“Smoking, you say?”
I gathered the rest of my things and headed toward the group.
Eddy looked clearly uncomfortable, but not in an obvious way. In an awkward, I don’t always get along with my parents kind of way.
“Why were you here to clean up?” Minnie asked when Eddy didn’t speak up fast enough.
“I…”
But before she could say anything more, there was yet again a commotion at the top of the stairs.
This time, Eddy’s twin walked down the stairs and said, “Surprise!”
Eddy’s shoulders drooped.
“Antoinette!” both parents cried.
A solid distraction.
Good.
I caught Eddy’s hand and tugged on it lightly.
She looked over at me with wide eyes.
“Not to interrupt,” I said. “But I have to get going. The cost of the after-hours house call and the new outlet is one fifty.”
“Oh, let me just get—” Eddy started, but her father interrupted yet again.
“I’ll get it. Follow me.”
I did, giving one last look toward Eddy before heading up the stairs behind the sicko.
We went into his office, and he wrote out a check to me before holding out his hands.
The last thing I wanted to do was shake that sick fuck’s hand, but I did it anyway.
“Thanks for coming out on such short notice,” he said. “I would hate for my house to have burned down.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Can’t have the pastor’s house burnin’ down.”
“Do you go to church, son?”
I nodded. “Sure do.”
“Where at?” he asked.
I named the first one that I could think of, which happened to be the sign for the Cowboy Church that was just down the road from my place.
“Ahh,” Barton said. “That makes sense. You strike me as a loner.”
I chuckled. “That I am, sir. Have a good day.”
May you rot in hell for what you’ve done.
He showed me to the door, and I had the crazy urge to head back down the stairs and rampage through their house so I could expose all of the man’s secrets.
But, since I wasn’t willing to make it any worse for the two sisters downstairs, I left.
