Death on a Deadline

everyone so wiped out. Why’d Hank fire Zac?”
    “Tuesday morning that old wreck Zac calls a car wouldn’t start, and he had to give it a boost off my battery. He never even woke me up. My baby’s growin’ up so fast.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Anyway, when he finally got to work, Hank lit into him for being late. Zac told him about the car, but Hank still didn’t let up.”
    I felt a surge of irritation at Hank, but then I remembered he was dead and immediately felt guilty. “Hank always could be hard to take. Remember how he used to yell at us if Beauty ever went to the bathroom in the edge of his yard when we were walking her?”
    “Yeah, well, unfortunately with half of the newspaper staff there, Hank fired him, and Zac yelled that he’d be sorry.”
    “Oh no.” I sank onto the stool beside her. “No wonder the police are questioning him. Did you ask him what he meant?”
    Carly nodded. “He said he was thinking about how many of the other delivery people were slackers and how he had been trying so hard to do it right.” As she spoke, tears spilled down her cheeks again. “So he meant that Hank was losing someone who cared about doing a good job. He thought Hank would be sorry when he realized it.”
    “I can see that.”
    “I can see it, too, but it sounds bad, doesn’t it?”
    “Yeah.” I knew Carly didn’t want false words of reassurance. Maybe it was time to change the subject. “So did Alex handle things okay?” Heat rushed to my cheeks as I remembered him overhearing me talking to Mama last night. The perfect ending to the perfect day. Not.
    “Yes.” She wiped her eyes and glanced at me. “Are you sure you don’t have a problem with Alex being Zac’s lawyer?”
    “I’m sure. Why should I?”
    “Why should you? Sugar, this is me you’re talking to. Remember? That torch you carried for him made the Olympic torch look like a little birthday candle. And it broke my heart, too, when he left town that summer without sayin’ good-bye to you.”
    Actually he had called, but I’d refused to talk to him. The agony of my defeat was still too fresh. I was seventeen. Who knew he’d never call again?
    “Anyway, he said it was good to see you and asked what you were doing these days.”
    “Really?” I grimaced at my high-pitched tone. I took a sip of my coffee and tried to sound casual. “Strange we haven’t seen him at church.”
    “He’s been closing out his old office on the weekends. Had to go again today, actually. But he’ll be at church tomorrow.”
    “That’s nice. So, what did you tell him?” I picked an imaginary fleck from my Eeyore pajama bottoms. “About me, I mean?”
    “Oh, not much. I’m pretty sure Daddy had already bragged up your job at the health club and made you sound like a partner.” She frowned. “Which you should be. At the very least. So I told him you were seeing Brendan.”
    I flinched.
    “Was I wrong?” Carly raised an eyebrow.
    I shrugged. “Not really. I cancelled for tonight, though. ” The oven timer went off and I pulled the rolls out. “Can you grab the butter and jelly?”
    “Sure.” Carly retrieved them from the refrigerator and put them next to the basket of hot rolls. “Anyway, for the life of me, I don’t know what we would have done without Alex. He believed Zac about last year’s trouble.”
    “Sounds like he has good judgment.” Although, surely, if he’d had very good judgment, he’d have never stayed away from Lake View for so long. I pushed a buttered roll toward Carly. Enough about Alex.
    “Thanks.” She cradled the hot bread in both hands. “I’m not counting points today.”
    “I noticed you set out the real butter.” That detail, more than anything, made me realize the extreme level of her stress.
    “Sometimes you have to have the real thing.” She squeezed a big glob of strawberry jelly onto the roll and took a bite.
    “Zac still asleep?”
    “Probably. Bless his heart, he was worn out. I guess Mama and Daddy went out to breakfast this morning?” She looked around the kitchen as if expecting our parents to pop out of the cabinets. “I told them last night, the more normal we can keep things, the better.”
    Our parents rarely splurged, but their Saturday breakfasts out were a time for them to talk over the week. They sure had a lot to talk about this morning. “Do you think the police will question Zac again?”
    “I don’t know.” Carly finished off her coffee. “They told him