“The report backs up everything else she told us. Tiffany tried to have the car examined, but the salvage yard crushed it at your father’s insistence. She requested an autopsy, but he denied it.” He glanced up at me. “I suspect that’s one of the reasons he refused to let her see you.”
“It was punishment.” I turned to look at him.
“And he couldn’t let her see how different your life had become. She might have been able to fight him legally.”
I shook my head. “No. She wouldn’t have. She could have, and she didn’t.”
He reached over and took my hand, squeezing, then returned to studying his laptop. “There’s an accident report for your grandparents. It says they were traveling on a highway at a high rate of speed and ran into another car that had slowed down in front of them.”
“That doesn’t necessarily sound like foul play.”
“Their brakes failed. A leak in the brake fluid line.” He drew in a breath. “I don’t believe for a moment it was a leak. It was cut.”
“But we can’t prove it.”
“We’ll find something, Care.”
“Just like we’ve found something on Bart,” I said sarcastically.
“We’ll take care of them both.”
There was nothing else that stood out to him, and I refused to discuss it anymore. Instead, I told him that he needed to get a Netflix subscription once his internet was installed. We discussed what series to binge on the next time we both had a day off and settled on Schitt’s Creek, because neither of us had seen it and we wanted something light and fun.
Part of me felt certain it would never happen.
Marco dropped me off at the tavern, promising to be back after the dinner rush, and then headed to Ewing to work on his paperwork at the sheriff’s office.
I walked through the back door and quickly changed into jeans and a black Max’s Tavern T-shirt in the bathroom.
Ruth was in the dining room, and I walked over to join her.
“How’s Franklin?” I asked, watching her closely to see if she was in on his lie.
“It’s a good thing he’s so hardheaded,” she said, shaking her head. “The doctor said it’s the only thing that kept him from scrambling his brains.”
“How’s his truck?”
“Totaled, damn fool. It was almost paid off too.”
“I’m sorry, Ruth.”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t mind taking some of your lunch shifts and staying until close over the next couple of weeks so I can help him raise enough money to get a new truck. He had insurance, but it’s not enough to cover a decent down payment.”
I wouldn’t mind going home around ten every night for a while, and if I had afternoons free, I could do more investigating. Besides, I wanted to help Ruth if I could. I liked Ruth. In fact, after what Marco had told me, I couldn’t help wondering if Franklin was lying to her too.
“Of course, Ruth. Anything you need.” Then I asked, “Did he say anything about the person who ran him off the road?”
She shook her head, glancing over at a couple walking through the door. “He doesn’t remember much. Only that it was a black truck. Just like with Jerry.”
“That’s so scary,” I said, forcing myself to sound sympathetic. “And he doesn’t know why they ran him off the road?”
“Because there’s a maniac on the loose?” she asked sarcastically.
“What was he doing out there so late?” I asked, realizing that he’d been out close to Louise’s property, which was on the opposite side of Drum from where he and Ruth lived.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding agitated. “He said he was drinking with his friends.”
Had he been drunk? Marco hadn’t mentioned doing a blood alcohol test on him or making him do a field sobriety test. If he’d been inebriated, I could see him coming up with the black truck excuse as a cover. But surely Marco would have smelled the alcohol on his breath.
And why was Ruth agitated? Because I was asking questions or because she was ticked at her boyfriend?
She turned to face me. “We were due for a talk, weren’t we?” she asked. “Do you want to hang out tonight?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Marco dropped me off, and he’s picking me up after work.”
“Oh,” she said, looking hurt. “Okay.”
“Maybe we can find time before I go,” I said.
“Yeah.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her we should meet for breakfast in the morning, maybe invite her out to Marco’s house, but I kept hearing Max in my head, warning me not to tell her. It broke my heart that he didn’t trust her, but he obviously cared about her a great deal and knew her better than I did. And now the whole Franklin situation wasn’t sitting right.
“I’m glad Franklin’s okay,” I said, offering her an apologetic smile.
“Yeah, me too.” Then she turned to get a refill for a customer.
I walked over to the bar to talk to Max. He gave me a grim look, then flicked his eyes to Ruth and back to me.
“You have a successful trip?” he asked in a low tone.
“I’m not sure,” I said, distracted. I hated that I’d hurt Ruth’s feelings.
“You can’t tell her,” Max said.
I stepped closer to the bar and lowered my voice. “Why not?”
“It’s just a hunch, Carly.”
“If you don’t trust her, why do you let her work here?”
“That’s just it. I usually do trust her. I trust her with everything to do with this business.” His lips pressed together. “But something doesn’t feel right about tellin’ her about you.”
“You think she’d turn me in for the reward?” I asked in disbelief. I knew she needed money, but she was also loyal.
“I don’t know,” he said, getting agitated. “Just trust me.”
Something didn’t sit right with his just trust me plea, but it didn’t seem like the right time to discuss it.
“Can you call Wyatt and see if he’ll come in tonight?” I asked. “I need to talk to him about something.”
His eyes widened slightly. “What about?”
“A car question,” I said, hating that I was being evasive, but now he was being cagey with me. Or maybe I was just paranoid.
“I would but he said he was goin’ to Nashville for the day. Pickin’ up some special part.”
I frowned. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“Sometime tomorrow, I reckon.”
“Okay.”
“Is Hank havin’ trouble with his car? I thought Wyatt got that lever thing all sorted out so he could drive.”
“I just had a couple of questions. I guess it’s no hurry, but I don’t want it to fall off my radar. I have a lot going on.”
He gave me a look that suggested that was an understatement. A family walked in and sat in my section, so I headed over to take their order.
We had a bigger crowd than usual, so we kept busy. Just when the dinner crowd started thinning out, about ten customers came in to watch baseball. Then, to my surprise, Michelle Abernathy walked through the front door at around eight and headed straight toward the bar.