Page 70 of Hiss and Make Up
“So you were close to them?” she asked.
“Me? Oh, no. I went out there a couple of times on his invitation. Purely out of curiosity. Met his wife and kids. That little girl was sweet as pie, but her older brother was a tough kid. Always glaring at me around a door frame. Still, they all seemed close enough.” He lost himself in memories again. “I never got the impression he’d walk out without saying a word. Shocked a lot of people. But you never know what goes on behind someone else’s front door.”
“No, I guess you don’t.”
She helped Dale carry the new supplies inside and checked her phone once more. Still nothing. A glance at the check sent her stomach rolling again.
Screw Marc and his check. If he wanted to buy her off, fine. She’d stay away from him. But he couldn’t do a thing to stop her from snooping. Denise and her kids still needed help. And with his check, she didn’t have to worry about getting another job yet. She could spend all her free time looking into Adrien Guidry for this,andshe could pay the mortgage and pay Liz back and not worry about Luna’s therapy.
Dale decided to take a walk and inspect the trails, patting Sierra on the shoulder on his way out. Good. With a quiet Monday and no one in the station, she could make the rest of the phone calls to see about permits and purchases for those snakes.
And now she had a lead. A name to match.
A glance at the clock revealed she had two hours before the end of her shift. Plenty of time to do a little research and forget all about Marc and his check.
* * *
Marc stared at the soft, neat script on his legal pad while he for his rental car at the radio station. Since he’d passed out through most of the fourth quarter, he'd been prepared that morning to have to search for game highlights. He’d never hear the end of it if anyone got wind that he’d fallen asleep before the end of the game.
But the show had gone fine. Mostly because of what he was still staring at in amazement on that legal pad.
Freddy clapped him on the shoulder. “Need a ride?”
“No, thanks. I called for a rental.”
The mechanic had left a message during the show. As Sierra had suspected, the fuel line had been cut. Clean. No way it was a leak or rupture. The mechanic was certain. In fact, the mechanic said they’d done a number on the whole underside of his car, damaging more than just the fuel line. Someone didn’t want him going anywhere after that game.
In hindsight, it was pretty obvious why.
“Something wrong?” Freddy pointed at the notes in Marc’s lap.
“Kind of. I think I screwed up.”
Freddy sat in the chair next to him and leaned over the padded armrest. “What’s that?”
“Notes on the end of the game.”
Freddy’s nose scrunched. “That ain’t your handwriting.”
“I fell asleep. Missed the end.”
“Could have fooled me. You nailed the show. Sounded like you’d seen the whole thing. Who wrote that?”
Marc laughed. The defeated laugh of an idiot. “Sierra must have taken notes on the game after I passed out on the couch.”
“Seriously?”
He grabbed the pad from Marc’s hands. His raised eyebrows showed he was as impressed as Marc had been when he found them tucked into his laptop bag right before the show. “Didn’t strike me as a football fan.”
“She’s not. She had no idea what was happening, and she sure as hell didn’t care to find out while I was awake.”
Freddy squinted again at the notes. “That’s impressive.”
“Good notes, right?”
Freddy nodded and handed the pad back to Marc. “But I don’t get it. How did you screw up? The show was fine. Better than fine. She rocked those notes, man.”
“I didn’t see them until I got here. Let’s just say, I was less than grateful this morning.”
