"Help?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I get that’s what you want, but why should I help you? What's in it for me if there’s no cash involved?"
"Robert," Beth said in a gentler tone than I’d thought she’d be capable of in this situation. "You're Deva's father. Don't you want to see her happy and safe?"
"Safe?" He tossed back another gulp of beer. "Deva doesn't need my help. She's always been able to take care of herself."
I was getting desperate now. "But this time, she does need help. Can’t you just tell us what you know? For your daughter?”
Beth offered him her hand. “For your daughter?”
He ignored her hand.Drat."Y'know, I used to have a life worth living." His words were slightly garbled by the mouthful of chips he was chewing on. His gaze never met ours, but his tone had changed from bitter to something more akin to regret. "I had a good job, a loving wife...and then Deva came along."
"Are you blaming your daughter for everything that's gone wrong in your life?" I asked incredulously, my hands on my hips as I tried to suppress my growing irritation.
He gave a humorless laugh. "As if it were that simple." He wiped a greasy hand on his worn jeans. “No, it’s more like my life has just been plagued by one thing after another. Like this one time, I got my hands on some hot electronics. I just knew I could make a killing on them, but the cops caught me, and my record started growing. This other time, I thought I could skip town and start over somewhere else, but my car died. And then I thought I could get the house in the divorce, but,apparently, I wasn’t entitled to her inheritance.” He scoffed.
Beth and I exchanged a glance. It was clear that Robert's life had been far from easy, but it kind of sounded like it was exactly what he deserved. Did he really expect us to feel bad for him? I searched my soul for sympathy and found a lump of shriveled coal that was begging to be thrown at the jerk in front of me.
"Look, we're really sorry about what happened to your life," Beth said gently, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "But we need to know what you know about the curse."
"Doesn't matter anyway," he said, finally looking at us. "Lost my job a few years back, and now I'm stuck in this dump of a motel. Back to karma again, ain't it?"
"Karma has a way of evening things out," I said, thinking back on all the times my own powers had come into play. My gaze held his. “Maybe doing something good will bring some good karma your way.”
He stared for a minute, then rubbed the stubble at his jaw. "Fine.” He set aside the bag of chips and sat up a bit straighter in his chair. "What do you want to know?"
I took a deep breath. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
He released a sigh that came from deep in his belly. “No. Even though I’m a little pissed my daughter seems to have forgotten her old man, I’d never do anything to hurt Deva. She’s too much like my mother, and I loved my mother.”
Okay. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I also felt like even a total idiot could come up with a better answer than that. If he was lying, he wasn’t very good at it.
We spent the next few minutes asking him questions about his relationship with Deva, her friends, and any potential enemiesshe might have made. He wasn't particularly forthcoming, but it might be because he seemed to know so little about Deva and her life that he couldn’t possibly point out one of her enemies.
“Well, we better continue our investigation,” Beth said.
I shot her a look. We weren’t really going to just trust this jerk’s word that he wasn’t involved in the curse, right? We were going to try out the magic glove on him? It had to be done.
Her expression gave nothing away, but I had to believe she’d do the right thing. This little adventure was miserable. The last thing I wanted was to still be unsure about whether or not Robert was responsible for the curse once we left.
Beth sighed in frustration. "Thanks for your time."
"Sure thing," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Not like I've got anywhere better to be."
Beth extended her gloved hand toward him. "Before we go, would you mind shaking my hand?"
"Uh, sure." He looked confused but reaching out to grasp her hand, nonetheless. Their fingers connected, and something briefly flickered between them before they quickly broke apart.
"Let's go," Beth said briskly, pulling me toward the door.
"Good luck with everything," I said as we stepped into the hall. The motel door closed behind us with a finality that marked the end of our visit, and we hurried out of the hall and into the fresh air.
As we walked, the crunch of gravel under our shoes echoed the tension in the air. The sun had dipped below the horizon, leavingus surrounded by a symphony of evening sounds, chirping crickets, rustling leaves, and the distant hum of traffic.
"Did it work?" I asked, hoping Beth would give me some sort of hint as to what had transpired with her white-gloved handshake. The anticipation gnawed at me like a hungry squirrel with a nut.
"Trust me, we'll know when the spell works," she said. A gust of wind blew past, carrying the faint scent of pine and damp earth.
"Ugh," I said, unable to contain my frustration. "I should've used karma on that jerk, I tried but… I don't know, maybe karma already got to him? His life is such a mess."
