Witcher Upper - Amy Boyles Page 0,40

name popped up on the screen.

Then I remembered—I was supposed to be at the funeral home. Jumping Jehoshaphat!

“Liam, I’m on my way,” I said, shouldering my bag. “I’m so sorry. I had Dooley to deal with and today’s just been a mess.”

“It’s okay, Clem,” Liam said, lifeless. “We were just about to leave.”

“No, don’t leave!” I ran out my door and slammed it behind me, locking it quickly. This was my chance to meet Sadie’s mom and talk to her, find out if she knew anything about her daughter’s spending habits.

Liam agreed to stay, and luckily, since Peachwood was only about the size of a postage stamp, it only took about eight minutes to reach the funeral home.

I aimed for a parking spot right up front and hit the brakes. My truck rumbled to a stop just as Liam exited the front door beside a tall, lithe blonde woman with deep lines in her face—smoker’s lines or lines from living a hard life.

Liam saw me and pointed. Boy, did he look rough. My heart lurched at the sight of him—red, puffy eyes, a red nose, rumpled shirt and pants.

As soon as I exited the truck, I wrapped him in a hug. “Oh, Liam, I’m so sorry about today.”

He shook his head. “It’s okay. Clem, meet Hannah, Sadie’s mom.”

I shook her hand; it was as cold as the look in her eyes. “How do you do?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not well. If you ever lose a daughter, you’ll understand.”

Wow. I had said the wrong thing before—plenty of times—but I never expected the first meeting with Sadie’s mom to go so horribly wrong.

I rubbed my arm nervously. “It was a stupid thing to say, sorry.”

She sniffed. “I apologize. This isn’t something that I ever expected to be dealing with.”

I knew that Sadie and her mother had a tenuous relationship. Had her mother gotten angry about something and pushed Sadie in that concrete? Let’s face facts, I had no idea who had killed Sadie, so in my opinion, just about everyone looked like a suspect.

Liam glanced off into the distance, his eyes seeing but not seeing. “She looks beautiful. It’s going to be a nice funeral.”

I ached to speak to Liam about everything that I’d learned about Sadie so far, but he wasn’t in any shape to deal with it. His socks didn’t even match.

“Liam, why don’t you go home and get some rest? I’ll take care of Mrs. March.”

“Call me Hannah,” she insisted.

Liam looked at her. Guilt was etched all over his face. “I hate to abandon you.”

“Nonsense,” she replied, smiling now. “I’ll be in perfectly capable hands with Clementine.”

Liam got into his pickup and drove off, leaving us alone. “Would you like to grab a cup of coffee?” I asked her.

Hannah snorted. “You don’t get lines on your face like mine from drinking coffee.” She arched a brow. “Know of any bars that are open?”

I smiled. “Well, in fact I do.”

A few minutes later Hannah and I sat in a booth at Shane’s. Shane was serving that afternoon, and he shot me a quirked brow when I entered.

I waved. “I know it’s early for me.”

He winked. “You come in whenever you want.” He built my appletini just the way I liked it while Hannah ordered a Jameson whiskey neat with a water back.

We sat and Hannah immediately started talking. “I suppose you thought that you’d never meet me.”

I nearly snorted appletini out of my nose. I grabbed a few napkins and dabbed my face. “I’m sorry?”

She smirked. “Don’t think that I don’t know what Sadie said about me.”

“Truth is, she never said anything about you. The most she ever told me was that the two of you didn’t get along.”

Hannah sipped her whiskey, her glittering gaze pinned on me. “My relationship to this town is complicated. There are many here who hate me, and so when I could, I left. Sadie stayed on, but we had to make it look like we had parted ways.”

What in the world had happened? “I’m not gonna pretend that I understand a lick of what you’re saying.”

She folded her hands. “I’ve been sick. I don’t suppose you know that.”

I shook my head. “No idea.”

“My treatments cost a lot of money.” Hannah leaned back in her chair. “You have to understand, when I abandoned this town, I left with nothing, not one penny. I think that was the beginning of my illness. That’s when it started, but it didn’t progress for years. It lay dormant, and