Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness - Dakota Cassidy Page 0,32
stance. “How’s your Uncle Darling? He okay?”
“He’s a wreck, and that’s why I’m here.”
“You want pastries? No, wait! Macarons. Andrew loves pink, strawberry-filled macarons. I’ll get you some to bring to him.”
I grabbed her arm and smiled. “You’re very kind, but like I said, Rhonda, I’m worried about my uncle and the possibility he might know something the killer wants to be sure he doesn’t tell anyone…and I can’t sit by without at least trying to figure out who did this. So I thought I might ask around about something Anna and her mother told me. It’s about Landry Tithers. Does he still work here?”
Immediately, I sensed she became guarded. “He does. He’s outside taking a cigarette break right now. Why?”
Instantly, I was on alert. He smoked? Interesting. “Can we speak with him?”
“You don’t think…” Rhonda shook her tea towel, her expression one of disgust. “You don’t think that boy’s mixed up in this mess, do you? He’s worked real hard to stay sober, and that’s the only reason we hired him. He has to take a drug test every week to stay employed here—no guff allowed about it, neither. I give it to him myself, and he’s clean as of last week.”
“I’m sure that’s true. But I have a couple of questions I’d like to ask anyway. Do you mind?”
“He’s right in the back alley. You go on ahead while I fix up a box of those macarons your uncle likes. And if you find something out I oughta know about, you better tell me, Miss Hal. I won’t have a druggie workin’ here.”
“Thanks, Rhonda. I will,” I said, giving her arm a squeeze before I headed toward the back exit with Hobbs hot on my heels.
When I pushed open the door, Landry stood by the dumpster, tucked into a dark blue down jacket, his hands and nose beet red. A plume of smoke rose above his head as he stared vacantly at the brick wall in front of him, smoking his cigarette.
“Landry?” I asked, approaching him with tentative steps as Hobbs placed a protective hand on my waist.
He pulled at his knit cap and eyed us with a defensive glare. “Who’s askin’?”
I didn’t bother to offer my hand, instead I merely responded, “Halliday Valentine, and this is Hobbs Dainty.”
He snorted, a puff of condensation shooting from his mouth in a small cloud. “Dainty? Your name is Dainty? Like, delicate?”
Hobbs stepped toward Landry, looming over him by at least a foot and a half. “Uh-huh. It rhymes with ‘I don’t like it when people make fun of my name.’ So are you gonna behave like you’re still on the playground in fifth grade, or are you gonna use your manners and act like the adult your license says you are?”
I watched Landry’s face go even redder before he straightened up and took a small step backward, but he didn’t back down entirely. He made that clear from his defensive tone. “What do you want from me, lady?”
Eyeing him, I jammed my hands in my pockets to keep from putting a hex on his sullen butt. “I want to know what you know about the deaths of Gable Norton and Evan Fowler.”
As the snow began to pour out of the sky, he flicked his cigarette to the ground and scrunched up his face. “I don’t know anything about either one of them.”
“That’s not what Patricia Fowler said,” Hobbs told him.
“Yeah? Well she’s whack, okay?” he spat. “I didn’t make Evan take any drugs. I wasn’t anywhere around him when he died. They teach you at my substance-abuse program that you’re responsible for what you shoot into your veins. Evan shot up a bad batch of somethin’. That’s not my fault.”
“Did you sell the bad batch of somethin’ to him, Landry? In fact, while we’re talking about selling drugs, did Gable sell drugs for you? Was he still selling them as of last night? Was he only pretending to be clean? Or do you know of someone who might have a drug-related grudge against Gable?” I asked, unconcerned about the accusatory tone to my questions.
Landry’s narrowed eyes flashed angry under the bruised purple skies. “What is it with you idiots? It’s like you don’t want me to get better when every time anything in this Podunk town happens, it’s my fault. I’m the first person they come lookin’ for. It’s crap!”
“Sometimes, your reputation precedes you,” Hobbs offered as an explanation.
Landry spat on the ground from a clenched jaw. “Well, I didn’t