Page 104 of Half Baked

“I am, but I wasn’t then. We were just engaged. And in Everly’s eyes, I was and still am just a bookkeeper. It didn’t help that she caught wind of my past.”

I scooped some mayo into the bowl with the tuna and started stirring. “That you were a bookkeeper at Mad Hatter’s?” I shot a glance at her to gauge her reaction.

Her face paled. “Where did you hear that?”

“Connie, but she doesn’t believe it for a minute, so your secret’s safe.”

“Not if she’s goin’ around tellin’ everyone.”

“She’s not,” I said, pausing to add some spices. “I practically forced it out of her.”

“Why?”

I stopped stirring and turned to face her again. “Because I wanted to know what Everly had on my mother to force her to resign so suddenly.”

“DidConnieknow why?”

“No, she has no idea, but I figured it out after talking to a few people and piecing things together.”

“Whatever you’re thinking, I can assure you that you’re wrong.”

I put my hand on my hip. “So tell me what I’m thinking.”

She slowly shook her head, fear in her eyes. “You need to let this go, Maddie.”

“Let go of finding out more about my mother? Do you still haveyourmother, Gina? Do you still get to talk to her and celebrate holidays together?”

She took a deep breath and seemed to settle herself. “I do, and I know you lost your mother at a young age, but she’d want you to let this go, Maddie.”

“She was mixed up in something dangerous, wasn’t she?” When she didn’t answer, I continued. “I know she was with Gordy.”

Shock covered her face. “How do you know about Gordy? She said she didn’t tell you about him.”

“I know. I know she dated him when I was little, he was arrested for drug possession and intent to sell. I know he testified in the head drug guy’s trial.” That was a guess based on what Dawn told us, but I figured it would be better to sound confident. “She started seeing him again years later. What I don’t know is where Gordy was for all the years between his arrest and when he started seeing my mom again.”

She frowned, obviously not happy. “He testified, but he never went to prison. Gordy went into witness protection.”

I stared at her in surprise, but then again, I wasn’t sure I why I was shocked. It made total sense.

“Gordy wasn’t even his real name. Andy said he told her his name, but it was so loud in the bar that she couldn’t hear him. She thought he said Gordy, and even though she heard wrong the name stuck.”

“So what’s his real name?”

“Why are you digging this up?” she demanded. “It sounds like you have an ugly picture of her, but she wasn’t involved of any of that shit. It was just happening around her.”

Any of what? But I couldn’t directly ask her. I was pretty sure she thought I knew more than I did. If she continued to think so, she might accidentally reveal something. So I shifted the conversation. “Then why was she frequenting the Mad Hatter’s? That’s how you know her. You met there.”

“I don’t know what you’ve heard…”

“Pretty much what I told you, but I’ve talked to a lot of sources, and my mom was apparently pretty good about compartmentalizing the many parts of her life so that most people only knew bits and pieces. No one knew everything about her.”

“Gordy did.”

“That’s bullshit,” I snapped before I could think better of it. “I never met the man, which means he didn’t know me, and I used to think I was a huge part of her life.”

“Youwerea huge part of her life, Maddie,” she pleaded. “You’re the reason she wouldn’t go into the witness protection program with Gordy. She didn’t want you to lose your aunt and uncle.”

Good Lord, the shocks just kept coming.

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