of his own. "What about that day when you went into town? Can you tell me what happened then?"
Josh’s eyes narrowed. "Nothing happened. We went to that Irish pub over there and had a few beers. We played a game of pool. That’s when we saw the other bar—that one in the church—and decided to come back later on. It looked kind of quirky, and we wanted to check it out."
"Holy Spirits?"
Josh laughed. "Yeah. That’s the one. Great name."
"What did the girls do while you were playing pool?"
Josh made a face. "Heck if I know. They all went off shopping, I suppose. I know Tara came back with a bunch of stuff. She usually does."
"So you, Noah, and Dean played pool in O’Malley’s, and the girls went shopping, then you met up and got groceries?"
"Yeah. Well, not exactly. Me and Dean played pool. We played against two locals. Won a hundred fifty bucks, too. But not Noah. He just sat at the bar."
"So he was at the bar the whole time you were playing?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. I mean, he was there when we went into the back where the pool tables are."
"Was he there when you came out?"
"We lost track of time and played past the time we were supposed to meet everyone. Julie came in to get us. So Noah was already outside with everyone, and then Tara came running over from the shop with her bags. For once, her usual lateness worked in our favor since it didn’t make us look so bad for playing pool past the meeting time."
Jo shifted in her seat and asked, "Did Lynn mention an appointment that day?"
Josh’s brow furrowed. "Appointment? No."
"So then you bought the groceries, went to the campsite, and then came back later that night to Spirits?" Jo asked.
"Yep. Well, we started drinking at the campsite then came to town." Josh’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d said. "But we didn’t drink and drive. Noah didn’t start drinking until we got back to camp. He was the designated driver."
"At the campsite, where is your tent in relation to Noah and Amber’s?" Sam asked.
"It’s the next one over. Tara and I have the big one you can stand up in. Bought it new for this trip."
"After you went to bed, did you hear Noah or Amber get up?" Jo asked.
Josh made a face. "Nah. I was pretty wasted. I passed out, and I don’t remember hearing a thing until some damn bird woke me up that next morning."
Sam stretched in the chair, his neck cracking, while he waited for Tara Barrett to make her way into the room. Under his desk, Lucy snored lazily. They’d have to take a break and let her outside to do her business soon. Maybe Jo could go to the diner and get her some of that pot roast Lucy seemed to like for lunch. Sam could use a plate of it himself. They’d been interviewing straight through for a few hours now, and he was glad Tara was the last one. Too bad he still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Tara perched on the edge the chair, a pink Gucci purse balanced on her lap. Her outfit was a little trendier, less woodsy than the rest. Her pants were more formfitting, and her V-neck hot-pink tee shirt dipped low, revealing just a hint of lacy bra. She wore full makeup, and her red hair was pulled up in a waterfall style on top of her head.
Sam went through the usual questions. Tara’s answers matched with everyone else’s. Yes, they partied the night before. No, she didn’t think anyone in the group would’ve killed Lynn. Of course she knew the company was in financial trouble— she was the CFO. But she felt fully confident the new release would bring them back to profitability. Everyone did, so there was no reason to kill Lynn over that. She had no idea why anyone would want her dead.
But when he got to the part about what they had done the day before when they came to town, Tara’s demeanor stumbled.
"As far as I know, the boys went to that pub, and the girls went shopping." She patted her purse. "I got this. You have a great shop on Vine Street. That’s where I picked this up."
Sam knew the shop, though he’d only been in there once with his daughters. "Fern’s, right?"
"Yeah, I think that’s what it is."
"And Lynn went to the antiques store right at the end of Main Street, right?" Jo nodded out the window toward the main street of town.
Tara fidgeted in her seat, the chair pitching forward slightly as she followed Jo’s gaze. "Is that what the others said?"
"Some of them. But some others think she might have had an appointment." Jo leaned toward her. "Would you happen to know anything about that?"
Tara’s eyes flashed. "An appointment? I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to talk about Lynn now that she’s… she’s… well, you know."
Sam pushed up from his seat and came around the desk, leaning his hip on the edge so he could look down at her. "Tara. This is important. We’re investigating a murder. I don’t think Lynn is going to mind you talking about her if it helps us find her killer."
"Fine." Tara sighed. "I’m not sure if Lynn went to the antiques store. And I don’t think she had an appointment. Not like you mean. Because I saw her meeting with someone. And that explains why she wanted to borrow my bra."
"Your bra?" Jo asked.
Sam’s eyes flicked from Tara’s lacey cleavage to the photos of Lynn’s belongings spread across his desk. Now he knew what had bugged him about that. The bra found in her clothing pile in the woods was a fancy red lacey number, but the bras in her duffel bag were utilitarian. White cotton with a little tiny pink bow in the center. Plain Jane style, in fact, was the name of the maker.
"We borrowed each other’s clothes sometimes. We were the same size." Tara’s eyes filled up. "When she asked to borrow a fancy bra, I just figured she was hoping to get lucky later that night. I never suspected what she was really doing."
"What was she really doing?" Jo asked.
"Lynn might have had an appointment like you said, but it wasn’t a business appointment." Tara’s eyes drifted out the window. "That afternoon, I saw her meeting someone in that secluded alley near the Irish pub."
"In the alley?" Sam said. "Why would she be meeting someone there?"
Tara’s eyes came back from the window to look straight at Sam. "Because she didn’t want to be seen. She was meeting Noah. A real friendly meeting. And I don’t think they were discussing business, if you get my drift."
Chapter Twenty-Six