"What might complicate things?" May asked. She was getting more and more agitated.
"That man, Dean, dated Molly's best friend, Esther Gregory, when they were all seventeen years old. He spent a few evenings at our house when Molly had parties. He knows her. Well. I'm not sure what he thinks of her, but they were friends once."
"He dated her best friend?" This was starting to get very complex. May wondered what this meant. A connection so close to the wife of one of the victims must mean something.
"What happened in the end?" she asked.
"Esther broke up with him. I don't know what the reason was. You'd have to ask Dean that."
"So, Esther called it off?"
"Yes, she did."
May was very surprised by the presence of this close connection, which she wouldn't have known about had it not been for Sheriff Jack noticing their suspect. It brought home to her all over again what a small community this was and how personal the connections were.
"I am glad you've told me this."
"I hope it helps you make progress," Jack said solemnly.
"I'd better go and talk to him now," May said.
With Jack's words still at the top of her mind, she hurried out of the office and went down the corridor to the interview room.
As she stepped inside, she saw Dean Linn and Owen glowering at each other in a way that told her these two men were never going to be friends. She sat down and placed her notebook on the table.
"Thank you for coming in with us. I know you didn't want to, but we really need to talk to you."
Dean glared at her now. She was just as unpopular with him as Owen was. “This is a waste of time,” he reminded her.
"The three victims who have been murdered are Ed Blair, Anthony Mulligan, and Dave Tyne. Do you know any of them well?"
Dean made a face. "They were all the popular guys at school. Sporty, good with the girls. I didn't like any of them. I was a rebel."
"You had fights with them at school?"
"I fought with everyone. That's who I am."
"Did you stay in touch with them after school?"
"Why would I? I was glad to see the back of them. I didn’t finish at their school, anyway. I moved somewhere else for my last two years.
“So, you didn't like them."
"I don't like anyone. I'm a loner. I don't like people."
"And yet you dated Esther, Molly's best friend."
Dean's eyebrows rose. "So, you found out about that? That was after I left the school. I dated her after I bumped into her in a music store.”
"Just answer the question," May urged.
"She wasn't like them. She was a real rebel, like me."
"Why do you say that?"
"The rest of those girls were so . . . so good. Such little angels. They could do no wrong. So normal. So sweet. Esther was the one who'd be daring, who'd drink, who'd even sleep around. She was the one who always dared to be different and thought society needed changing. I liked her. She was a real rule breaker. Although, with a terrible temper on her. You didn’t want to get on her wrong side because she’d never forget it.”
“She was that kind of person?” This was giving her a very different picture, May realized. She’d thought Esther would be more like Molly, but it seemed the friends had been opposites.
