Thirty-Two and a Half Complications
Page 70

She shrugged. “We need to check them all out and he seemed the easiest to talk to next.”
“How’d you know he’d be here?”
“Jonah said he worked here and I really was hungry for ice cream, so what did we have to lose? I took a chance.”
Eric seemed to be alone other than a guy at the grill, and he was oblivious to our entrance. “No, I can’t get away right now. You’ll have to do it without me,” Eric hissed into the phone. He looked up and noticed he had customers and confusion flickered in his eyes. “I gotta go,” he said as he hung up and approached us, looking around. “Austin!” he shouted toward the back, but no one came out. Eric stepped up to the counter, close enough that I could read the name tag on his striped shirt: Eric, Assistant Manager. “You can’t find good help these days. I’m pretty sure he’s makin’ out with his girlfriend behind the vegetable oil can by the Dumpsters.”
The thought made my stomach cramp.
“So…” Eric said. “What can I get you?”
Neely Kate leaned her hand on the counter. “I want a banana split and a hot fudge sundae.” She looked back at me. “What do you want, Rose?”
“Um…a small Sprite.” Ice cream didn’t seem like the best idea right now.
Eric filled our order and I struggled with how to get answers from him. Neely Kate, on the other hand, seemed to be a pro. Maybe this was why she knew so much about everything.
“Eric, you look so familiar. Didn’t you go to Eastern Fenton County High School? You graduated four years ago?”
He shook his head. “I’m from Magnolia. I moved here a couple of years ago.”
“You’re really good at your job. No wonder they pulled you down here to work.”
He laughed. “Oh, no. I came down to work in the garage north of town. Then they laid off a bunch of mechanics and I was stuck.”
“That must be where I saw you!” she squealed. “When I took my car out to Weston’s Garage. My car never ran better than after you worked on it.”
He beamed.
“So what are you doing here?”
He smile fell. “There aren’t many mechanic’s jobs around here.”
“Why not move back to Magnolia and work there?” Neely Kate leaned closer. “Only be sure to let me know what garage you end up at so I can be sure to bring my car to ya.”
He shrugged. “I’ve got a girl here. We’re getting married, and she doesn’t want to move away.” He spread out his hands. “So I’ll just keep being the assistant manager of the Burger Shack until I can find something else. But not to worry, I’ve got something promising on the horizon.”
We took Neely Kate’s ice cream and my drink to a table by the window and Neely Kate scooped out a huge bite from her banana split. “What do you think?” she asked.
“I don’t know. He obviously needs the money, but does he really seem like the bank robber type?”
“No, Moose fits the bill more than he does.”
“Agreed.”
We sat in silence for several minutes until I saw a car streak by.
“My word, Neely Kate! Did you see that car? It’s the gold Charger!”
She was out of her seat faster than I’d expected, throwing out what was left of her banana split but keeping her sundae.
Though I’d barely put a dent in my drink, mostly because of my stomach, I threw mine away too and ran out the door behind her. As soon as I had my door shut, she was peeling out of the parking lot and heading in the direction in which the car had disappeared.
“Neely Kate, what are we going to do if we catch up to it?”
“Let’s just find it first and then decide.”
My stomach seized when we saw the brake lights of the car at a stop sign. Neely Kate pulled up behind it and I tried to peer through the back window.
“I can’t see who’s in there.”
“Should I pull up alongside the car so we can look in?”
“No! What if one of the bank robbers is in there and he recognizes me?”
“So what do we do?” she asked as the car started to pull away.
“Get the license plate number. Follow it but not close.”
We had to wait for two cars to go through the stop sign before we could get through the intersection. The road forked a half mile down the road. The right fork went into town but the left fork headed to an abandoned plant. We saw the car disappear down the road to the left.
“It’s the old fertilizer plant,” Neely Kate said. “What are they doing here?” She pulled to the side of the road and we watched the Charger pull around the side of the building.
“I don’t know, but we can’t go back there. They’ll see us.”
“But if we—”
“No.” I sounded harsher than I’d intended, but it scared me how tempted I was to let her follow them, no matter how great the danger. “Neely Kate, they killed Mr. Sullivan and obviously stole his car. It’s not just us we need to think about. You’re pregnant. You have to consider your baby.”
She gripped the steering wheel and nodded.
“Let’s park across the street at the gas station and wait for them to leave so we can get their license plate number. Then I’ll give it to Mason.”
She groaned. “Since when did you become the voice of reason? That’s my job.”