by Rose Pressey
When he’d pulled out onto the road, I straightened in the seat and released a sigh of relief. That had been a close one. I felt bad for hiding from him—he had been nothing but nice to me since I’d returned—but it was what I had to do. He didn’t need to be involved with finding my uncle and I didn’t need to be involved with Grant.
What had he been doing anyway? That was kind of a stupid question. It was a restaurant. Of course he’d come to eat. That was exactly what I would have told him I was doing there if he’d seen me. But in reality, I was coming to talk with Anna Louise. She didn’t like Gina, but she seemed to be fine with me. Plus she’d dated my uncle, so that should make her want to help me. Since I had no other leads, I had to use the one that I could find. Even if it was probably pointless.
There were few cars in the parking lot, so I figured I would get a chance to talk with her. That was if she was actually working. I crossed my fingers, hoping that I would get lucky and she’d be there. I stepped inside the diner and looked around the mostly empty space. There were a few people in the back. They looked up at me when I entered, but then turned back to their food. I didn’t see anyone who was actually working there. I decided against sitting at a booth. I’d just take a seat at the counter. Maybe someone would notice me soon.
If Anna Louise wasn’t working, I’d ask if she would be in soon. That was probably information that they wouldn’t give out to me though. I sat at the counter next to the register and grabbed a menu. I hadn’t planned to eat, but she would probably be more likely to talk if I ordered something. The apple pie looked good. I perused the menu and kept glancing around to see if anyone was working. Noise sounded from in the kitchen, but whoever was back there hadn’t noticed me yet. I placed the menu down and tapped my fingers against the counter.
I was just about to get up to see if I could find anyone when Anna Louise popped around the corner. She paused and looked at me as if she’d seen a ghost. That was never a good look to receive. Was she expecting to see me with Gina again? We’d made eye contact, so there was no way she could get out of coming over to help me. I wasn’t sure what she was afraid of, it wasn’t like I would bite her or anything.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that no one was standing behind me. Yes, it was definitely me she was looking at that way. Anna Louise grabbed a coffee pot and shuffled over. She turned the mug in front of me over and poured coffee without saying a word.
Finally, she said, “Looks as if I am popular today.”
I quirked a brow. “Did you have a lot of customers?”
She shook her head. “No, I mean Mr. Grant Kenner was just in here to see me.” Well, I had known that he’d just left, but I hadn’t known he’d come in specifically to see her. That was interesting. “And now you are here.”
“He was here to see you?”
She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. What can I get you?”
I eyed the apple pie and decided to give in and get a slice. “I’ll take the apple pie.”
She placed her hands on her hips and stared at me. “What?”
“Is it not good?”
She shook her head and turned around to retrieve the pie. I wasn’t sure what that was all about.
“So what did he want?” I asked as she had her back toward me.
“He wanted to ask some questions,” she said as she turned around and placed the plate in front of me. “No ice cream, right?”
I nodded. “Right. I like it without the ice cream.”
“I figured as much.” She smirked.
“What did he ask you?” I asked as I sank the fork into the flaky crust.
She poured me a glass of water and placed it in front of me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“He wanted to ask about Porter Brennan. I guess that’s why you’re here too. Did he tell you to order the pie too?”
“No, he doesn’t know I’m here.”
She smiled. “That’s even funnier.”
This conversation was confusing me. I felt as if I was missing something that I should know. After taking a bite of the pie, I asked, “What did you tell Grant?”
Anna Louise released a deep breath. “What can I say? I told him nothing because I don’t know anything. If you all want to know anything about Porter you should just go ask.”
“I don’t think it would be as easy as that.”
“Why are you so interested in him anyway?” she asked.
“Because he seems to have a problem with me.” I wouldn’t mention the tape or possible blackmail.
“He has a problem with a lot of people,” she said under her breath.
“Who else does he have a problem with?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
Anna Louise walked over and helped another customer, but I wasn’t going to give up just yet. I watched her and I knew she was aware of my stare. She tried to avoid looking at me.
Finally, she made eye contact and came back over. “Do you need something else?”
I needed something, but it wasn’t food or drink. Maybe I needed to come up with another way to ask her about Porter. I could trick her into talking about him. Oh, who was I kidding? I had no plan to get her to open up to me.
“Why would he ask me to leave town?” I asked.
“Maybe it’s because he didn’t like you.”
I shook my head. “Don’t think so. He doesn’t even know me. I just came back to town. I think he has something against my uncle. I think he doesn’t like him and for that reason doesn’t like me.”
Her expression changed. I thought I was on to something.
“Why didn’t he like my uncle? You would know that since you know both of them,” I said.
“I don’t know that. Whatever was going on between them is none of my business.”
“So there was something between them.”
“Are you ordering anything else?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
“You know, I won’t stop until I find out. Did he do something to my uncle?” I asked.
She met my gaze. “I certainly hope not.”
There was sincerity in her voice. Her answer hadn’t made me feel better. Now I was worried that Porter had actually done something to my uncle. I placed cash for my pie on the counter and pushed to my feet.
“Thanks,” I said.
I was thanking her for the pie and not the information because she’d provided me with little details to go on. Although now I was sure there had been something going on with Porter Brennan and my uncle. After all, I practically had the tape to prove it. I headed out of the diner with no clue what I was doing next. I needed to tell Grant about what Anna Louise had said. I had to tell someone and he was the first person who had popped into my head. Sure, I didn’t want to involve him, but damn it, I couldn’t keep myself away from him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Grant would fight for Chloe in more ways than one
I was headed to my parents’ store when I spotted one of the men who had been hanging around with Porter. It wasn’t the one I thought had been at my office, but I wasn’t going to let this one get away without saying something to him. He had been at the bar with Porter. If one of the inspector’s sidekicks was around, then the other one couldn’t be too far away.
The guy was across the street, so I needed to hurry before he had a chance to slip away. So far he hadn’t noticed me. I waited for a couple cars to pass so that I could cross the street, but I didn’t take my eyes off him.
When I crossed the street I ran after him. “Hey,” I yelled out as I grew closer.
If he heard me, he didn’t turn around. So I called out to him again. He finally glanced over his shoulder, but didn’t stop. The man quickened his pace and I figured he would take off in a sprint at any moment. The last thing I needed was to have to chase this guy down the street. Before he had a chance to run, I kicked it into high gear. He was pretty slow-moving, so I figured I had a good chance of catching him.
When I w
as right behind him, I reached out to grab him. He yanked his shoulder away, so I reached out again. This time I made good contact with his shoulder. “Hey, I’m talking to you. Why are you running away?”
He turned around and looked me in the eyes. “What the hell do you want?”
I didn’t let my stare falter. “I want to talk with you. Didn’t you hear me call to you?”
“I heard you, but I chose to ignore you. You got a problem with that?”
This guy had an attitude problem.
I shook my head. “No problem with you.”
Without warning, the guy took a swing at me. I ducked and threw a punch at him. Unfortunately, it missed him too. It looked like we were both off this morning.
“You want to go with me?” he asked, while motioning for me to take another punch. People were beginning to stare at us now.
“I don’t want to fight you. I just came to ask you a couple of questions. Why don’t you make it easy on both of us and just answer a few questions,” I said.
He looked around and then finally put his fists down to his sides. “What the hell do you want to know?”
“Tell me what you know about Porter Brennan.”
He stared at me as if I wasn’t speaking his language. I needed to explain more obviously.
“You’re friends with him, right? You two seem to be together a lot. So I want to know what his problem is with the young woman the other night at the bar. And I want to know what was going on between Porter and her uncle.” I figured my questions were pretty straight forward.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said.
The guy shifted his gaze and I figured my window of opportunity to ask him any questions was limited before he took off again.
“Look, don’t play games with me. I know you know him because I saw you with him. He had to have said something to you the other night when you were in the bar. What did he say about the woman at the bar?” I pushed.
“He said he thought she was hot.”
That just made my blood boil. I was sick of their mind games and wanted to punch both of them. But I knew fighting with him wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I decided to try to calm down and be halfway nice to the guy. It wouldn’t be easy though.
“I don’t want to cause any trouble for you, but I just want to know what’s going on. You can understand that, right? I’m sure you’re a decent guy, so I would appreciate it if you could help me out by giving me the answers to my questions.”
The guy didn’t stop frowning, so I figured my attempt at being nice wasn’t working either. I was out of ideas.
“Who are you anyway?” he asked with a scowl. “Why should I tell you anyway?”
“Why shouldn’t you? I’m just asking a couple simple questions. My name’s Grant Kenner, I’m the game warden. What’s your name?”
He eyed me up and down and then said, “Charles Carr.”
“Okay, Charles, what do you owe Porter?” I asked.
“I’ve got to go, it was nice chatting with you.” He motioned over his shoulder.
I had to think of something fast. “Who’s that other guy hanging out with Porter? Is he moving in on your business? Are you guys into some kind of crime?”
I made sure to give him a flash of my gun. His eyes traveled down to my waistband. That must have done the trick.
Charles released a deep breath. “Look, I just do what he tells me. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Are you involved in crime with him? Is he doing something illegal?”
“I don’t know what he’s doing. Like I said, I just do what he tells me.”
“What does that mean? You’re following his orders? You do his dirty work for him? Did that dirty work have anything to do with getting rid of her uncle? Was Taylor in Porter’s way?” I asked.
He stared at me blankly. They were pretty straightforward questions. It only needed a yes or no answer. “Man, you ask too many questions.”
“I want to know why you follow his orders.”
It was like I had to beat the answers out of him. Frankly, I was getting tired of standing there and getting no direct answers. I supposed I should just give up because I was getting nowhere. Although based on his reactions I knew they were involved in something illegal. Now I just needed to know what that something was before it was too late. I knew they would be after Chloe and that made me sick to my stomach.
“So when you were at the bar did he tell you to go up to Chloe and harass her?”
“Hey, I didn’t do anything to your girlfriend. I’m sorry and you can tell her that I’m sorry.”
I was sure Chloe would care about his apology. I didn’t think he was being sincere, he just wanted to get away from me.
“I’ll make sure to give her the message. You still didn’t answer the question, did Porter tell you to go up to her?” I said.
“No,” Charles snapped.
“So do you work for him then? Is that still your answer?”
“Yeah, I guess I work for him,” Charles mumbled.
“What kind of work?” I asked.
He shrugged and pulled out a cigarette. “Whatever he needs me to do.”
“So what did he have you do to her uncle?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t do anything to anyone. Porter just sometimes asks me to deliver things for him.” Charles lit his cigarette.
“Like drugs? Or cash?”
He took a drag from the cigarette and then said, “I don’t know. I don’t look into the packages. It’s none of my business.”
“Don’t you care if you’re potentially delivering something illegal?” I asked.
“I guess I hadn’t thought about it,” he said. This guy wasn’t the smartest one around.
“Why would you do something like that for him?” I asked.
Charles blew out smoke. “He helped me.”
“He helped you do what?” I pushed.
“Just when I was in trouble, he helped me so now I help him.”
“So he’s blackmailing you too?” I asked.
“Man, you like to put words in my mouth.”
I nodded. “You can tell him I was asking about him.”
“I’m not telling him shit. I don’t want him to know that I was talking about his business.”
So Charles was afraid of Porter. It seemed a lot of people in town were afraid of him. Yeah, that was fine. I would tell him myself. I needed to have a talk with that man anyway. I wasn’t afraid of him.
“You were with Porter and the other man the other night on the boat. He tried to break into my office. What was he looking for?”
“Man, I guess he was looking for the girl. We watched her on the boat. He probably wanted to see if there was anything worth stealing while you were out there on the water. I have to go,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “This conversation never happened, you hear?”
I held my hands up. “Whatever you say.”
But it was too late. I knew that I was on to something. The guy turned around and walked away. I watched, but he didn’t turn back around and look at me.
I had to decide what I was going to do from here. Talking with the inspector was my next step. I had to have some proof before going to my brother with this. It was unlikely I would get that from talking with Porter though.
As I turned around to head back to my parents’ store, I felt someone watching me. I looked back over my shoulder to see if Charles was back there again, but he’d already turned the corner and was out of sight. People on the sidewalk had watched our fight, but they’d moved along after the action died down. Yet I knew someone was watching me. When I reached my parents’ door, I stopped to look around again. There were quite a few cars parked against the curb, but they all looked unoccupied.
When I looked at the parking lot across the street I spotted the face in the car looking back at me. It was the inspector. I immediately made eye contact with him. Just the sight of him made
my blood boil. If he had something to say to me then he needed to face me like a man. After looking for traffic, I took off across the street. When I reached the parking lot, his car engine cranked. I darted behind another parked car just in case he decided he wanted to use his car as his weapon.
He revved the engine and then took off out of the parking lot. His tires squealed as he pulled out onto the street. I leaned against the car and stared out at the street. What the hell had just happened?
How long had Porter been watching me? I wondered if he’d watched my conversation with Charles. More than likely he had. People on the street were watching again. I spotted my mother at the door of her store standing there with her hands on her hips. She hadn’t spotted me across the street yet. I was shocked that she had sensed me. She had that mother’s intuition down pat.
Before I went back to the store I needed to call Ty. At least I had the name of this guy Charles Carr to give him. Maybe Ty could see what he could dig up on him. There were bound to be a few previous arrests on his record. After a couple rings Ty picked up.
“I have a name for you,” I said.
“Let me have it.”
After I filled him in on the conversation and Porter’s reckless driving, Ty asked, “What are you doing now?”
“I’m headed over to Mom and Dad’s. Don’t tell them anything about this.”
“Yeah, I won’t say anything, but you know Mom has a way of finding out about this stuff.”
“Well, keep it from her as long as possible,” I warned.
“I’ll see what I can find out and give you a call back,” he said.
After hanging up, I headed across the street. My mother had gone back inside the store and people had forgotten about the disturbance.
“You just missed some jackass driving like a maniac,” she said when I walked through the door.
I’d pretend that I hadn’t caused that jackass to act the way that he had.