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“What time are you coming to pick us up?”

“After work.”

“But what time?”

“I’ll text you later and tell you the time.”

“I missed you so much, Harlan.”

“Same.”

“Will you kiss me in the barn?”

“Probably will.”

Construction Site. Shelby.

Since we had to drive out to Shelby anyway to pick the girls up at Marilyn’s ranch, we took a few minutes to talk to Ray Dangerfield, Tory Masters’ working partner. If Tory confided in anybody about his personal life, it probably would’ve been the guy he worked with day in and day out.

We found Ray hanging a door on the bathroom he’d just renovated for a customer of Boyd Construction.

“Hey, Ray. Travis Frost from the sheriff’s office and I’m looking into the death of Tory Masters.” I shook his hand and noted the powerful grip.

“I wondered if you guys would show up to ask me questions about Tory.” Ray stopped working, set his hammer on the floor, and lit up a smoke.

Made me wonder if the customer approved of people smoking in their house. Lots of people hated it, but Ray didn’t seem to give a shit.

“You can always drop by the station if you’ve got something to tell me,” I said with a smile.

That made him laugh. Ray was a big guy. Good-looking chick-magnet type with a lot of muscle. Scruff on his tanned face. Dark hair a little long, but not as long as mine. Ball cap on his head.

“I don’t make a habit of dropping by the cop shop, Sheriff, know what I mean?”

“You knew that Tory was fooling around with the boss’s wife?”

“Tory wasn’t too secretive about it,” said Ray. “I think the only one who didn’t know was the boss.” That made Ray chuckle.

Maybe he did know.

“What about Josie – did she know?”

“Yeah, Josie found out not too long ago—two or three weeks ago—and she was pissed out of her tree.”

“Pissed enough to kill her husband?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. She’d send him texts saying all the ways she was going to kill him. Josie is nuts. You knew that, right? She goes to a shrink in Ethridge.”

“Yes. I know. Was Tory worried that Josie might make good on her threats?”

“Yeah, sort of. He told me he stopped eating at home because he figured she was going to poison him for the insurance money.”

“But if she was charged with his murder, the policy would be void,” I said.

“Only if she got caught,” said Ray.

“Tory was killed by a type of poison, but the coroner is having a job identifying it,” I said.

“Check Tory’s cell,” said Ray. “Josie might have named it. She named all kinds of things she was going to use on him. Like I said, she was nuts.”