Nursing a Grudge: An Earl Walker Mystery

Chapter 24

It was late in the afternoon before Jenny could get there. They didn’t speak as Jenny wheeled Earl the whole way down the walk. His hands were trembling too much for him to roll himself.

At the door to the apartment, she stopped and looked at him tenderly, brushing the hair off his forehead. “Are you sure about this?”

“Go on.” Earl grunted. “You know what to do.”

She smiled uncertainly. “I can stick around if you want.”

He didn’t smile back. “I have to do this myself.”

She looked at him for a long moment. “Well, you know where I’ll be.”

Jenny left him. As the echo of her steps drifted into the wind, Earl turned his attention to the convoy of movers. Primarily teens, by his reckoning, they carried, carted, and slid boxes, odds and ends, and small furniture out of the apartment and across the grass toward the parking lot.

One freckled kid in a striped shirt gave Earl a friendly grin. Earl tried to return the smile, but he didn’t feel up to it.

Alone in the courtyard, he was aware of how empty the complex had already become. Soon everyone would be scattered to the four winds. Sure, for some it would only mean a few miles in one direction or another. But for those residents of Candlewick who weren’t so mobile, it was almost like being transferred to Egypt or Antarctica.

He sat for long minutes, soaking up the world. The sun was warm. The air was cool. The smell of honeysuckle wafted to him. He would miss that most of all.

Turning his attention to the apartment in question, Earl heard sounds coming out through the open door—the clunking of objects, the scrunching of paper, the taping of boxes, the cursing at things not fitting as conveniently into boxes as hoped.

Earl heard a grunt, and out came a man carrying three stacked boxes. Struggling with the weight, the man had to look around his payload to see where he was going.

Earl rolled back out of the way. Even so, the man nearly stumbled into him. “Oh! Sorry.”

“You shouldn’t try to carry so much.” Earl hoped he didn’t come off as gruff as he thought he sounded. He added, trying a softer tone, “You’ll hurt your back.”

“Uh-huh.” The man just kept going, stumbling across the grass toward the parking lot.

Earl, hands still shaky, wheeled delicately toward the door. He heard voices from inside, belonging to a man and a woman. Reaching the threshold, he called out. “Hello!”

A woman whom Earl remembered as Conroy’s daughter came to the door, her hair tied back. She gripped a long lamp. “Hello! I guess you’re here to see Dad?”

Earl tried his best smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

She turned and yelled. “Dad! One of your friends.” She smiled at Earl, holding out a hand. “Remember me? I’m Clara. We met at the rec center.”

“Earl.” He took the hand. “Good to see you again.”

“You, too.” She went back in, and the door was soon filled with Conroy in gray sweat clothes.

He looked at Earl and dropped his grin. “Oh. Come to see me off?”

“Something like that.”

“It’ll be a relief to get out of this place. I don’t know why any of us fought to stay.” He chuckled. “If it weren’t for my daughter and her family—”

“Yeah.” Earl glanced around and saw the kids and the man returning from the parking lot. He turned back to Conroy. “I was hoping we could have a few words.”