Page 91 of One Vote for Murder
“I swear, I never called him. Not even once. Why would I lie? You already caught me physically assaulting him. What would be the point of lying about a lousy phone call?”
He seemed sincere; still, I wanted to be sure. “You know, I’ll find out if you’re lying. I can easily get the phone records.”
“I ain’t lying,” he grumbled. “I screwed up attacking him physically. It was a spur-of-the-moment, dumbass decision.”
“I’m glad you recognize it was a mistake.”
“Of course it was a mistake.”
Since he was being less aggressive, I felt empathy for him. It couldn’t have been easy raising Ivy all by himself all these years. Until recently, he’d seemed to handle the responsibility with grace. The last few months though, Quinn had been in a foul mood. Now he was drinking too? Something was definitely wrong.
“I wish you’d tell me what’s eating at you, Quinn.”
He flicked his wary gaze to me. “Like I said, I just have a lot of stuff on my mind.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Guilt shifted over his features, and he hung his head. “No. But… I… I appreciate you offering.” He sighed and said gruffly, “I don’t mean to be a jerk to you, Sheriff. I know you’ve got your own worries.”
“Everybody does, right?”
“Yeah. Some of us more than others.” He met my gaze, seeming to soften. “I… I went behind the stage that day because I wanted to talk to Kyle.”
“Okay.” I nodded, relieved he seemed less angry. “What about?”
“He wasn’t right for Ivy. He was too old for her and… and he didn’t even have a job. I just wanted to talk to him man to man. I wanted to ask him to back off.” He grimaced. “But there were too many people milling around, so I wasn’t able to talk to him.”
“Did you get close to him?” His choice of the words “back off” wasn’t lost on me. That had been the same phrase used in the threatening phone call.
He shook his head. “No. He was with his brother, and he seemed distracted. There were just too many people around. I gave up and went back to Ivy. I figured I’d corner him another time… but then…”
“Yeah,” I said grimly.
He exhaled. “I didn’t do anything to him, I swear. I had no idea he had a peanut allergy.”
“Did Ivy know about his allergy?”
“Not sure.”
“Did you talk to anyone behind the stage?”
“I ran into a pal of mine, Anthony. We bullshitted for a few minutes, but then I went to find Ivy.” As he spoke, he moved around the counter. He opened the register and seemed to slump even more when he saw the contents. “Another stellar day here at Breakaway Bikes. I should change the name of the store to Out of Business Bikes.”
“Business isn’t good lately?”
“It’s the same as always. Problem is rent went up.”
I frowned. “Did it?”
“Yeah. New landlord is raising it by a lot.” He began counting bills, his lips moving silently.
“Damn. I’m sorry, Quinn.” I waited a few minutes until he was done adding up the money. Once he’d put the money in a blue leather pouch, I said, “Can he do that? Doesn’t he have to honor the old lease terms?”
Looking ill, he mumbled, “I screwed up, so he can do what he wants.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Like an idiot, I let the lease lapse right before Thanksgiving. Now I don’t have any of the usual protections. I… I’ve been paying month to month, but I’m getting further and further behind. Since Texas has norent-stabilization laws, the new guy can basically charge me whatever he wants.”
