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A noise in the general direction of the storeroom brought him up short. He was pretty sure McCullough had already left, and Stanton hadn’t even bothered to show up. Were there still a few waitresses around?
It would be the height of irony if the tavern got robbed tonight of all nights. It would also be a bad deal for the robber, given how low the cash register was after the small number of customers.
Liam picked up a push broom, which was all he had in terms of weaponry, and started carefully down the darkened hall.
He paused outside the combo storeroom and office. Someone had turned the desk lamp on. He stepped into the room more cautiously. “Hello?”
The desk chair creaked as it turned around and he caught sight of a dark, close-cropped bob. For one wild moment he thought it was Ruth, and his heart gave a mighty thump. But the person at the desk was a lot smaller.
“Carol?”
She looked up at him, biting her lip and nodding. She didn’t look twelve all of a sudden—more like five.
“How did you get in here?”
“The back door was unlocked. I just walked up the hall, and this was the first room I found.”
“Does your mother know you’re here?”
Carol shook her head slowly. “I climbed out my bedroom window.”
He knew he needed to call Ruth immediately, but he was also curious. “Why?”
“I wanted to talk to you. I can’t really talk to Mom about some stuff. She keeps trying to tell me everything’s okay, but I don’t think it is.” She frowned. “You see what I mean?”
“Sort of. I need to call your mom and let her know you’re all right.”
Carol’s eyes widened. “I left her a note.”
“That’s good, but I still need to call her. Stay here, okay?”
Carol looked like she might object, but then she slumped in her chair. “Okay.”
Liam stepped back into the hall, far enough away that she’d have a tough time hearing the whole conversation, but close enough that he could keep an eye on the door to make sure she stayed put. He sort of trusted her to do what she said, but not entirely.
Ruth picked up almost immediately. “Liam? Oh God, Liam, I need your help. Carol’s gone and I’m frantic.”
“Relax,” he said quietly. “She’s here at the tavern. She came in the back way and nobody saw her until I was getting ready to close down a few minutes ago.”
“At the tavern?” Ruth’s voice shifted from frantic to faintly pissed. “What the hell is she doing at the tavern?”
“I’m not sure. She says she needs to talk. I’ll bring her back home.”
“I’ll come over there. I’m only about two blocks away.”
Liam frowned. “You’re outside?”
“I’ve been looking for her ever since I found out she was gone. I even called David because I thought she might have headed to his hotel.”
He had a sudden image of Ruth, alone and desperate, searching the streets for her missing daughter. He wanted to punch somebody, but that would be counterproductive. Plus he wasn’t sure who to punch. Probably David.
“Listen, give her a few minutes. Let me talk to her. I’m not sure why she’s here exactly, but I’d like to find out.”
“She’s there because David and I had a fight about her, which she overheard. He said some stupid shit, and she’s upset.”
“Let me talk to her and then I’ll take her home. We’ll figure something out.” He wanted to sound confident, but he wasn’t sure he made it. At least now he knew for sure it was David who needed punching.
“Okay. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I did. At least it’ll give me time to try to calm down and to call David back before he heads over to the house.”
“Right, see you soon.”
He turned back to the storeroom. Carol was where he’d left her, sitting at the desk. She looked even more worried than she had before. “What did she say?”
“She was really frightened, but she’s a little better now that she knows where you are. She’s waiting for you at the house. You’ll need to apologize to her, big time.”
Carol nodded glumly. “I really did leave her a note. Maybe she didn’t find it.”
