Page 15 of Nothing Ever Happens Here

“On the house,” he says. “May I?” he asks, and I nod. He opens the jerky and feeds it to Gus.

“He likes you.” I smile, because the gesture warms my heart a little bit, and I notice the tiny moments like this ever since my life became like living in the pits of hell most days.

“If I had to guess your drink…” he says.

“It’s whatever Miles is having,” I say, and Billy raises his eyebrows, looks down to Miles and then back at me with a nod.

“Okey doke.”

“Thanks,” I say, and I move down the bar and sit next to Miles. He doesn’t acknowledge me. Now there’s a man belting out a Neil Youngsong on the mic, and it makes Miles look even smaller and sadder, if that’s possible. I tap him on the arm, and he looks up at me with swollen, bloodshot eyes, but he smiles broadly.

“Heya, Mackie Mack! Whatcha doin’ here? Let me buy you a drink.I won ten bucks on the scratch-offs,” he says proudly, showing me his win.

“Heya, Miles,” I say back. “I just came to ask you a question actually, so how about I buyyouone and maybe you can help me out.”

He looks around and then points to himself. “You came lookin’ for me?” he says, and before he gets the wrong idea or I gag, I just jump right in.

“Yeah, listen. Can I ask you about when you and Leo went in on buying up the care home—the Ole?” I say, and his head drops.

“Oh” is all he mutters.

“Oh what?”

“I didn’t have nothin’ to do with all that and I can prove it,” he says, and my heart speeds up a little bit.

“With what?” I ask.

“I left as soon as I found out what Leo was doin’.”

“Wait, he said he bought you out because…” I don’t mention the alcoholic part. “Because you weren’t pulling your weight,” I say instead.

“That’s so fucking typical. That’s what he said, huh? Me. After everything, he coulda come up with a story that didn’t make me the bad guy. Well, ain’t that some bullshit. I shoulda turned him in, shit.”

“Miles. Turned him in for what?”

“Oh, come on. You gotta know all the shit he was into by now. He was skimming part of all the residents checks into his own account before they went through to the Oleander’s system. You’d think stealing from your own business would be an idiot thing to do, but he realized there was no money to be made with the place and I don’t know how he was planning to unload the whole thing, but I’m sure he had something in mind,” he says, and Billy comes over and places two Manhattans in front of us.

He aims a concerned look my way when he sees the expression on my face, but I shake my head with a tight smile to indicate it’s fine and he doesn’t have to toss Miles out or anything, which he looks like he’d be happy to do. I feel sick to my stomach. I’m also a bit surprised at how easily Miles is offering up this information, but I guess he’s hammered, and also probably keen to defend himself if trouble around Leo or money is being stirred up with his name attached.

Everything I’ve learned about the family man that I loved—that everyone adored and looked up to—has changed me, chipped away at who I thought I was bit by bit, but this is vile. Stealing from the elderly who already have little enough to be living at the Ole? My God. Who was he? How could I have not known any of this?

I’m not some idiot who turned her head to all her husband’s indiscretions or pretended shit wasn’t happening to keep a marriage together. We talked about everything.Everything, I thought. He was my best friend.

After almost a year and half, I have been able to absorb some of the shock, but this… Was he really this person?

“So you never told anybody? You just let him steal from vulnerable people?” I say, and it comes out just as accusatory as it sounded in my head.

“Look, Mack, he paid me out, plus a nice bonus. I walked away. It was his mess, and I wasn’t gonna ruin his life,” he says, slurring his words but trying to mask it. “If he let the place go under and lost his investment, nothing new. Nobody was gonna die. The residents would be bussed off to different homes on the outskirts, and that’s shitty, but I didn’t make it my problem. Couldn’t afford to,” he says.

I blink at him. There is a lull in the karaoke, and I hear the rise and fall of the conversations around me. One of the high-heel girls barks out a high-pitched laugh. Billy’s voice asking people what they’re having and placing napkins on the bar, bottle tops popping, a karaoke host trying to fill the void with awkward forced enthusiasm for the next singer. It all swirls around me while it sets in that Leo was a terrible fucking person. The love of my life was a thief and a really good liar.

“Thanks,” I say to Miles, sliding my Manhattan next to his half-empty glass for him to have and leaving a twenty on the bar. There’s nothing else to say to him. That’s exactly what those checks and that paperwork I looked through mean. It’s all clear. I just want to go home and somehow try to make sense of it all.

Is this what got him killed? Does someone know what he did?

Shelby can’t possibly know or she would have told me. I know she would have. I need to find out, though. Because what happened to her that night is clearly connected, and what if there are things she knows about this that she’s not telling me?

As I get up to leave, I see Billy out of the corner of my eye wave the lowball glass in his hand at me and call my name. For the second time today I’m just walking away without a word, and I don’t have the energy to care that he probably thinks I’m as unstable and broken as everyone whispers about. I just carry little Gus to the car and I wait for it to heat up before I pull away.

---