Bury the Lead by Kate Hilton

Author:Kate Hilton [Hilton, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2024-02-09T15:42:38+00:00

CHAPTER 13

I gave Nick a ride back downtown after the memorial in my freshly de-vandalized car. Somehow we had silently agreed that we were going for a drink together. He slouched in the passenger seat, window down, blowing smoke into the night air. “This town,” he said. “It’s like Succession meets Green Acres.”

I parked in my spot behind the Second Act. We walked down the alley and came onto Lakeshore, and I noticed that the street was quiet. The news crews had packed up for the day.

Nick held the door of the Second Act open with one hand and tossed away his cigarette butt with the other. Inside, once we’d slid the velvet curtain aside, it was quiet. There was no sign of the crowds that had filled the restaurant since Eliot’s death. Even for a normal summer night, it was weirdly empty.

“It’s dead in here,” I said, and then felt a pang of remorse. “I mean quiet.”

Nick laughed. “Let’s go get a stiff one.”

We’d started to weave through the tables when I stopped short. Nick bumped into my back. The lack of diners wasn’t the only weird thing. Adeline was perched at the bar, a place she never sat. In fact, she was rarely still. She was always mixing, pouring, greeting, waving goodbye. She had a nuclear reactor inside her five-foot frame.

But now she was sitting beside Declan, their heads together. Declan’s hung low, and I wondered if he was telling his mother about having an argument with his director at Eliot’s memorial. I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

They were speaking in quiet, intense tones and I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Adeline’s hand snaked out and took Declan’s glass and, with one quick movement, reached over the bar and dumped it down the sink. He said something sharp to her. I felt my heart twist for Adeline.

I whispered to Nick, “Let’s get out of here,” but before we could turn around Adeline had spotted us. She waved. Declan turned to look at us over his shoulder, and I was shocked to see how lousy he looked. He had practically fallen into mortal man territory.

Reluctantly, I brought Nick over to the bar. “Adeline,” I said, “this is my old friend Nick Dhalla. Nick, meet Adeline Chen and her son, Declan Chen-Martin.”

Nick shook Adeline’s hand, then held his out to Declan. “I loved you in Special Forces. Especially that episode where you busted the acrobat smuggling ring.”

Declan stared at Nick’s hand and made a sound like a growl. Without a word, he heaved off the bar stool and pushed past us into the night.

I didn’t even want to look at Adeline’s face. I was used to having a rude son, but mine was fifteen. And he didn’t have a drinking problem, at least not yet. I knocked quietly on the wooden surface of the bar.

Nick, to his credit, took it smoothly. He dropped onto the stool next to Adeline’s. “I love your place,” he said.

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