And then Edmund walked on ahead of his colleague, and out of the exit doors.
What an asshole of assholes, Markie said not unlike the young surgeon before him had also said. But he was supposedly Edmund’s friend. They grew up together. He didn’t yell it out, like the surgeon had done, but he said it inwardly. Privately. And meant every word.
CHAPTER TEN
Help her? I’d rather help Jeffrey Dahmer.
She’s getting exactly what she deserves.
Me help Natasha Keating? Are you joking?
She had it coming to her. The way she treated me? It’s been a long time coming!
She’s where she should have been years ago. Finally this town got something right for a change.
You want me to help Natasha Keating? Me? To help her? I’ll help her alright. I’ll help her straight to hell. That’s how much I’ll love to help her.
If you don’t get away from me with that nonsense. Why should I help that bitch? I despise that woman!
And those were the mildest responses.
She deserves the chair, andI hope she falls and breaks every bone in her body, were the harsher ones.
It all shocked Maude. When she worked for Natasha she found her to be a very nice, caring person. She was even Maude’s champion while it lasted. But Natasha only lasted a year as city editor. She was fired, although Maude never knew why. But she was a good editor who helped her along the way. Which was reason enough for Maude to return the favor and try to help her. But the fact that Maude knew she was innocent of the crime she was alleged to have committed was an even greater reason that Maude felt she had no choice but to help.
But after every single name she called or visited turned her down, that left only one more name. Natasha’s brother. Thelast name on the list.He’s my ace in the hole, she had said. Save him for last. As if he was Mister Dependable.
But she seemed to believe all the others on the list were dependable, too, and they weren’t even nice with their rejections.
And if he was such a sure bet, why was he last on her list?
Maude didn’t know. And at this point she didn’t care. A desperate woman asked her to at least get in touch with these people until one of them came through for her, and that was exactly what she was going to do. And since her brother had not returned her calls or her text messages, it didn’t look good for Natasha. And Maude might have been wasting her time. But if she was in jail falsely accused, she’d hope somebody would step up and waste their time too.
She put that list back in her shoulder bag and stepped up, as next in line, to the ticket counter.
She had her own shit to deal with. Her life was upside down too. But it seemed like the distraction she needed. And besides, the same people that got Natasha arrested were the same people Maude had been investigating. And the same people that got her fired from The Post. Which meant this was more than just about Natasha. This was about Maude finishing the job on what was shaping up to be the biggest story of her career. Even though her career was on life support. But the fact that they were trying to pin a murder on Natasha told her all she needed to know. This story was fire. And she wasn’t letting them quench it.
The Post might try to bury the story if she gave it to them. But if she uncovered the truth, she wasn’t giving it to them to bury. She was going nationwide. And a career boost, she hoped, would follow.
“Round trip?”
“No ma’am.” She pulled from that same shoulder bag exactly one-hundred-and-eighty-six dollars. “One way.”
That cashier glanced up at Maude Drayton as ifone wayheld some hidden meaning she wasn’t privy to. Then she looked her up and down as if she was assessing her worthiness. And finally she nodded her head as if she made up her mind. “It’s the right move. You’re making the right decision. Get yo’ self out of this town and don’t you ever look back.”
It sounded like sage advice, but it wasn’t. Because that woman had it all wrong. Maude wasn’t leaving town for good. Not even for long. She was not only going to look back, but she was going to come back too! The only reason she didn’t purchase a round-trip ticket wasn’t because she didn’t plan to return, but because she wasn’t certain how long it would take for her to track down this brother of Natasha’s. The one she insisted was her ace in the hole.
Why she was depending on the word of a woman like Natasha Keating, whom all of her so-called friends despised, was not usually the way she rolled. But there she was: Doing the bidding of a woman who probably wouldn’t walk across the street for her. Yet once upon a time she was kind to Maude and they worked well together. And now they were in this hole together. Getting her out just might get Maude out too. She was willing to go all the way to Baltimore, on her own dime when she had no dime to spare, on that very maybe.
But that ticket lady didn’t care about any of that. She just wanted to trash the town. Which wasn’t unusual in Dillon. People always wanted what they considered better. People always wanted to go where the action supposedly was.
But not Maude. Her life had been tumultuous enough. If she didn’t see any moreactionfor the rest of her life, she’d be happy. Because if her story got published and The Dillon Post-Dispatch offered her her job back with a long-term contract and salary protections, she’d take it in a heartbeat.
Although it wasn’t so much that Maude was all in love with the town she moved to when she was six years old. It was no better or worse, she supposed, than any other town. But it was all she really knew, and given the craziness in this world, it was all she cared to know. She wasn’t anxious to leave. She was anxious to get back home and figure out the rest of her life. But she had to do this first. She had to make sure that Ross Hampton and his goons didn’t send this lady to prison for the rest of her life for something Maude knew she didn’t do.
But instead of standing there explaining her motives to another stranger who didn’t give a flip either way, she got her ticket, gathered up her shoulder bag, and made her way to the boarding line beside the big bus that would take her far away from her comfort zone.
She gave her ticket to the bus driver and he punched it. But as he was handing it back to her, he began yawning. Which didn’t help her already frail nerves one bit. A sleepy driver? It was one a.m. and they hadn’t even gotten on the road, and he was already sleepy? It was all she needed.
