Page 47 of The Sister's Curse

“I ran into one of your friends the other day.” I described the man who’d followed me into the gorge at the Hag Stone. “Does that sound like a guy you know?”

He stared down at his shoes. “No, ma’am.”

He was lying; he wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Would this be someone who might be involved in a certain criminal enterprise with you?”

“It doesn’t sound like it.” His voice was a whisper.

“I’d very much like to find out what this guy is up to, and what your brother’s doing back in town.”

He lifted a shoulder. “I dunno. I hear a lot of guys are getting work from some rich guy. Side jobs, like scrapping and construction and stuff.”

“A rich guy? Do any of these people look familiar?” On my phone I summoned pictures of the Kings of Warsaw Creek.

Rod looked away. “I dunno. I don’t hang out with guys like that anymore.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where the supplies you guys were getting for meth manufacture came from, would you?”

“No, ma’am. My mom told me to behave myself.”

“Mm. Well, you’d let me know if you hear anything, wouldn’t you, Rod?”

He nodded vigorously. “Yes, ma’am.”

Rod wasn’t breaking the law at this exact instant (that I knew of, anyway), so I left him alone. But he’d pretty much confirmed my suspicion that my pursuer had been hired. And that led me back to the Kings of Warsaw Creek. But which one had hired him?

I sat down at the opposite end of the bar and waited for the bartender. I knew him to also be the owner, Owen Destin. Owen kept a shotgun under the bar, and I didn’t comment on it. Wasn’t what I was here for.

Owen was bald, clad in a flannel shirt, and had a tattoo of a snake peeping out above his collar, where it seemed to lick his jaw. “Can I help you, Lt. Koray?”

“Yeah. Could I get a Coke and a few minutes of your time?”

“Coming up.” He poured a drink for me and stood behind the bar. “What’s up?”

“Does Vivian Carson work for you?”

He nodded. “Viv’s been working here since high school. Good girl. Never misses a shift.”

“Could you tell me if she was here the past few days?”

“Yeah. She worked two p.m. to close every night this week. I was here.” He frowned. “Is Viv in some kind of trouble?”

“No. I’m just checking on some things, and her name came up,” I said vaguely. “Do you happen to have her time cards?”

“Sure. Let me go get ’em.” He disappeared into the back.

Rod scooted toward me and lowered his voice. “Did she hex somebody?”

“What?”

Rod whispered: “Viv’s my favorite server. I saw on the news that Jeff Sumner’s kid nearly drowned. She’s been pretty open about hexing his ass. Him and his other little rich bitch buddies. I told her to shut up about that, but she just laughed at me and told me she’s not afraid of them. I told her not to be going on about that kind of thing at work.”

“You think Viv can hex people?” Viv had denied touching the children of the Kings of Warsaw Creek. She’d hexed their fathers…did she hex the children, too?

“I seen it.” Rod looked right and left. “There was a customer here last year who backed into her car and busted her taillight. She said she cursed him. Dude wrapped his car around a tree a week later and was in the hospital for a month.”

My mouth turned down. “That sounds like a natural consequence of drinking and driving.”