Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
She put her Tupperware dish on the bar and slid out of her coat. I was taking my coat off when I saw Chief Grady walking into the bar, his massive frame filling the doorway.
He had the male version of RBF. RDF. It wasn’t a full scowl, but it sent a clear message—you’re probably annoying to me. But he’d taken me home from here the other night when I was drunk.
Which way would the asshole-nice Ping-Pong ball bounce today?
“Dig in, everybody!” a man with a short gray beard said from behind the bar. “Make sure you try Tipper’s jalapeño deer sausage; it’s a new recipe and he nailed it. We’ve also got some lutefisk, but when it’s gone it’s gone. And Barb’s got the details on window painting, so check in with her after you finish eating.”
Grady was with two other uniformed officers, and he got behind them in the food line. I was following Bess to the end of the line when I looked at Grady and our eyes locked.
“Hey,” he said gruffly. “Feeling better?”
I wasn’t sure if a jab about my drunkenness was coming, so I just nodded and said, “Thanks again.”
“Hey, is this her?” A barrel-shaped man with a black beard and a receding hairline approached and put his hand on my arm. “Are you Avon Douglas?”
From next to me, Bess sighed through her nose. Was she just hungry, or did she not like this guy?
“You can go ahead and get in line,” I said to her.
“No, I’ll wait for you. Avon, this is Ron Davison. He owns the car dealership and repair shop.”
Ron extended a hand to me. “It’s great to meet you, Avon. I was a friend of your dad’s.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” I said. “How did you know my dad?”
“Dave and I grew up together. We were in the same Scout troop, graduated in the same class.”
I couldn’t picture my dad as a kid. I’d never seen any pictures and he hadn’t said much about his childhood. Knowing Ron had known him then gave me a warm feeling, like I was a little bit closer to my dad.
“I’d love to hear more about that sometime,” I said.
Ron grinned. “Anytime. I was sorry to hear he passed. If you ask me, Pete took the whole thing with Amelia too hard and Dave never should’ve had to leave.”
Grady’s resting dick face turned into a full scowl. “Nobody did ask you, Ron, so move the fuck along.”
I could feel my heartbeat everywhere as I looked at Ron, ignoring Grady.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Shoot, surely you know your mom was engaged to Pete first?”
I swallowed, my head spinning. “What?”
Ron chuckled. “Yeah, she left him for his own brother and then had a kid with him. At least, I think Dave was your dad. S’pose it could’ve been Pete,” Ron said.
I just stared at him for a few seconds. He had to be mistaken. There was no way what he’d just said was true.
But when I looked from Bess to Grady, it was written on their faces. That was why everyone stared at me. Why my parents fled their hometown and never looked back. The thing everyone else knew but didn’t want to tell me.
I cleared my throat, trying to keep my composure. “I…didn’t know, but that makes sense.”
He grinned sheepishly, about to speak when Grady cut him off.
“Ron, you’re in the way. Move along.”
Though he wasn’t in the way, Ron left. I met Grady’s gaze, still stunned. He wasn’t even the one who’d dropped a bomb on me in front of more than a hundred people, but he looked sorry anyway.
“Come on, Avon,” Bess said softly. “You shouldn’t have had to find out that way.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whisper-hissed.
“It wasn’t my place.”
I stopped walking and glared at her. “Whose place was it, then? You know that’s why everyone in here is staring at me.”
Now Bess looked apologetic as she said, “I guess I should have told you.”
It was my parents who should have told me. They’d lied about so many things, and then there were their many lies of omission. And now I’d never be able to hear their sides of the story.
I shook my head. “It’s okay, this isn’t your fault. I’m going to go.”
“No, don’t go.”
“No, I really do need to. I won’t work. I’ll just hang out in the apartment.”
And work from there, but I didn’t say that. I needed to be alone. My mom had once been engaged to Pete. People here speculated about who my father was. I felt sick at the possibility that my dad, for all his faults, wasn’t really my dad.
And worse, I might never have even known if I’d flown out two days ago as planned.
CHAPTER NINE
Grady
I scowled at my computer screen as I thought about Ron Davison’s comment to Avon a few hours earlier at The Hideout. The guy was an asshole and even though it wasn’t in the scope of my job to investigate it, the whole town knew he was a tax evader and I was just waiting for the day the IRS would nail his ass to the wall. Sometimes I wished karma had a 1-800 number people could call to expedite the process.