Page 29 of Whiskey and Whispers
This doesn’t bode well.
He stopped by the bartender to ask him to keep an eye on things before heading through the kitchen to the back entrance. He stepped outside but didn’t see anyone for a minute until Leo and Shelly popped out from behind a dumpster.
“All I can smell is garbage, Leo. You couldn’t have chosen a classier spot for a meeting?”
Tate was making a joke and playing dumb, but he had a bad feeling about the topic of the upcoming conversation.
Tyler’s shooting. It couldn’t be anything else.
As in, where had Leo and Shelly been this morning while Tyler was being shot? Finn had questions, although he was hopefully resting and getting fluids. But eventually, he would feel better, and the couple would need to have answers for the sheriff.
“We don’t want anyone to see us,” Leo hissed, his head swiveling back and forth.
Shelly had her arms wrapped around herself, her lips pressed together as if stifling a scream.
“When you say anyone, do you mean Finn?” Tate asked. “Because you’ll have to answer his questions at some point. Let’s start there. Where were you this morning? That’s the first question Finn is going to ask you. The second is what you and Josh were arguing about last night.”
Leo threw up his hands, shaking his head.
“We didn’t do anything. I’m not going to have an attempted murder pinned on me or my wife because I had too much to drink and overslept. I didn’t shoot at anyone, and neither did Shelly. We’re innocent.”
“Okay,” Tate said, trying to calm the man down. Leo’s face was bright red and visibly sweaty. “Calm down. It’s okay. It will all be fine. All you have to do is talk to Finn. Tell him where you were. Call your lawyer to be with you if you’re afraid to speak to him alone. He just wants to find out what’s going on.”
“You know how the town council is,” Leo said. “They’re going to want to find a shooter as soon as possible. They don’t care who it is. They just want an arrest so everyone can feel safe.”
“I’m not a massive fan of the town council, but I think they care if they have the right person. Because if it’s not, then no one is safe. Finn isn’t the type of lawman to arrest someone without real evidence. Which he won’t have, right?”
“Some people might say I have a motive,” Leo confessed shakily. “I don’t think so, but some might say that.”
“Don’t tell him,” Shelly groaned, rolling her red-rimmed eyes. “What if Finn asks him about us? Tate will have to tell him the truth.”
“You have to tell him the truth,” Tate shot back. “Trying to lie your way out of this isn’t going to work for long. The truthalways comes out. It’s better if you’re on top of it from the beginning. What motive do you have? Was it about the argument last night?”
“Josh and I argue all the time,” Leo replied. “But lately it’s been worse, I guess. Because he’s been worse. Typically, we debate about things and go back and forth. Sure, sometimes we end up disagreeing. Lately, it feels like I can’t get him to even talk about business. He no-shows at work. I have no idea where he is most of the time. He doesn’t return my calls or messages. He won’t answer simple questions. It’s crazy. How can we run our business if he’s never around?”
“That’s what you were arguing about last night?”
“Hell, yes. I finally had Josh in person, and I wouldn’t let him squirm off the hook. I wanted answers, dammit. And Rachel, who has complained to me these last few months about Josh, too, actually stood there and defended him last night. How many times has she vented to you about Josh, Shelly? Dozens of times?”
“At least,” Shelly said, nodding her head in agreement. “Rachel told me that Josh is distracted all the time. He’s hardly ever home, and when he is, he barely speaks to her. He buries his head in his phone and ignores her. She’s as fed up as we are, but last night, for some reason, she decides that we’re the crazy ones and Josh is completely innocent. I told her to never complain to me again if she was going to act like this.”
Josh avoiding work didn’t sound right. He’d always brag about how much he loved what he did for a living.
“What did Josh say when you confronted him?”
“He said that he wasn’t avoiding me or work. He said that I didn’t understand. So, I asked him to help me understand. He said I wasn’t being a good friend, which is bullshit. I’ve been doing the work of two people for months. I’ve been a damn good friend, but I have my limits. I told him he’d better shape up orI’d look into dissolving our partnership. Even that threat didn’t seem to faze him. I don’t even know what he’s thinking anymore. He’s not the Josh that I went into business with.”
“And now you’re hiding out from Finn because you think if you tell him that you and Josh argued last night, he’ll railroad you into an attempted murder charge?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds dumb,” Leo replied, his tone plaintive. “But I’ve seen it happen.”
“Where? To whom?”
“You know…on television. Right, Shelly?”
“I’ve seen it,” Shelly said with another nod. “It can happen.”
“It can happen, but you might want to stop watching true crime shows. Seriously, call your lawyer and set up a time to talk to Finn when he’s recovered. Don’t make yourself look suspicious by hiding behind garbage dumpsters. That’s not going to help the situation.”
