“I was just wondering whether you’d had a chance to talk to Mitzi.”

“I did,” I said, resting a hand on the edge of the counter.

“Did she tell you anything that proved helpful?”

“She did,” I said. “She said that you were the one who told her about Tulsa.”

Her face paled, her usual confidence draining away.

“I know Paul helped you,” I said. “I have proof.”

She looked like she was about to be sick.

“I guess the question is why,” I said. “And how.”

She glanced around the room. “I’ll tell you, but not here.”

“Then I guess you can tell the sheriff,” I said.

Her eyes flew wide. “Carly. Please! Just let me explain what happened.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you alone. I’m not stupid.”

Her eyes flooded with tears. “Carly. I need your help. I’ll tell you everything, but not here.”

“Then how about Max’s office in the back?”

She hesitated. “Okay.”

I walked over to Max and whispered, “Abby’s part of this, and she’s going to tell me how in your office. I need you to get Tiny to watch the back door in case she decides to do something stupid.”

His eyes flew wide and he whisper-shouted, “What the hell, Carly? Why are you goin’ back there at all?”

“Because she knows what happened and we have no guarantee she’ll tell the sheriff. Especially since a deputy was involved. This might be the only way to clear Wyatt’s name.”

I started to walk past him, but he stopped me. “Do you have your recorder?”

“No,” I said, cursing my luck. “The tape was full and Marco took it.”

Turning to his side, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. He tapped on the screen and then dropped it into my apron pocket. “To record the conversation.”

“Thanks,” I said, looking for Abby and finding her at the end of the bar. Had she seen Max give me his phone?

“Back this way,” I said when I reached her. I led her back to Max’s office and motioned for her to sit in Max’s chair while I took a seat on the guest chair.

“I’d like to shut the door,” she said.

“That’s not happening,” I said. “But I assure you that we won’t be disturbed.”

She didn’t answer, just twisted her hands in her lap.

“You were in town the night of Heather’s going-away party?” I asked. “Why didn’t you go?”

“We both agreed it would be better that way.”

“You couldn’t be tied to it if everyone thought you were in Knoxville. You came back to help Heather drug Bart so she could blackmail him.”

She nodded, refusing to meet my gaze.

Now the drugs made sense. “She asked you to get a drug to put him out.”

“I didn’t want any part of it at first,” she said, tears falling into her lap. “But Heather convinced me the payout would be worth it. She knew how desperate I was. I was behind on my rent, my next tuition payment was loomin’, and I had a trip to Tulsa with my class.”

“Which is why the postcard came from Tulsa.”

She nodded.

“But she changed her mind,” I said. “And you freaked out because you still needed the money.”

“I was pissed, and truth be told, I was a little drunk. We were supposed to meet at the overlook and then go see Bart at his house. He thought Heather was coming to renegotiate, but we planned to drug him with a horse tranquilizer in his office and get photos of him with Heather, in the nude of course.”

“Of course,” I murmured.

“When she showed up, I was sitting on the hood of my car, staring out at the overlook, holding that stupid syringe full of ketamine as I tried to talk myself out of doing it. She sat down beside me and told me that after all the planning we had done, she’d changed her mind, and she was leaving after all, which was all kinds of ironic, since she’d kept needlin’ me about not chickenin’ out. She started callin’ me Peep.”

She shook her head and sniffed. “I was pissed. She’d treated me like a yo-yo for years. Hot and cold, but I always came runnin’ back. So I shouted at her, telling her what a selfish bitch she’d been. I said I was done. She was furious and slapped me. We had a little shoving match, and the next thing I knew, she’d been stabbed in the belly and the plunger had been pushed down.”

“So you’re saying you accidently injected her?”

She nodded. “I panicked. It was a dose intended for a man a lot bigger than her. Plus, I’d stolen the drug—I’d be kicked out of vet school if they found out. So I’ll admit that I stayed out there with her for a bit while I tried to figure out what to do. I decided I’d take her to the sheriff’s office in Ewing and dump her off at the front steps.”

“So what happened?”

“I took her car, figuring I’d hide it somewhere and find a way to get back to mine. I shoved her in the backseat and was halfway between Drum and Ewing when I saw flashing red lights behind me. I was being pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy. I was terrified, but then he told me to get out of the car and move to the back. I was praying he wouldn’t see Heather. So much so that I let him feel me up and do other things I’m not proud of. He seemed pretty satisfied with himself. He insisted on walkin’ me back to my door, like he was a fuckin’ gentleman. I tried to stop him, but he saw Heather.”

Marco had to figure out a way to get that predator off the streets.

Abby continued, “He recognized her right away, not that I was surprised. It’s a small town, and Heather was the kind of person people noticed. I told him that she’d overdosed and I was on my way to Ewing to get help. He checked her pulse and told me she’d never make it to the hospital in time. He knew she’d been paid off by the Drummonds, and he said he wouldn’t turn me in if I gave him half the money. I didn’t know what to say, but I did know she still had the check. I was scared enough that I agreed.

I followed him out to a section of Bingham land. He told me that Todd Bingham’s daddy had buried tons of bodies out here. What was one more? Then he took the keys and left, tellin’ me he was gonna get a shovel. I nearly left on foot while he was gone. Heather was dead by the time we parked there, and I was scared and upset. He was a sheriff’s deputy. Could I really disobey and leave? When he came back, he had two shovels. He made me help him, but the ground was hard, and we only got the hole about three feet deep. He tossed her into the grave like a bag of potatoes, then made me cover her body with dirt. Told me it was a good reminder not to use drugs. Then he made me drive her car to his house and park it in his garage, and he took me back to my car. He told me to cash the check, and when I came back with his share of the money, we’d deal with the car together.”

“And you deposited the money in Tulsa?”

“I had her debit card and I knew her PIN. So I used her debit card to buy several money orders while I was there. If anyone was looking into her disappearance, they’d see a footprint in Tulsa.”

“Why didn’t you turn him in?” But as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew it was a ridiculous question.