“More internet sleuthin’. Fat lot of good that’s done ya,” he grumbled.
I couldn’t argue with that. I had months of research in a notebook in my purse, and none of it had gotten us any closer to bringing down Bart Drummond. And now I had Louise Baker and my impending visit with her to contend with, yet another unnerving mystery dropped into my lap. Which was why I was here, I reminded myself.
“What prompted your poker game?” I asked, taking another bite of my English muffin. “I haven’t seen hide nor hair of your friends since I moved in.”
He was quiet for a moment. “We fell out of touch, and I saw them again at the street party. We decided to get together.”
It was exactly what I’d expected him to say. I tilted my head, giving him some side-eye. “It just seems weird I never saw them around before.”
“Are you askin’ if we had a fallin’-out? Yeah, they were none too happy when I gave up the business.”
I hadn’t considered that. “Did any of them go work for Bingham?”
“Sure, some of the lower-level employees, but Bingham wouldn’t touch the higher-ups. Didn’t trust ’em.”
“Some of them tried?”
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “They had to eat.”
“And you were okay with that?”
“Why not?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. “It’s not like they were bein’ disloyal to me. They knew the business, and like I said, they had to eat.”
“How about the ones who didn’t work for Bingham? What did they do?”
“Oh, I dunno,” he said, sitting up again. “This and that.”
Letty shot across the yard and up the porch steps, springing onto my lap. I stroked the back of her head with my free hand.
Hank was being cagey, and that made the hair on the back of my arms stand on end. Was he hiding things to protect me or him?
I didn’t want to tell him about Louise asking for my help, but I needed to know more about his connection to her and her dead husband.
I sat back and sipped my coffee for a few moments, trying to figure out how to broach the subject, and then out of the blue, he asked, “Are things serious with that Roland boy?”
“Marco?” I’d never once heard Hank call him the Roland boy. “It’s still pretty new to be asking something like that.”
“You two been dancin’ around each other since last December. This ain’t all that new.”
“You don’t usually ask about my love life. What’s going on?”
He was silent for a moment, then said, “I’m gettin’ around on my own now. I can drive and heat up my own food.” His voice turned rough. “I think it’s time you moved out.”
A ball of emotion clogged my throat as panic set in. Other than Marco, Hank was the last person I’d thought would turn on me. “I know I haven’t been around as much as I should, but I can—”
“Girlie,” he said, turning to face me with a warm smile. “This ain’t a punishment. I’m settin’ you free.”
“What if I don’t want to be set free?”
He reached over and patted my hand. “You know you can’t keep livin’ with me forever. The arrangement was for you to stay while I needed help.” When I didn’t respond, he curled his fingers over mine. “I’m not gettin’ rid of you, but I think you should stay with Marco for a while. Give it a trial run.”
Something in his tone caught my attention. He wasn’t kicking me out. He was getting me out of the way.
“What are you planning on doing, Hank?” I asked in a direct tone.
His nose wrinkled. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Try again.”
He pushed out a heavy sigh. “I’m tryin’ to protect you from your father. I think you’re right. Your father’s not gonna rest until you’re out of the way. Permanently. You’d do better to hide at Marco’s than here.”
On the surface, his plan sounded semi-reasonable, but on closer inspection, its flaws were glaring. “So you think I should take a leave of absence from my job and just hide out at Marco’s?”
“Don’t be stupid,” he grumped, turning his gaze back to his bird feeder, which now had two cardinals perched on it. “You’ll be protected at the tavern. Max and Tiny will see to that, and who better to protect you at night than a sheriff’s deputy?”
I started to protest, then stopped. Hank was up to something, and he wasn’t going to share it with me. I could press the issue and watch him dig his heels in further, or let it go and find another way. “What if Marco doesn’t want me living with him?”
He snorted again. “Please. I may be old, but I ain’t senile.”
“I still want to come over,” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “Can I at least come cook for you?”
He turned to me again, sympathy in his eyes. “Girlie, once again, I ain’t gettin’ rid of you. You can come over all you want before work.” He shifted in his seat and glanced down at his cat. “Truth be told, I’d miss you if you weren’t around.”
“I’d miss you too.”
He pushed out a heavy breath as he sat back in his seat. “Good. That’s settled. You already took a good portion of your stuff to Marco’s last night. You ain’t got much other stuff to move out.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I thought this was only temporary.”
He gave me a pointed look but didn’t say anything.
The thing was, I couldn’t just fall into line and let this go. While I loved Marco and our feelings had been simmering for months, this still felt too fast for me.
“What if I’m not ready to move in with Marco yet?” I asked quietly, feeling like a traitor to the man I loved.
Hank’s brow shot up. “I thought things were goin’ good with you two.”
“They are,” I said, my voice still soft. “I have a lot of baggage, Hank. I know Marco’s nothing like the men before him, but my heart . . . it’s just not . . .” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I have to take this slow.”
He gave me a surprised look. “It won’t be forever. But still take most of your stuff, okay? You can come back. I promise.”
“What’s goin’ on, Hank?”
He slowly shook his head. “Nothin’ that has anythin’ to do with you, which is why I want you out of the way, okay?”
I gave him a long, hard stare. “Should I be worried?”
He scoffed at that. “Girlie, I’ve been around for a very long time. Before Bingham, I used to be the boogeyman.”
He wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t suspected, yet hearing him say it left me uneasy. It was easy to love this old grump who protected and loved me, yet I had a hard time reconciling him with the monster he’d supposedly been.
“Were you really that bad, Hank?” I whispered.
A hard look filled his eyes. “Worse.”
Yet emotion flickered there too. Was he trying to scare me? To turn me away from him? “You’re not that man now.”
“Don’t be fooled, little girl,” he said, a harsh tone creeping in. “The scariest monsters know how to hide in the light of day.”