Page 43 of Roses Are Dead
“Then I don’t have a problem with it.”
Her eyes searched mine for answers. As they did, I wondered if my favorite whiskey was darker or lighter than the center color in them. “Are you really Irish?”
“Yes. With a little Scottish on my maternal grandmother’s side. And you?”
“Norse.”
She laughed. “You are about as Nordic as…”
“Be nice. My father was as blond as you can get. My mother? Not so much. But I got my coloring and hair from her mother who was from Poland I guess. The whole family lives north of Pittsburgh.”
Since we were opening up, I asked, “What about your parents? Where are they?”
Roishin clammed up.
“Rose?”
She glared at me.
“Roishin?”
The fire in her eyes dimmed slightly. “They live in Franklin County.”
“Do you see them often?” Sure, I was fishing. Aside from John and Beth, she hadn’t mentioned friends. And I needed to know who was going to be hammering on my door when Roishin didn’t surface for a month.
“I haven’t talked to my parents in fourteen years.”
Holy shit. I did some quick math with what I knew about her and asked, “What? Were you twelve? The fuck?”
Her eyes fixed on me with unwavering strength. “Yes. I was put in foster care with Beth’s family at twelve. Age fourteen, I was handed off to a different couple because, and I quote, ‘she’s a bad influence on Carl and Beth’ end quote.”
“So, you’re to blame for Carl?”
“No.”
Funny how one word can shut down a conversation.
I searched for something to fill the silence. “Do you need a phone? Maybe check in with your friends again?” I could pick up a burner the next time I was out.
“I’d appreciate that.”
I pulled out my personal phone and handed it to her. “Go ahead.”
She stared at me as if I had two heads.
“Seriously, call your friends. I want you checking in with them every day.”
The disbelief on her face disappeared. “That way you won’t get blamed when I go missing, right?”
“Something like that.” If that is what she wanted to believe about my motives, then it would be a good thing. I was the bad guy here. She’d never understand that I was trying to be nice.
I tried not to listen in as she spoke with John and ultimately Beth this time because he was at the hospital. But I did catch that Carl had gone home, and wasn’t expected back today. That information was good. In fact, if he made a habit of visiting, I’d have the skinny on his whereabouts. There had to be a way to exploit that. Wolf would need to know.
Like before, she deleted the call log before handing my phone back. Now John had two phone numbers from me. And I still had none. But I had Hickey and Skinner. One request and I’d have the number in minutes.
Roishin didn’t need to know that. I planned to let her play those games for as long as she wanted.
“Is your friend doing okay?”
