gestured to the front door of the tavern. “You want to wait inside?”
I shook my head as I faced the crime scene. If someone was trying to pin this on me, it might be a good idea to ask some questions of my own.
“Those two cars,” I said, gesturing to the station wagon and a rusted compact car. “Who do they belong to?”
Max’s brow shot up. “Uh…the guys who live in units one and two.”
“Jerry and…?” I’d forgotten the other guy’s name.
Max’s eyes narrowed. “Big Joe. How’d you know he lived there?”
“Ruth,” I said. “Remember when you were discussing where to put me?”
He closed his eyes and pushed out a long breath before giving me an apologetic grimace. “Yeah.”
“Do you think they might have seen something?”
Max hesitated. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to them.”
“Did your friend Marco say anything?”
When he gave me a suspicious look, I said, “While I’d love nothing more than for the police to come to the obvious conclusion that I’m innocent, forgive me if I don’t feel like sitting back and waiting for everything to fall into place.”
“You do realize you can get in trouble if they think you’re interfering in their investigation?” he asked.
I gave him a sassy grin. “There’s nothin’ wrong with a neighbor checking on and commiserating with her neighbors, is there?”
He gave me a look that suggested he was seeing me in a new light. “I suppose not,” he said, smiling back at me. “As your mutual landlord, let me introduce you.”
We walked across the street and Max knocked on unit one’s door. One of the deputies cast a glance at us. He looked like he was about to head over, but Max lifted his hand and waved. “Checkin’ on my tenants.”
He knocked again, and the door to unit two opened.
An elderly man popped his head out of a foot-wide crack. “Jerry’s gone.”
“Gone?” Max asked in surprise. “Gone where?”
“Dunno. He left and hasn’t come back.”
“But his car is still here,” Max said. “Did someone pick him up?”
“Dunno,” the man said. “He beat it out of here after the sheriff’s deputies started showin’ up in the middle of the night.”
I stepped forward. “Hi. I’m Carly, and I was in room twenty.” I gestured toward my room. “I was wondering if you happened to see or hear anything.”
“I heard you screamin’ bloody murder,” Big Joe said with a look of outrage. “Woke me out of a good dream.”
“You do realize that Seth Chalmers was murdered here last night?” Max asked, his words drenched in disgust. “A boy died.”
“Ain’t my concern,” Big Joe said and started to close the door.
Max moved faster than I would have thought possible for a person with a hangover, shoving the door back open with the palm of his hand and his foot. “You have two days to vacate the premises.”
The older man’s eyes bulged, and it took him a second to respond. “What?” he finally asked.
“If you don’t give a shit about the murder of a teenage boy—a good kid at that—then I want you the hell out of my motel.”
“Your motel?” Big Joe asked with a sneer. “You mean your daddy’s motel.”
Max’s face reddened. “My father may own it, but I run it. So if I say you’re gone, you’re gone. If you want to protest, you can take it up with Bart Drummond personally.”
Fear filled Big Joe’s eyes. “No. That’s okay.” Then the reality of his situation seemed to hit him. “I’ve rented from you for three years, Max. Never been late with my rent. I ain’t got nowhere else to go,” he whined.
“Did you see anything or not?” Max asked in the same tone he’d used on Bingham the night before.
“No!” Big Joe protested. “I done told you I didn’t! I only heard her screaming, but I ignored it, thinking it was just a ho pissed she hadn’t gotten her twenty bucks. Didn’t think much about it until I heard the sirens.”
“Nothin’ else?” Max asked, his face tight.
“Nothin’. So can I stay?”
Max turned to me. “Carly, you satisfied?”
My mouth dropped open. “Uh…yeah.”
Max turned to Big Joe. “You can stay, but you better make an appearance at the funeral, and I expect you to make a donation to the funeral fund. There’ll be a jar on the counter in the bar, but you can hand it to me personally.”
Big Joe nodded emphatically. “Yeah. Can do.”
“Then you can stay.”
Detective Daniels was giving us an assessing look I didn’t much like. I averted my gaze toward the street