Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
“I know, but Monroe never does anything by halves. He told her that he worked in a bar in Billings. So we’ve been going through them all searching for him. Dotty wanted to hire someone to look for him, and then show the courts the receipts so they’d grant the divorce. But . . .”
“But what?” Brody asked.
“I think that Monroe really wants to find him in order to ask him some questions.”
“Why did she marry him?” Ralen asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Monroe’s always been spontaneous, and she’s always searching for something but never finding it. Maybe she thought she found it in him. I just don’t know. All I know is she was going to come here on her own, and Dotty didn’t like that, so Dotty decided to come with her.”
“And you decided to come too,” Ink asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t like to be on my own and I wanted to help my sister. I’m a bit of a liability, though. It’s not like I can ask many questions. I get too anxious around people I don’t know. I don’t do well in crowds. I don’t do well with people who are drinking. Basically, going into seedy bars is kind of like my worst nightmare.”
“But you still did it for your sister,” Brody said. “That’s brave.”
“I’m not that helpful,” she told them. “I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, there was a brawl going on. I couldn’t find my sisters anywhere, and that’s when Cash told me to run.”
“So what happened next?” Ink asked her.
“I managed to get out of the bar after a close encounter with another man,” she said.
Ink frowned but didn’t ask any questions. She could feel that Cash had grown more tense though.
“I went outside, and I was in a back alley. I was trying to get back around to the front to find my sisters, but I had to walk along the back of the next building.”
“It has a parking lot next to it,” Cash added. “That’s where we parked.”
She nodded. “I must have hidden beside Cash’s truck. That’s when I saw it.”
“Saw what?” Ink asked, his eyes narrowing. “Did you see something happen to your sisters?”
Addie shook her head frantically. “No, not my sisters. Oh my God, I don’t think it was them.”
What if it had been? She hadn’t actually seen whose body it was. She just had this weird feeling it was a man. But no, if it had been Dotty or Monroe, she would have recognized their clothing. This person had been dressed all in black just like the man that was carrying him.
“Was that when you saw the man with the body?” Cash asked.
“A man with a body?” Brody said. “Nobody said anything about a man with a body.”
“We only just heard about it on the way here when I told Addie that she was in trouble, and Addie thought I meant because she saw a man with a body.”
“Right. That’s not confusing or anything,” Ink said.
“What is she in trouble for?” Brody asked.
“And that’s not exactly the question to ask, Brody,” Ink added.
“We stopped on the way here so Addie could be sick. Ralen’s a sympathy puker, so he threw up as well, then he walked off to the gas station to get water. While I was helping Addie, this guy stopped his car and got out, demanding the keys to Crystal. When I refused, he and his friends attacked us.”
“Jesus,” Ink said. “Could you two not stay out of trouble for five minutes?”
She thought that was quite unfair, considering she seemed to be the one getting everybody into trouble.
“I think I’m the troublemaker,” she said in Batman’s voice.
Ink shook his head. “If you knew these two, you’d know how much trouble they get into. They thrive off it, nearly as much as the twins.”
He had twins? Wow. She could imagine that meant plenty lot of chaos.
“Hey, I resent that,” Ralen said. “We don’t get into trouble. It just seems to find us. Hey Bat girly, maybe that should be your new nickname, Trouble.”
“Bat girly?” Brody asked. “Unusual nickname.”
“I know. That’s why I’ve changed it to Trouble,” Ralen replied.
“Not sure that Addie likes that one either,” Brody said, giving her a look of sympathy.
She really didn’t mind what Ralen called her. Not after everything he’d done for her.
“Okay, so back to how you ended up in the back of Cash’s pickup,” Ink said. “What happened? Who was the man with the body?”
Did he think she knew who the man was? Because she had no clue.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just saw him carrying a body and which he put into the trunk of a car. I got scared he might see me, so I hid. I couldn’t really see his face. He was dressed all in black and had a hat on, but his eyes seemed so dark and cold.”