Chapter 24 – Stone
STONE
When we got back to the clubhouse, I hurried upstairs to check on Whitney and was surprised to find her and her friends in the common room, talking with Juice.
“What’s going on over there?” I asked Halo.
He shook his head. “When I went back into the shop to make sure Whitney’s boss didn’t call the cops, he told me to tell her not to come back.”
“You fucking serious? He fired her?”
“I couldn’t tell her, man. Not with how upset she already was.”
“So you told your dad,” I guessed.
He shrugged. “How long has he been talking about opening a tattoo shop?”
“A couple of years at least.”
“Exactly. Maybe this is a sign.”
“Or maybe you were too chickenshit to deliver the bad news, so you got your daddy to fix it.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But it’s not because I didn’t want to see her cry. It’s because her friends fucking scare me.” They scared me a little bit too, but I would never admit it out loud.
“Sure,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder before walking over to check on Whitney.
Stevie noticed me first. “You haven’t been gone long enough to have made him suffer adequately.”
“You’re assuming I’m finished,” I said and looked at Whitney. “Can I talk to you on the balcony for a minute?”
“Sure,” she said and got up to follow me outside. “Sorry about earlier.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” I told her. “How are you feeling?”
She shrugged. “Better, I think, but I’m exhausted. Please tell me this is finally over.”
I grimaced. “Almost. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We’re still looking for Tori.”
Her forehead wrinkled with confusion. “Tori? Why? Because she yelled at me when I was at work? That’s not—”
“Because she was working with Nathaniel,” I interrupted.
“What?”
“Yeah, he said she came to the pawn shop looking for Glenn, and that led to them figuring out you were behind everything.”
“Wow, that’s …” she said, staring off into the distance for several moments. “Is that their way of saying they figured out how to shift the blame to me? Because I didn’t have anything to do with any of this. Other than having really shitty luck.”
“I know,” I assured her. “He spewed a lot of bullshit, and I’m sure she will too.”
“What else did he say?”
“He said you killed Glenn because he found out you killed your foster parents.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “That’s ridiculous! Ralph died while he was out fishing, and Edna died from natural causes. And there’s a video of his sons attacking Glenn and me.”
“He claims the video is fake.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why would I kill my ex and zip myself into a body bag with his corpse?”
“Like I said, he was spewing bullshit.” I laughed. “He warned me to be careful around you because I might be next on your list.”
“What if you are?” Whitney gasped and grabbed the front of my shirt with both hands. “Not on mine, because I don’t have one, but you could be next on someone’s list.”
I wrapped my arms around her and held her against me. “There’s no list because there isn’t a killer. Your foster parents died from natural causes, the Wood brothers killed Glenn, and someone else killed them.”
She leaned back and met my eyes with a look of concern on her face. “Edna died from natural causes. Ralph might’ve been murdered, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to mention that while explaining that I didn’t kill him.”
“Might have been?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’ll explain, but I wanna sit first.”
She continued after we made ourselves comfortable on the porch swing.
“Ralph went fishing one morning and didn’t come back.
They found his boat two days later and discovered two spent casings.
Four days after that, they found him. His body had been …
feeding the wildlife … and there wasn’t enough of him left to determine an exact cause of death.
Edna swore up and down someone murdered him, but Stevie and I think he tried to shoot a gator, fell overboard, and got eaten. ”
“Is it still an open case?”
“No. They declared it an accident and closed the case.”
After several minutes of silence, she sighed. “I don’t want to sound unappreciative, but when can I go home?”
“Maybe tomorrow,” I said, instantly regretting it. I wasn’t ready for her to leave.
“Really?”
“Yeah. We’ll finish up with Nathaniel tonight, but I want you to stay until we find Tori.”
“Do you think she’s the one who sent the letter?”
“Maybe.”