I was shocked. “I don’t believe a woman needs a man to be happy.”
“I don’t either. I might’ve twenty years or so ago, but I know better now. This isn’t about a woman needing a man. This is about you needing Hunter.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I’d already come to the conclusion that he needed you years ago,” Grandpa offered. “I tried to reach out to him, offer him the family he so desperately craved, but he didn’t want to be around us without you. That’s when I knew you were the key.”
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “He’s with Monica.”
Grandpa rolled his eyes. “Don’t kid yourself, Stormy. That relationship is already over. Heck, he let it continue longer than he should have simply because he wanted a way to keep you at arm’s length. I think he realizes that was a wasted effort. Monica will be gone by the end of the day — if she doesn’t break up with him first because she sees the writing on the wall.”
“She’s still his girlfriend,” I persisted, refusing to give in to hope.
Grandpa clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Do you want to know what your problem is?”
“Not really.”
He barreled forward as if I hadn’t said anything. “Your problem is that you have to experience every wrong emotion before you can embrace the right one. You’ve always been that way. You weren’t a kid who could learn the easy way. It always had to be hard.”
I shook my head. I had to get him off this subject. “I need to talk about Roy Axe,” I started, earning a glare. “You can be as angry as you want, but Hunter is convinced that whoever tried to get into the apartment last night is tied to Roy’s death. We need to figure out who did this.”
“Why do you think I would know anything about Roy?”
“You used to be friends. Somewhere along the way you had a falling out. I want to know what it was about.”
“He was an ass.”
“That seems to be the general consensus,” I agreed. “That didn’t stop you from being friends with him years ago. I remember you two hanging out.”
“We weren’t friends.”
I waited, folding my arms over my chest. I refused to let him escape from this conversation again.
“I guess the most you could say is we were friendly,” Grandpa continued. “We golfed together for a time. We had coffee together. Heck, he still had coffee here every morning even though everybody hated him.”
“You’re avoiding the question,” I pressed. “That’s not like you. The more you sidestep this, the more I think you have something to hide.”
He glared. “I didn’t kill him.”
“I know you didn’t.” That was mostly true. “That’s not who you are. You’re far more likely to annoy him to death. That doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been avoiding Hunter. I want to know why.”
“I haven’t been avoiding Hunter. He simply has bad timing.”
I waited.
“This is none of your business.” He threw his hands in the air. “I’m only telling you this to get you to shut up. You’re giving me a headache. Do you know who you learned that from? Your mother.”
He was trying to derail me, but I had no intention of letting that happen. “Tell me what happened between you and Roy.”
He let loose a sigh, the sound long and drawn out. It was almost as if he was being tortured. “So, it’s not a big deal, but ... well ... Roy cheated on his wife.”
I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I hiked an eyebrow. “You’re kidding. I never would’ve guessed.”
“Nobody needs the sarcasm, young lady,” he shot back.
“How do you know that was sarcastic?” I challenged. “I might be in the dark regarding Roy’s penchant for cheating on his wife.”
“Nobody is in the dark regarding Roy’s crap. That’s simply not how it works. He liked being brash and bold because he thought people would respect him if he acted like a buffoon. He didn’t realize how much people hated him. Or, maybe he did. It’s possible he acted that way because he was desperate for attention. Some people need the attention no matter what, and Roy was always one of those people.”
“You still haven’t told me what he did,” I pointed out.
Grandpa’s scowl only grew more pronounced. “There was this girl. Tina Thompkins. She was in your grade when you graduated from high school.”
Now it was my turn to frown. “I remember her.”
“Yeah? Well, she went to work for Roy about three years ago. She worked for me before that, but she was having trouble being on her feet all day. She was a good girl. I didn’t want to see her fall by the wayside.”
I didn’t say anything, instead allowing the space between sentences to fill with silence. I had the feeling I was about to learn something terrible.
“I suggested she work for Roy as a secretary,” Grandpa continued, refusing to meet my gaze. “He already had one secretary, but he was making noise about needing another. I suggested Tina and he agreed to hire her.
“At first it seemed like a good fit,” he continued. “Tina was happy and not having the same physical problems she had at the restaurant. I didn’t think much of it until I ran into Tina at the store in Gaylord one day. She was crying and we got to talking and ... well ... she mentioned she’d lost her job.”
The feeling of dread grew, but I remained silent.
“I asked her what happened and it all came spilling out.” Grandpa’s expression turned dark. “She said Roy pressured her for sex if she wanted to keep her job. She didn’t have any other options so she gave in. Then, after all that, Vera became suspicious, so he fired her anyway.”
I thought back to the story Bobby had told while drunk at the party. “She’s the reason Vera was talking to a divorce attorney. Roy was paying her off, draining the retirement fund he’d set up with Vera. There had to be a reason. Did she threaten to sue?”
Grandpa’s face was blank. “I don’t know. I didn’t even know Roy was paying her off. That’s not the way Tina made it sound.”
“I’m still confused about why you were hiding from Hunter,” I said. “Helping a young woman get a job is not illegal.”
“No, but I figured if I talked to him I would let it slip that Tina had a motive to kill Roy. I didn’t want to make things worse for her. We both know I can’t keep my mouth shut, no matter how hard I try.”
That was the truth ... and it kind of made sense. Still, there was a hint of doubt playing through my mind. “You didn’t go out of your way to help Tina because you were doing anything with her, did you?”
Grandpa looked scandalized. “I’m a married man!”
“So was Roy. That didn’t stop him from cheating.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not Roy.”
There was something he wasn’t telling me. I knew from studying the obstinate tilt of his chin that he was done opening up. If I wanted more information, I was going to have to find it myself.
“Just out of curiosity, what did Roy say when you called him on his actions?” I asked as I grabbed the coffee pot so I could make my rounds.