Grim Reaper 01 - Embrace the Grim Reaper

him.” She considered her words. “What I’m wondering is, is that dislike business or personal?”
    He stood up. “Look, Casey, I don’t know why you want to know, or, really, who you even are, so I’m not sure why we’re talking about this.”
    “I know. It’s very presumptuous of me. But it’s important.”
    “To whom? You? I can’t see how. Unless Thomas is right and you really are more than you appear to be.”
    She let out a short laugh. “So he told you that, too? What is he afraid of?”
    “You, apparently.”
    She shook her head. “Are you, too?”
    “I wasn’t. Not until you came here, asking questions.”
    “I’m sorry.” She was. “But it’s just…I think Ellen’s family deserves to know.”
    He went white, and glanced toward his house. “There’s nothing to know. Nothing happened, and nothing was going to.”
    Casey held up a hand. “I don’t mean about you. I mean about…why she died.”
    He looked down at his glass, and then up again, his eyes pained. “She killed herself. Do we really need to know more?”
    “You really believe that? That she…committed suicide?”
    He closed his eyes. “It’s what they say, isn’t it? The cops?”
    “Yes. But do you think they’re right? Other people think they’re wrong.”
    His eyes opened. “Look, Casey, I don’t know why you’re here, or why you’re asking these questions. I liked Ellen.” He glanced at the house. “She was kind, and smart, and…and real. But as for killing herself?” He shrugged. “She was a single mom without any hope for a good job here in Clymer. She was going to have to leave, get help, or…or something. I don’t know exactly why she did it. And I wish like hell she hadn’t. But I don’t know anything to say she didn’t .”
    Casey turned away from the pain on his face. She could feel it radiating from him, like heat. “Todd, I don’t think she did.”
    He didn’t move.
    “In fact, I don’t think you do, either. Nobody who knew her well believes it.”
    He waved his glass toward the sky. “So what are we supposed to do? I’m not a cop. Or a doctor.”
    “No. But you know things. Things that could tell her story.”
    “I don’t know anything.” He looked down at her. “Like what?”
    “Like why you went storming into Karl’s office two weeks ago. And why you came storming back out.”
    “What?”
    “People saw you, Todd. Was it…did he threaten you? About Ellen?”
    “About…” His face wrinkled in confusion, then cleared. “Do you mean…no. No . He had nothing to threaten me with. Nothing .”
    “Really?”
    “Look. I don’t know how to prove it to you. But it wasn’t a personal visit.”
    “But you know which one I’m talking about?”
    He set his glass on the bumper and rubbed his face hard with the heels of his hands. “I don’t go over to HomeMaker. Hardly ever. If they— he —needs something, he comes to the bank. To my office. But that time…” He looked at her. “I went to him.”
    “About what?”
    “Casey, I can’t tell you that. I’ll get fired.”
    He would. Of course.
    She stuck her hands in her back pockets and looked up at his house. He needed his job. He had three daughters. Property. A wife. “It wasn’t personal?”
    “No. I swear.”
    She studied his face. His eyes, piercing hers. “Okay.”
    “Todd?”
    He jumped, looking toward the house. “Coming, honey.”
    His wife stood in the doorway, a rag in her hand, her clothes just as dirty as Todd’s, although her spider web was draped across her hair.
    Todd gestured to Casey. “She’s in the play. Had a couple of questions.”
    “Oh.” His wife smiled. “The new girl?”
    “That’s me,” Casey said. “The new girl.”
    “Wonderful. Todd, when you’re done talking there’s some old insulation that needs to be changed beside the furnace.”
    He sighed heavily. “Coming, dear.”
    With a wave of her rag, she disappeared back into the house.
    “Well,” Casey said, “Thanks.”
    He huffed. “For nothing.”
    She shrugged. “Not entirely. See you at rehearsal?”
    “I’ll be there.”
    She walked out the lane, wondering what she actually had learned that could be of any importance.
    “Casey?”
    She turned.
    “You want to help Ellen? Really?”
    “Yes. Really.”
    He looked at the driveway, then back up at her. “The reason I was at HomeMaker?”
    “Yes?”
    “Let’s just say it wasn’t personal on my part. And Ellen had nothing—absolutely nothing —to do