Page 6 of I'll Carry You

That was the last time he’d seen Mildred.

Jason didn’t remove his foot from the doorway. If he did, chances were he wouldn’t get her to open the door again. “You don’t have to like me, but we have something in common. We both, apparently, gave a damn about Kevin. I’m trying to find out more about what the hell happened to him before he died.”

He almost felt bad for putting it that way. He wasn’t lying exactly. Every word he’d said was true. She didn’t need to know about the inheritance or the reasons he wanted to know about Kevin.

Mildred sucked air between her yellowed teeth, the fine lines around her lips tightening. Her eyes became like slits. “You found out about the kid, didn’t you?”

Shit.

“What kid?” He tried to keep his face blank.

She chuckled, giving a slow shake of her head. “You really think I’m that stupid, don’t you? Just like your grandfather.” She pointed a finger at him. “You stay away from that girl, you hear? She’s one of the nicest girls in this damn town and doesn’t deserve you stirring up any trouble for her. If I regret anything in my life, it’s the day I introduced Kevin to her. He ruined her life. Leave her alone.”

Nicest girl in town.Jason almost rolled his eyes. Then again, Brandywood had people like Mildred running around it—who greeted strangers with shotguns. Bunch of crazy backcountry inbreeds.

“Just five minutes of your time.” Jason straightened and held his hands up, dragging his foot out of the door. “I drove nine hours to talk to you. I’m not asking for much.”

“Nine hours?” Mildred smirked, lifting her chin. “Sounds like something’s got you real scared, sonny.”

“Mildred, please. I need five minutes.”

She squinted at him, one eye practically closing. “Come back next week. I’ve got a trip to the casinos with the ladies from church coming up this weekend, and right now, I want to spend some time mourning the death of another family member I wasn’t given the courtesy of saying goodbye to.” She slammed the door in his face.

Jason covered his face with his hands. He should have known better than to come here. She had every reason to hate him. And who knew what Kevin had told her.

He went back to his car and pulled out his cell phone. Barely any signal. Perfect.

Why would a place like this have normal things like Wi-Fi?

Opening a hotel app, he searched for local hotels. Nothing he recognized came up. The closest four-star hotel was forty minutes away, a ski resort. A few fleabag motels and inns with two- or three-star ratings. And some cabins that promised a luxury “glamping experience.” They, at least, had almost perfect reviews, Internet access, and were only five minutes away.

He booked a cabin for the week. He wasn’t about to go back to Chicago empty-handed. In the meantime, he would lie low here and work remotely. He’d prepared himself to stick it out here as long as it took for Mildred to warm up to him and sign the agreement his lawyers had drawn up. But she better warm up soon. Before Ned Vickers found her.And then the bitch with her brat.

ChapterFour

The phone rangat the front desk, and Jen lifted her head, blinking. She willed herself awake and disentangled herself from Colby. Ever since the incident the year before where he’d gotten lost in the woods, Colby had suffered from constant nightmares.

He slept with her now, which made nighttimes even more difficult. But it was better than waking up to him screaming from his bedroom. And he didn’t fit so well in the Pack ’n Play at the front guest lodge bedroom anymore.

She hadn’t taken her socks off, but her toes curled on the cold wooden floorboards anyway as she hurried from the back bedroom toward the front desk. Lifting the phone, she managed, “Front desk, can I help you?”

There was a pause on the other line. Then a male voice. “Were you sleeping?”

Somehow, the question annoyed her more than it should. As though she didn’t have the right to sleep. “Can I help you?”

“There doesn’t appear to be any hot water in my cabin. I’d like to switch to another cabin so I can take a shower before bed.”

She checked her watch. It was almost two in the morning. Who in the hell took showers at two in the morning? “Uh . . . sir, did you try moving the lever to the other side?” Somehow what people failed to try amazed her. She’d had to visit cabins and explain how almost all the appliances worked at one time or another.

The laugh on the other end was humorless. “Yes, I checked the other side. Went to college, too.”

“I wasn’t questioning your intelligence.” She sighed. Why, of all nights, did she have to have a difficult customer tonight? She would rather put him in a new cabin and explain things to Laura in the morning. She checked the reservation. Single guest. In their most expensive cabin.

Looking at the schedule, her heart fell. “Unfortunately, sir, there aren’t any other cabins available. Weekend check-ins include Thursday evenings around here. But all the cabins are serviced regularly. If there was an issue with the hot water, we would have heard about it by now. My suggestion is to let the water run for a bit.”

Terse silence sounded on the other end. “I’d like to have someone from the front desk come and check on the water. Within the next twenty minutes. Thanks.”

The line went dead.

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