Buried in Secrets

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Do you think Pam knew her the same way?”

  “Maybe,” he said, “but Pam’s probably ten to fifteen years older than me.”

  I grabbed a small notebook out of my purse and uncapped a pen. “So I need to drop by and ask her what she knows about Pam. Do you think she’ll be resistant?”

  “I doubt it,” he said. “She loves to talk. I’m sure she’ll be worried about Pam. So as long as you let her know you’re trying to help, I’m sure she’ll talk.”

  “I could also tell her I’m worried about Ashlynn,” I said. “Not a lie, because I am. Her boyfriend broke up with her a few weeks ago, and she’s pregnant. She lives in a trailer next to her parents’ house, but it looks like the utilities are all in his name. Then there’s the way she took off from the jail.”

  “You think something happened to her?”

  “I was already worried about her having a baby without her mother, even though she told me Selena would be helping her. Her father sounds like a classic controlling asshole, possible abuser. But yeah, after the way she took off, I’m very worried.”

  “Maybe talking to Selena will help put your mind at ease.”

  I took another bite of my sandwich, nearly moaning in pleasure, then took in the sandwiches, bags of chips, and bottles of water. “Where are your fried pickles?”

  He laughed and patted his belly. “Decided I didn’t need the grease.”

  More like he used it as a ploy to get me to try the café, not that he needed one.

  “So Karl Lister,” he said. “His address at the time of the accident is on the report. I’ll try to find out if it’s still his current address. I wish I could talk to him with you, but I need to stick to the behind-the-scenes stuff until we’re ready to make some kind of move. You sniffing around will likely come across as nosy. Me sniffing around reeks of an official investigation.”

  Sadly, I agreed. He’d already helped me with two investigations, off the books, and with the state police sniffing around, we couldn’t risk that he’d get away with a third. “Do you know anything about Karl Lister?”

  “No, which means you should take someone with you. We need to be extra cautious.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to figure out who to bring.”

  “Maybe you can take Hank on a drive. And his shotgun.”

  I gave him a smile. “That actually sounds like a good idea.” I paused, thinking, then added, “Hank seems to be getting stir crazy. Months ago he and I talked about getting his car set up so he can drive it, but this morning I decided to do something about it.”

  “Oh?” he asked. “Did you call his doctor’s office?”

  “No,” I said quietly. “I dropped by Wyatt’s garage.”

  If I hadn’t known him so well, I wouldn’t have noticed his reaction. But his breath hitched a little and his fingers curled in slightly. It bothered him. “That makes sense,” he said, picking up a chip. “He likes Hank, so he’ll give you a discount.”

  I grimaced. “He refuses to take Hank’s money, but he insisted on coming by for breakfast tomorrow morning. Says Hank will only agree to accept his help if he thinks I’m okay with having him around.”

  He stared at me for a second. “Is this another desperate attempt on his part to win you back?”

  “We both know it is, even if he won’t admit it. Still, Hank spends so much time alone. I hate that he’s stuck out there. And from what I’ve gathered, Wyatt used to spend a lot of time with Hank and Seth. It stands to reason that Hank misses him. I feel like I stole his friend from him.”

  A dark look rolled across his face, but I knew it wasn’t for me. Wyatt had earned this one. “You did no such thing. Wyatt was the one who acted like an ass. Hank’s a smart man, and he didn’t approve of the way Wyatt treated you. And yeah, he partially sent Wyatt away for your sake, but consider this: Hank could have him come by when you’re working evenings, and he never does.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Does Hank know you went to Wyatt?”

  “Not yet.”

  He grinned. “You might want to let him know before Wyatt shows up for breakfast. That old coot is as stubborn as the day is long. He might not like it.”

  I made a face. “At least it’s on home ground. Wyatt wanted me to have breakfast with him somewhere else, but I insisted on doing it at Hank’s since he claims the purpose is for Hank to see us together.”

  “Good thinkin’,” Marco said, then his smile faded. “You don’t have to let him come. You can tell him you’ve found someone else to take care of it.”

  “But I haven’t.”

  “But you can,” he said. “I’ll help you, and if it’s a matter of money—”

  “Marco. I’m not taking your money.”

  “If it’s a matter of money,” he repeated more firmly, “you have other options.” He started to say something else, stopped, then shook his head. “We both know that Wyatt’s manipulating you, but you’re right. He gave Hank companionship. And if you have to leave Drum unexpectedly at some point, I’m sure you’ll feel better knowing that someone’s there for him.”

  He was right. I hated the idea of leaving Hank with no one. I knew Wyatt would step in, regardless of the state of their friendship, but Hank was a stubborn man. It would be better for him to work things out with Wyatt before I left.

  “You think I’ll be leaving Drum soon?” I asked quietly.

  His gaze held mine. “I think we’re about to embark on a dangerous task, and you need to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. We can’t afford for you to get hung up over your concern for Hank.”

  He was right about that, and it was part of the reason I’d gone to see Wyatt earlier. I knew it was possible. Still, the thought of leaving Hank put an ache deep in my chest.

  Marco took a breath, then said, “You know that Wyatt will help Hank whether you have breakfast with him or not. You don’t have to let him rope you into it.”

  “Yeah, probably, but he’d drag it out, making me think he won’t help. And I don’t know how much time I have to waste. If I have to leave, I need to know Hank’ll be okay.”

  “I’ll stand behind whatever you decide,” Marco said. “You’re a grown woman capable of makin’ your own decisions. I’ll never tell you what to do.”

  Yet I could see how badly he wanted me to tell Wyatt no. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t ask, let alone demand or insist. He would always let me have complete control over my choices. It only made me appreciate him more.

  So why didn’t it silence that little voice in my head wondering when the other shoe would drop?

  “One more thing,” Marco said, his gaze dropping to his half-eaten sandwich. “I think you need to prep a go bag.”

  I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “What’s a go bag?”

  “A bag you have packed and ready so that you can leave at a moment’s notice. There might not be time to say goodbye, Carly. You might just have to leave.”

  I swallowed. This was getting all too real. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll stop at the Dollar General and get a bag.”

  “It should probably be a duffel bag,” he said, still not looking at me. “I’ve got one you can use. I’ll help you figure out what you need to get. And let’s not get the things here. Let’s plan on going to Greeneville first chance we get. We don’t want anyone watching you and getting suspicious.” His face lifted. “How much cash do you have?”

  “About a hundred dollars.”

  “And how much in the bank?”

  “About seven hundred.”

  He stared at me in shock. “I know for a fact you make good money in tips, and you don’t spend money frivolously. You don’t pay rent or make a car payment, so where’d your money go?”

  “Lots of places,” I said, getting frustrated. “I’ve bought books and supplies for the Kids’ Club. And then Hank’s roof was leaking back in April so I paid a handyman to fix it, and the kitchen sink needed repairing too.”

  His gaze held mine. �
�You have to stop doin’ that. You have to save your money, Carly. You’re going to need it if you run.”

  I swallowed a lump of fear. I’d had nearly two thousand dollars when I’d gotten stranded in Drum, and it hadn’t been enough to fix my car. If I ran, I was going to need a lot more than the meager amount I currently had. “What was I supposed to do about Hank’s roof? Or the sink?”

  “Tell me,” he said insistently. “I could have looked at the drain.”

  “But you couldn’t have fixed the roof.”

  “No, but I might have been able to find someone to do it cheaper.”

  “You don’t even know what I spent,” I said in frustration. “And I’m not relying on someone else to fix my problems. I can stand on my own two feet.”

  “I know you can,” he said, becoming frustrated himself. “But the roof and the sink weren’t your problems. They were Hank’s.”

  “Not true. I live there too, rent free as you pointed out. It’s only right for me to contribute.”

  He started to say something again, then stopped, his hand tightening over mine. “Why do you think it’s okay for you to help Hank with his problems, but it’s a sign of weakness for you to accept help from me?”

  “Because I counted on men before and look where it got me.” The words tore out of me before I could stop them.

  He didn’t say anything, but I could feel the disappointment rolling off of him. I was disappointed too. What was it going to take to make me trust him completely? Would I ever be capable of it?

  “So,” I said, drawing out the word, ready to change the subject. “For now, I’ll try to find Ashlynn and make sure she’s okay, then I can talk to Selena before work. Do you have the police report for Thad’s accident in your car? We can look it over together. Oh, and Thelma suggested I go to the courthouse and ask a friend of hers to pull the paperwork for the civil suit.”

  He pushed out a breath and sat up, likely disappointed that I’d changed the subject. “Let’s hold off on that. Right now, the story is that you’re being neighborly and you only showed up at the jail to pick up Ashlynn. If you go to Selena, you’re still within the scope of that story. But if you start pulling documents for a civil suit for an accident several years ago, your behavior becomes a lot more suspicious. I’ll look into it.”

  “What about talking to Karl Lister?” I asked.

  “Hold off on approaching him. Maybe question Pam’s friends more after you talk to Selena.”

  “Sandy’s the most talkative of the bunch, and she didn’t have much to say this morning. But I can try the others.”

  “I know you’re careful, but I still feel the need to tell you to watch your back and pull back with the questions if you start making people anxious or suspicious.”

  “That’s what I’ve been doin’,” I said, my frustration getting the better of me, and I got to my feet.

  “Why are you mad?” he asked, then grimaced. “I’m sorry if I insinuated that you don’t know what you’re doin’.”

  “But I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said. “I’m just a teacher turned waitress. I was never trained to do anything like this. What if I screw it all up? I don’t want Bart to keep getting away with this!”

  “You won’t screw up,” he said, still sitting on the bench. “You’re a natural. But if things start to get tense, backtrack the conversation, and make a graceful exit. Try to leave the sources happy and open to talking to you again.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” But anxiety was oozing out of my pores. I didn’t feel qualified to do this. I’d already messed up with Ashlynn.

  “Hey,” he said softly, patting the concrete bench next to him. “Come here.”

  I walked around the table and sat next to him, resting my head on his chest when he wrapped an arm around my back.

  After a few moments, he said, “You don’t have to do this, Carly.”

  I lifted my head to look up at him.

  “You don’t have to do any of this. I’m not stuck in Drum. I can leave. We could go somewhere else. Start fresh.”

  “But what about the sheriff’s department? You’re working on becoming a detective.”

  “I only became a deputy sheriff to help out Max,” he said. “My degree’s in communications. I can change jobs.”

  I held his gaze. “You’re not the running type, Marco Roland. You stare danger in the face and don’t flinch.”

  “There are different kinds of danger, Carly. Starin’ down a rogue deputy is different than starin’ down a man who aims to hurt you usin’ underhanded methods.”

  My mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Only with Paul Conrad, you got both.” That man had been corrupt in every sense of the word.

  “Bart Drummond’s a lot sneakier than Conrad ever thought about bein’.” He hesitated, then said, “I’d love to see Bart get his comeuppance, but I’m not sure it’s worth riskin’ your life over.”

  I turned to face him more. “What are you talking about? We both knew this was the plan. Hell, he’s threatened to turn in information on Hank, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was real evidence and not concocted.”

  He cocked his head, his eyes boring into mine. “If it’s real, what if Hank deserves to be in prison? What if he killed someone? Or multiple someones. You can’t get as high as he did in the drug game and get away with squeaky clean hands.”

  I broke the stare. “Trust me, thinking about his past has kept me awake more than a night or two, but if he deserves to be in jail, let someone other than Bart put him there. Besides, the plan was to use Bart for practice. My father is the main goal.”

  “So let’s forget Bart and go straight to the FBI.”

  I groaned. “We’ve discussed this already, Marco. Multiple times. My friend in Arkansas told me the FBI won’t protect me. I don’t have any evidence they can use to prosecute him. They’d just send me back to him, probably with a wire, hoping he’d share incriminating information. But he wouldn’t. He’s never trusted me, and he certainly isn’t about to start after a year-long disappearance. He’d have me killed, and then he’d pay for someone to falsify evidence that I’d married Jake first. I’d rather live in hiding.”

  His eyes widened at my mention of Arkansas. Without my friends there, I never would have been able to come here. They’d had their own close brushes with my father’s illegal organization, which was moving into their town like a cancer. They’d given me this second life as Carly Moore so I could stay on the run. Still, we’d hashed out the other options before I left. The FBI had been one of them. I’d only spoken to Marco about my time in Henryetta, Arkansas twice, so I understood his surprise that I was mentioning it now.

  “If you have to run again,” he said cautiously, “I want to go with you, but we need a plan.”

  He was talking about throwing his life away again. For me. I couldn’t handle the guilt. What was I giving him in return? Myself? It didn’t seem like enough, and I wasn’t even sure I could bring myself to do that all the way.

  “We can talk about a plan to run later,” I said, getting to my feet again. “I have work to do.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I’d only eaten half of my lunch, but my appetite was gone. Still, I felt bad that I wasn’t making the most of the surprise Marco had prepared for me. I mentioned it to him as I cleaned up my trash.

  “Hey,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll go back again sometime after this mess has been cleared up.”

  I grinned. “I like that enthusiasm. We’ll plan on a celebratory lunch.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  We threw our trash away and Marco walked me to my car.

  “What about Ted Butcher?” I asked as we reached the driver’s side door. “Have you had a chance to look into him?”

  “No, I only had a chance to pull Thad’s accident before I had to leave. I’ll look into Butcher’s arrest reports later this afternoon. Stick to Pam’s friends and family for now.”

  “So you don’t want to pick ano
ther old case to look at?” I asked. “We never settled on one this morning.”

  “No,” he said with a worried look. “If people know you’re asking about multiple cases, they might put together what you’re doin’.”

  So basically we were hamstrung, and I’d only made the situation worse by showing up at the jail and asking for Pam Crimshaw’s daughter. I never should have gone in.

  “Do you still want to spend the night at my place?” he said. “We can go over the reports together. Then we can figure out what to do next.”

  I ran a hand over my head. “Yeah, okay. But I’ll have to get up early and head over to Hank’s for breakfast.” I tilted my head to the side. “Wyatt says he’s cooking.”

  A slow grin spread across his face. “Maybe you can show up a few minutes late.”

  I laughed. “I wondered when your testosterone would kick in.”

  “I’m trying my best, but I’m not a saint.”

  I turned serious. “I guess we’re not mentioning the way you were touching me at the jail.”

  Worry filled his eyes. “That was for show. To let them know you’re important to me.”

  “I figured.”

  We continued to look at each other, waiting for the other to say something, but silence hung in the air.

  “Be careful, Carly,” he finally said, his eyes pleading. “If you feel threatened at all, get the hell out of whatever situation you’re in and call me. I’ll get to you as fast as I can.”

  “I will.” I gave him a soft smile. “You be careful too. I’ll see you at the tavern?”

  “I hope so.” He grimaced. “I’ve got a mountain of paperwork to get through, but I’ll stop by if I finish early enough. Otherwise, I’ll meet you at the house.”

  “I know you saw Max last night, but I’m sure he’d like to see you anyway.”

  “Yeah, I’ve missed hanging out there.” He reached for the handle and opened the door.

  I got inside and he shut the door behind me, giving me a small wave.

  I waved back, feeling a pinch of something inside of me.