Molly looked shocked. "That's impossible! Here, in this area?" She shook her head.
"Yes. The other murders took place in neighboring towns."
"That's terrible. I . . . I really can't bring myself to think about that. I don't want to know the details. Please," Molly begged. She looked traumatized by the fact they had occurred at all.
May could definitely spare her the details. It would be the kind thing to do. She had come to get information, not to give it.
"We're looking to know more about Ed’s activities, who he spent time with, where he went. Can you tell me if Ed participated in any sporting activities? Was he a member of a club? Did he socialize with a particular group of friends?"
Molly thought hard. "I don't know about clubs. I wasn’t involved in his social life. We . . . we led very different lives." She bit her lip as she said this.
"I know that it's difficult," May said, in a gentler tone. "But I need to find out if there was anything that connected the victims."
Molly hesitated. "He was a competitive weightlifter a couple of years ago," she said. "But not recently. I think he gave it up when he changed jobs. He used to attend the local gym in Fairshore about three times a week."
"Anything else? Any close friends?"
"I remember he socialized with the guys at his work. He didn't have any close friends from his school days. Nor did I. We both left those days behind us."
"So, you attended the same school?"
"Yes. We both went to Southbrook High."
"Any other places he would routinely go? Anyone he mentioned meeting up with?" May tried.
"He would eat at the town diner sometimes. Sometimes he would go to the movies with his work friends. But I don't know anything about any of them. We didn't have that kind of a marriage. He was his own man. I was my own woman."
She bit her lip again, and May could see that this was a painful admission for her to make.
"I see. I'm sorry to put you through this," May said, sympathetically.
"What's the point of all this?" Molly asked. "What do you hope to find?"
"I think that there might be a common factor between the victims that we don’t yet know about," May said. "We’re looking for a common thread between the three of them that could have made them all a target for this killer. I'm hoping that there is something that overlaps between all three of them."
“I hope there is, too,” Molly said. “I'm sorry I can’t be of more help."
"He might have mentioned a place he liked going to, a store he liked to shop in. Anything you can recall, please," May said.
Molly shook her head. "I wish I could explain what our life had been like. It wasn't good. We didn't have much in common. It was why I felt like I had met someone so special when I met Ron." Her face softened. "I was ready to tell my parents I'd made a mistake, and that I was going to leave Ed for him. That's how much Ron means to me. He’s already called me three times. He’s really torn up about this. And before you ask, it wasn’t him who killed Ed," Molly said fiercely. “He is a science lecturer at Tamarack University, and he was giving evening classes until eight p.m. on that night.”
The thought had occurred to May, and she was glad to hear that Ron had an alibi, even though she made a note to check it independently to be sure. Then, she scribbled the final thoughts down on her pad. The list of activities wasn't much, but if it was all there was, she'd now have to see what Owen had come up with. Perhaps there would be common threads. She hoped so.
"Thank you," she said.
She got up and left, closing the front door behind her. She drove the few miles back to the police department, wondering what Owen would have discovered while she was gone, and whether there would be any common threads apparent.
May parked outside, automatically checking for Jack's car with a twist of her stomach, because until this was solved, she didn't feel comfortable around her boss. It was a very unusual feeling for her to have. She knew that now that the earlier tension had been resolved, that feeling was probably mostly of her own making, but still, it wasn't going to go away.
Jack's car wasn't there. He must be out, at one of the other meetings he'd mentioned.
Rushing inside, May headed to the back office, where Owen was just completing a call.
He put his cellphone down on the desk, jotted a note, and turned to May.
"This is what I have," he said. "Dave Tyne used to be a member of the Southbrook running club, and he used to go hiking. He hated gym. However, he used to coach kids at Southbrook High some weekends, teaching football. That was his old school. They mentioned some friends, but I can't find any in common between him and Anthony Mulligan."
"Okay," May said, scooting into a seat and comparing this with her list. "What else did you get on Anthony?"
