Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(81)
Ghost pulled to a stop at a curb and looked at him, seeming to notice his tension. “I’m going to urge restraint, dude. I know you’re wound up, but don’t do anything rash. I just want to get a look at the guy’s face.”
“Really? And if it’s obvious he’s the one Brian punched? The one who tried to kill your best friend?”
Ghost’s dark eyes narrowed and darted to the house sitting maybe a hundred feet from the street. At first glance, it was a normal little house, but on closer inspection, it needed some repairs and a fresh coat of paint, none of which its occupant apparently could be bothered to remedy. “Yeah. I hear you. Let’s just do our best. I’m not looking to end up in jail myself.”
It would put Jared’s parents in the ground if something like that happened. He would have to keep that in mind—there were people who depended on him. Ashley. Mia. Starla. Even Shelly. They all seemed a thousand miles removed from this place, but he would keep them all at the front of his mind like a beacon of light to counteract all this darkness.
“Doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Ghost observed, pulling on a black baseball cap that had been resting on the seat beside him, “but let’s check it out anyway.”
The two of them strolled up the slight hill toward the house, where the grass was in dire need of cutting. One of the black house numbers had fallen off the wall beside the front door, leaving only a three and an eight. For the first time, Jared noticed that Ghost had dressed rather darkly for the occasion too. “What’s the story gonna be if he’s here?”
“I’ll just tell him I’m looking for a guy I used to be in a band with. They’re associates, shall we say, and Gus was always prone to disappearing for days at a time.” And then he was pounding on the door with the edge of his fist hard enough to splinter the wood.
A house this small, they probably would have heard some movement had someone been making his way to the door, or scuttling to hide, or whatever Max would be inclined to do with someone beating his door down in the middle of the night. It was dead silent inside. Dogs barked in the distance, crickets chirred, leaves rustled in the wind, and the security light hummed…but other than that, nothing. Ghost pounded again, and after a few minutes, once more.
“No luck,” he muttered, glancing around in distaste at their surroundings and briefly lifting his cap to run a hand over his bald head. “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.”
“You know, the night I met Starla, they were going to a party next door to my house. I found her walking along the road. It couldn’t be as easy as that, could it?”
Ghost cocked his head at him. “Where is this?”
“I live on Old Harris Road.”
“I doubt it. I mean, it’s a possibility. But the only person I know who lives out that way is Swat, and he’s more our friend than Max’s. I have a few other places in mind. Come on.”
They headed back to the car. “What about your friend…what was it, Gus?” Jared asked as they got in.
“Yeah, I’ll try him, but only if all else fails. I fell out with that group when I left the band, the bunch of *s.”
“I wonder if Max is even in town anymore. If he really did this, he’d have to be stupid to hang around here.”
“He’s pretty stupid. I haven’t lost hope.”
But as the night wore on, Jared began to. They stopped at a few other disreputable-looking places, crashing a party at one, but the story was always the same: no one had seen Max in a while. Someone suggested a bar Jared had never heard of, but Ghost had, and Jared could tell from the look on his face it wasn’t a place he cared to investigate.
“I’m up for it if you are,” Jared told his ally as they jumped in the car once again.
Ghost scoffed. “Are you carrying?”
“Actually, yes.” Though he wasn’t sure he should admit it.
“No shit, really? I don’t know, man. We can case the parking lot for his car, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.”
Jared wondered if Ghost had a few skeletons himself that he wasn’t willing to face, but hell, most everyone did. In the end, they went, but only to creep through the parking lot as Ghost suggested. No luck. And Jared could see what the guy meant. It looked like a place where they swept up body parts after closing.
Feeling dejected and defeated, Jared let the back of his head hit the headrest as they left. He was tired, and he knew Ghost was too. The night was winding down, and Jared had to go to work in five hours. “Fuck. I was hoping to tell Starla we found him when I got home.”
“She’s staying with you?”
“Just until he’s caught.”
“She’s that sure of this, huh? And that he might come after her?”
To broach this subject was to verge on spilling Starla’s personal business, so he shrugged noncommittally. “Seems to be. I think she’s desperate for answers. I wanted her to stay, at any rate.”
“Y’all have got me curious, but I still can’t make the connection why Max would go after Brian. So they had words. I would imagine Max has words with a lot of people. Not all of them end up in the hospital.”
“I think Max is convinced something is going on there.” That seemed relatively safe to say, and it was the truth. “You and I both know it’s bullshit, but like you said, he’s crazy.”