Hadley blinked, suddenly looking startled. “Yes, she knew. I told her so that she wouldn’t think that Pete was hanging around to try to get together with her. Gosh, she was so mean. She insinuated that Pete was only dating me in order to get to her.”
I quirked a brow to the sky. “Wow. I bet that made you mad.”
She scoffed. “Mad is an understatement. It made me furious. As if he would do that. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t hire her. Oh, she was all kissy-kissy to me when we met to go over her ideas for the barn, but by the end of the interview, she was digging her acrylics into me.”
Acrylics, as in acrylic fingernails. Did people even still get acrylics? I thought everyone was into the gel or the dipping, or the shellac, or whatever on God’s green earth it was called.
But this was new—so Hadley and Pete were together and now suddenly she had forgotten to mention that Crystal had been a royal witch about them dating. Hmmm. Maybe that was because I hadn’t asked any of the right questions to begin with.
“So, um”—I cleared my throat, trying to wrangle my thoughts—“was Crystal really pushy about her feelings?”
Hadley’s bright eyes darkened with anger. “Oh, she was pushy. She was pretty nasty about it. She couldn’t let it go.” Suddenly sadness filled her face. “Please don’t tell Pete. I didn’t convey any of this to him because I know how he is—he would have gone off the deep end and told Crystal what for and all that. I wanted to keep this from him so that he wouldn’t have to worry about me.”
“Okay, I can understand that. So you didn’t tell him. But did you see Crystal at the apple-picking contest?”
Hadley crossed her arms, taking a defensive position. Interesting. “Yes, I saw her. She was with her uncle, Sykes Laffoon, but that didn’t stop her from cornering me.”
“Cornering you?”
She nodded. “Crystal cornered me and told me once again that Pete didn’t care about me, that he was only dating me to make her jealous.”
“What a piece of work,” I said.
“She was.”
“Then what happened?”
Hadley picked a speck of dirt out from under her fingernails. “Then I told her to leave me and Pete alone. I told her that she was a sorry person and that I’d actually given her a shot at renovating my barn, but she’d blown it.” Hadley’s hands clenched and unclenched. “I was so mad that I could have killed her.”
And that was it. The words that I hadn’t expected Hadley to say, but that didn’t completely surprise me when she did.
I started to back away to my truck. “You going to be at the apple festival?”
A shiver overcame Hadley as if she was shaking a thought from her head. “Of course. You know, it’s a big deal with my dad and all. I’ve gotta help Leola Vass into the truck. I’ll be there.”
I waved. “Great. See you then.”
As soon as Lady and I were safely tucked into the truck and were rumbling far down the drive, I called Malene.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“It’s better than okay,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ve just found our killer.”
Chapter 23
“So you think it’s Hadley, huh?” Malene said as soon as I walked in the door.
“I do.” I dropped my purse onto the floor and slumped into a chair, pulling Lady onto my lap. “There was something strange about the way she was talking about everything, as if she was so angry that she couldn’t control it. I could just tell that Crystal had enraged her.”
Malene rubbed her chin. “Hmm. Very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. What I wouldn’t give for a truth-telling spell right about now.”
An idea struck me. “Can we go search one out? Would that work?”
She shook her head. “Not only are they rare, but sometimes they work a bit too well. They can convince people that anything is the truth. Someone might admit to a crime they didn’t commit, that is.”
Confused, I said, “Then why did you just say that you wanted one?”
“Oh,” she answered with the flick of her hand. “It’s only an expression.”
