A Cry in the Dark (Carly Moore #1) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,56
door.
Chapter Thirteen
The smart thing to do would be to junk the car. Move forward with my plan to go somewhere with good public transportation. But not Wilmington. Even if it did have a good bus system, I’d already told Wyatt and Ruth about my original plan.
When I walked into the tavern, Max was behind the bar, dumping a container of ice into the bin. He glanced past me to the open doorway. “Where’s Ruth?”
Had he been hoping she’d change her mind about working the lunch shift? “She had to stay longer in Greeneville, so I caught a ride back from someone else.”
He leaned a forearm on the counter. “Who the hell did you get a ride back with?”
Would Max be pissed that I’d come back to town with his estranged brother? But it seemed there was little point in equivocating. There was a good chance someone had seen me either in Wyatt’s truck or walking from his shop. “Wyatt.”
It took him a full second to respond. “Wyatt?” His shoulders flexed. “What the hell was he doin’ down in Greeneville, and how in the hell did he find you?”
“Ruth and I weren’t completely truthful with you earlier. I went to Greeneville with her so I could see Hank Chalmers.”
He stared at me for several seconds, still in shock. “What on earth for?”
“I had to tell him about Seth’s last moments.” I gave him a weak smile. “I thought he’d want to know.”
He looked perplexed that I’d do such a thing. “It could have waited, Carly. You could have told him when he got back home.”
“That’s just it, Max. He wouldn’t be coming home if I hadn’t gone to see him. Seth was supposed to pick him up tomorrow. And since he had no one to bring him home, they were going to put him in rehab.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why are you sayin’ all that in the past tense?”
“Because I’m gonna bring him home tomorrow instead.”
“You’re gonna do what, now?” he asked, wide-eyed. “How are you gonna do that when you don’t even have a working car?”
“I planned on borrowing one,” I said. “But it turns out I don’t need to. Your brother showed up at the hospital, and he offered to give me a ride to the hospital and back in the morning. Still, I’m going to need tomorrow morning off and likely part of the afternoon so I can get Hank settled in at home.”
“Who’s going to take care of him after you get him settled?” Max asked.
I hesitated, unsure how he was going to take this. “I’m going to stay with him.”
He stared at me like I’d told him I was becoming a Hare Krishna. “Let me get this straight. You’re going to stay at Hank Chalmers’ house? And take care of him?”
“Only for a few days,” I said. “Until his home health nurse shows up at the end of the week.”
“Who’s gonna watch him while you’re workin’?” Panic spread across his face. “You’re not quittin’, are you? I’m not ashamed to say we’d like you to stay around longer. You caught on faster than any other new hire I’ve had.”
“No,” I hastily said. “At least not yet. I need the money to fix my car, plus everything else. I’ll figure something out.” I said the last part with unintended desperation.
Max’s face softened, and he gave me a warm smile. “You’re a good person, Carly. And Hank needs our help. We’ll make it work.”
“Thanks, Max.” I liked that he said we, like he wanted to be part of it.
“Go get you a new shirt in the back,” he said, glancing down at my borrowed button-down. “In fact, take a few with you. I have no idea what kind of laundry situation Hank’s got goin’ on out there.”
I headed to the back. Tiny was working the kitchen again with Bitty, an average-sized older woman who didn’t seem as friendly as the rest of the staff. I suspected she’d heard that I was a person of interest.
She wasn’t the only one.
When we opened at noon, there was a crowd lined up to come in and plenty of them gave me suspicious looks. Most them treated me like I had the plague, but they weren’t turning me away as their waitress. They’d come to gawk at me, after all, and there was no one else to wait on them. A few people tried to broach the subject of the murder, but I ignored their questions or deflected by saying I needed to