Page 44 of Grave Stone

“Did you meet Hadley in foster care too?”

“No, we met Hadley at a funeral home. Her father’s funeral was right after our foster father’s funeral. She was in the bathroom because she didn’t want people to see her smiling, which is exactly why Stevie and I were in there. We bonded over our dislike for the father figures in our lives.”

“You lost your parents, and then you lost a foster parent? That’s rough.”

“Not exactly. My mother was a piece of shit, and my father was never around. Not even sure if it was the man she said it was. So, I didn’t lose a loving set of parents the way Stevie did. But neither of us gave a shit about Ralph’s death. He was an old jackass who’d been funneling foster children through his home for decades.”

“I thought you said you lived there until your foster mother died.”

“We did. Ralph died the summer after we graduated from high school. We had already turned eighteen, but they didn’t kick us out like we thought they would. Ralph told us we could stay as long as we enrolled in classes at the community college and made good grades. I was surprised by the offer because I truly thought he hated us. Anyway, Edna wasn’t in great shape, and it only got worse. We stayed and took care of her until she died. And please save your condolences. She was a mean old hag until the very end. We didn’t stay out of the goodness of our hearts. We stayed because we didn’t have to pay rent.”

“Then what happened?” I asked, yawning.

She yawned too. “By that time, we had steady jobs and had saved enough money to move out. And here we are.”

“Sounds like Cora’s tea is working. You ready to go inside?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

We took our mugs to the kitchen before walking upstairs. “Thanks,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”

“Night.”

When I got into bed and closed my eyes, Whitney’s face was all I could see.

18

WHITNEY

My new phone arrived shortly after lunch on Wednesday. I put the box down and ignored it until Hadley asked me why in the hell I hadn’t activated it yet.

“Because I don’t want to talk to people.”

“You don’t have to talk to anyone.”

“I need to call Lewis at work and let him know that I have a new number.”

“Text him, but tell him not to share it because you won’t have it long.”

Whitney: Hey! It’s Whit. Lost my phone. This is my new number, but it’s temporary, so please don’t share it. I’ll see you Friday.

Lewis: Hey! I’ve been trying to call you. A detective came by the shop this morning and wanted to talk to you. I told him you weren’t scheduled to work until Friday. Then he asked if you’d been out of town. Said he’d been trying to contact you for a while. I told him you took last weekend off, so you might’ve been.

Whitney: A detective? Did he say what he wanted to talk about?

Lewis: No, but he left his contact information. I’ll send it to you.

“Lewis said a detective stopped by Ink Therapy wanting to talk to me. He left a phone number for me to call,” I told Hadley.

“Huh,” she said, sounding surprised. “I thought it would be a few more days before they contacted you. Well, it’s nothing to worry about. He just wants to ask you about Glenn.”

“When should I call him back?” I asked.

“You can call him back now. He probably wants to schedule a time to talk to you in person.”

“Should we talk to the guys about it first?”

“Crap,” Hadley groaned and closed her laptop. “Fuck yes, we should! Always ask that question if I start making decisions while we’re under biker rule. I’m not used to having to clear shit with other people.”