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Smiley watched the exchange between Hank and Brackignton intensely.
She knew Hank, though not that well, and not for that long. But she liked him well enough. Even if he was a little strange. Brackington was right about one thing. He should take a vacation. As far as she could tell, the guy worked pretty much all the time. And to run a crime scene cleanup business solo… it was pretty grim. Still, he had been good for the funeral home, and after a few months, had begun to warm up to the team.
Sometimes she had come in to work to find him smoking a cigarette out back with Joe, or in the middle of a staring contest with Karina. She didn’t like the idea that he worked with that… man? Brackington. In truth, Smiley thought he seemed more like some kind of demon in disguise than a real person. And she could see that Hank suspected the same, but was too scared, or too beaten perhaps, to fight him.
“What the fuck… was that?”
Hank looked up at Smiley, fear in his eyes, then turned to confirm that the Shelby was actually gone and not just pulling some cruel fake-out.
“Look- you two should get out of here. But you can’t take the Beast, they’ll see you leaving and they’ll know-”