One Foot in the Grave (Carly Moore #3) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,58

Maybe he’d take me seriously next time. Because something told me that Wyatt had picked up some tactics from both his father and his girlfriend, and he’d been using them on me.

I was done being manipulated, and God help the next person who stood in my way.

I figured it didn’t bode well that my next stop was at the home of the master manipulator himself.

Chapter Fifteen

As soon as I pulled away from the parking lot, I call Marco’s cell phone, not surprised and actually grateful when it went to voicemail. I wasn’t sure I could handle talking to him right now.

I listened to his message and took a deep breath to calm my nerves before I started to speak.

“Hey, Marco. Just calling to give you an update. I went by Mitzi’s house, but her husband came out and said she wasn’t going to talk to me. Like we discussed, I dropped by Greener Pastures to see Gladys, but I also talked to Thelma Tureen about Heather. She told me where Heather’s aunt lives, so I’m hoping to visit her tomorrow before my shift. Oh…if you think of it and you’re in Ewing, can you get a bunch of Gerbera daisies? If not, that’s okay, but Miss Thelma said they’re Hilde’s favorite, and I was hoping to bring some to offer my condolences.”

I paused and took a breath, wondering what I should say about Wyatt, if anything. But if Wyatt showed up at the tavern tonight, Marco was sure to pick up on the tension between us.

“Say, just so you’re not blindsided later. Wyatt pissed me off in the nursing home parking lot, and I might have pepper sprayed him in the stomach. So good news, the pepper spray worked,” I said with a fake cheery voice. “But don’t worry, he didn’t try to hurt me or touch me or anything untoward. He just pissed me off with his usual bullshit. Like the fact that he was apparently engaged to Heather when he demanded his father give him ownership of the tavern. I told him I was sick of his lies, and when he wouldn’t get out of my way, I sprayed him.” Then a new thought hit me. “So if someone from the nursing home calls the sheriff on him, he didn’t do anything worthy of arrest, because last time I checked, irritating the hell out of someone wasn’t an actual crime.”

I realized I was rambling, but I couldn’t seem to stop.

“In any case,” I said with a sigh, “I wanted to give you an update and to thank you for being such a good friend. Thanks for putting up with my crap. Okay. Bye.” I hung up.

I called Max next, trying to hurry before I left Ewing and lost cell phone service.

“Max’s Tavern,” he answered in his good-natured voice.

“Hey, Max, it’s Carly. How are things workin’ out with Molly?”

“Well…” he drawled, and I knew it wasn’t great. “She’s slower than you, and she’s made a few mistakes, but it’s Ruth that’s the wrench in the engine. She’s ridin’ her hard.”

Great. “I’ll talk to Ruth when I come in, which is why I’m callin’. I’m gonna be about an hour late.”

He was silent for a moment, then hesitantly said, “Okay…”

I knew he wanted to know why, but I really didn’t want to tell him, and I also didn’t want to lie. “Thanks for your understanding, Max. I’ll be in as soon as I can. Promise. Oh! And before I go, I think we should consider hiring Ginger to help with the lunch shifts. I figured it would probably work with her kids’ schedules.”

“Huh,” he said as though mulling it over. “That might be a good idea, and as far as I know, Ruth doesn’t have a beef with her.” His voice was becoming staticky.

“Well, there’s a good sign,” I said. It was a sad day when you hired people based on their ability to get along with a contrary waitress.

The connection dropped after that, and I didn’t see Wyatt in my rearview mirror, not that I was surprised. Marco had told me that pepper spray would incapacitate a person for a good length of time—plenty of time to get away, although I was fairly certain this wasn’t what he’d had in mind.

As I drove through Drum, I saw Emmaline Haskell sitting in a chair on the sidewalk at the street corner by the library, and I said a quick prayer of thanks. She was an older woman who sometimes came