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I wish.
“Don’t think you’d be able to get away with that, dear.” Hazel clicked her tongue. “They’ve got eyes everywhere around here, you know.”
“He gives me the creeps.”
“The boy ain’t right.” Bending down, the waitress cautiously whispered, “Just look at his eyes.”
“Oh, I have.” His sister’s pause was loaded. “They’re green.”
“Exactly.” Returning upright, she winked. “I see you get my meaning.”
“What are you intimating, Hazel?”
“Just rumors, but you’ve got to wonder why your Daddy took such an interest in that boy once you and Linnea were gone.” Her finger started wagging. “I told you, be wary of him. Especially now. The sooner you leave here, the better.”
“We aren’t staying any longer than we have to. Don’t worry.”
“Oh, I’m worried, all right,” she said with a single nod. “And you should be too.”
Kodiak glanced behind him. Linnea stood on the front porch with Charlotte, watching him cross the street to the church. Hazel was right, as soon as Jarrid’s body arrived at the mortuary, news of his death would be all over town.
Bypassing the twelve steps that led up to the red front doors, he walked around to the back where his father’s office was. Well, it was Jeremy’s office now, he supposed. Then with a fortifying breath, Kodiak knocked on the door.
“You may enter.”
He rolled his eyes and went in.
The robotic Howdy Doody smile appearing on his face, Jeremy greeted him. “Seth, I do hope you’ve come to tell me Pastor is well and at home.”
“I’m sorry, Jeremy, I can’t tell you that.” Kodiak took a seat in front of his desk. “My father passed away early this morning.”
“No.” His eyebrows narrowed. “He was fine.”
“He had cancer.”
“And you kept me from him.”
I sure did.
“It was a family matter. Obviously, my father didn’t want anyone to know he was ill. And except for Linnea and myself, he didn’t want anybody there.”
“But I’m not just anybody.”
Oh? Just who are you then, Jeremy Blythe?
Not that he really gave a fuck.
“Didn’t he ask for me?”
“He didn’t.”
Truth.
“I see.” His lips pressing together, the kid exhaled out his nose. “Did he leave you the key?”
“You can have it after the funeral. We got the house ready. A fresh coat of paint and everything.”
“Not the house key.”
