Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

B ETSY ODOM, THIS IS AGENT Travis Devine,” said Saxby.

Devine stepped forward. “You can just call me Travis, Betsy.”

He ran his gaze over her. She wore baggy faded jeans with holes in the knees that looked real rather than manufactured, a pale blue Nike sweatshirt, and pink ankle socks with the right big toe showing through a tear. She was chubby in all the usual prepubescent areas, extra weight that would be used for growth spurts and to stretch out the girl’s frame. Her eyes were a muted hazel, her lips set in a firm, unyielding line.

“Mr. Devine would like to talk to you,” said Saxby.

“I’m hungry,” said Odom, not looking at her.

“You can finish the other half of my meatball sub. I can get you a soda and chips from the vending machine down the hall.”

“No. I’m not eating your shitty leftovers. I want to go out to a place to eat.”

“What place?” said a startled Saxby.

“Any place.”

“But Mr. Devine wants to talk to you.”

“He said I can call him Travis . We can talk at the place.”

“Okay, well, let me get my coat,” said Saxby.

“No, not you. Just me and Travis.”

“That is not—” began Saxby.

Devine interjected, “Look, it’s no big deal. I passed a burger place on the next block.”

“Then I need to come.”

“No,” said Odom. “Just Travis. You can stay here and finish your meatballs.”

“I need to make a call,” said Saxby.

“It’s barely a hundred feet,” noted Devine.

“I still need to make a call,” Saxby reiterated.

“Then make it.”

“I’ll get ready,” said Odom enthusiastically, seemingly sensing an advantage here.

“Betsy,” began Saxby, but Odom slammed the bedroom door behind her.

Devine said, “Look, it’s just the next block. Maybe you can grab a nap.”

Saxby looked at the couch greedily. “That would be nice. But—”

The bedroom opened and Odom stood there wearing a faded blue ski jacket and chunky tennis shoes.

“I’m ready.”

“Let’s go,” said Devine.

Saxby picked up her phone. “Can you just wait until I get the okay?”

Devine looked at her. “If the Bureau has a problem with this, just text me and we’ll bring the food back.”

Outside, the two turned right and walked to the next block.

“That lady’s a wacko,” said Odom as she clipped back her hair.

“No, she’s just trying to keep you safe.”

“From what exactly?”

Good question , thought Devine. Maybe your uncle who wants to adopt you.

They entered the red-and-blue-tiled burger place and stood in line.

“You an everything-on-your-burger kind of guy?” she asked.

“What other kind makes sense?” he said while performing a threat evaluation on everyone in the place. “You going for a shake and fries, too?”

“I’m already too fat.”

Devine didn’t really know how to respond to this. His sister had been much older than he was so he had little experience interacting with girls Odom’s age. And he didn’t want to in any way comment on, well, her physical appearance. But still, he felt he needed to say something because she seemed to want a response.

“Your body is just gearing up to grow like a weed and… Well, it needs the extra weight to do that,” he finished awkwardly, and drew a deep breath. Okay, that was a mess.

“My mom was tall. I mean really tall. But my dad was just average.”

“Height is usually robustly handed down in the gene pool. So don’t be surprised if you land some basketball scholarships for college,” Devine added jokingly.

“You’re tall,” she said, looking up at him.

“And so are my dad and my siblings.”

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters. Or parents anymore,” she added glumly.

They got their food and carried it to an open table. Odom had opted for a strawberry milkshake and large fries to go with her bacon double cheeseburger with extra everything.

As they were eating, Devine glanced out the window and spotted something curious. He turned back to Odom. “I’m really sorry about your mom and dad.”

She initially answered this with a scowl. “You didn’t even know them. Don’t say shit to try to make me like you.”

“I’m just being human, Betsy. It’s tragic when people die like that. And I know it must have been awful for you to be there when it happened.”

She bit into her burger and drank from her shake before answering.

“It sucked. I mean, I couldn’t do anything.”

“You did your best. You tried to revive them with Narcan.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Nar-what?”

“Narcan. It can bring back people who have overdosed on opioids. But… but you know that, right?”

“Opioids? My parents didn’t use drugs.”

“I was told that they overdosed and you tried to revive them.”

“That’s not true!” she said heatedly, her features full of agitation.

People at other tables glanced nervously over at them.

Devine noted this and said, “Okay, okay. I believe you.”

But he was thinking, What the hell is going on?

He watched as Odom gathered a handful of fries together and stuffed them into her mouth. She then followed that with several exaggerated slurps of her milkshake.

She glared at Devine. “Opioids! That is such bullshit.”

“Can you tell me about the day it happened?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m interested. Unless you have a good reason not to tell me.”

“I don’t know you. I don’t know why you want to know. And I don’t trust you. There you go. Three good reasons, big guy.”

“You’d make an excellent debater. Especially only being twelve.”

“I’ll be thirteen really soon. But that’s just in calendar years.”

Devine glanced out the window and saw something that once more gave him pause.

He munched on a fry and said with genuine curiosity, “Calendar years? As opposed to what?”

She took another big bite of her burger before answering. “Life-shit years, I call them. With that, I’m twenty-eight.”

“How do you calculate that?”

She swallowed the mass of food. “It’s my secret. I might sell it one day for a bunch of money. Or I might start doing dumb dance moves on TikTok or smearing cool lip gloss on my mouth for millions of my adoring Instagram followers for big bucks.” She made a face. “People are so pathetic.”

“For what it’s worth, you sound more like forty-two in life-shit years.”

“I hope I live that long actually, in calendar years, I mean.”

He looked startled. Up to now he just assumed she was playing the young smart-ass routine. But this last statement she seemed to actually believe. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“I’ve been around for over a dozen years. That’s a long time for someone like me.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“Meaning what I just said,” she retorted.

He sat back. “Okay, what can you tell me about your uncle? You ever meet him?”

“Not that I remember, but my mom told me about him.”

“What exactly did she say about him?”

She held up her phone. “There’s this thing called Google . You should try it.”

“Nice phone,” he remarked.

Her face fell. “My dad got it for me a few months ago. It’s… it’s my first one.”

Devine noted the utter sadness in her expression and wanted to say something supportive, but again, he didn’t want to make an awkward remark that would set her off.

Damn, this is tougher than interrogating terrorists.

“So, I heard your parents came into some money recently. You know anything about that?”

That earned him another glare. “No, I don’t! Okay?”

So much for not setting her off.

“All right. Do you want your uncle to adopt you?”

“The Meatball already asked me that.” She added wearily, “Like a hundred times.”

“You mean Agent Saxby . So why didn’t you answer her?”

She put her burger down and stared at him for such an uncomfortably long time that he finally said, “What, do I have ketchup on my chin?”

“You look like a nice guy, clueless, but nice,” she said. “So I’ll answer your question and you can run back and tell Meatball, so maybe she’ll get off my back.”

“I’m listening.” He marveled at how neatly the young girl had turned the tables on this conversation and, in effect, taken charge of it.

“Okay, here it comes, get ready… Duh, of course I want to be adopted by him.”

“Why?”

“He’s loaded, has a bunch of homes and his own freakin’ jet.” She held up her phone again. “At least according to Google.”

“So wealth, that’s what motivates you?”

She picked up her burger. “Who wants to be poor? Do you?”

“No. But it doesn’t drive all my decisions.”

“Good for you, Boy Scout. It does mine.”

“Do you know how he made his money?” he said.

“How does any rich person make their money? They screw over everybody else.”

“I’m not sure it’s healthy to be so fixated on wealth.”

“You ever been homeless? Or hungry?” she asked.

“No.”

“Okay, then shut up. So I’ll go see him and tell him how much I love him. And how great he is. Yada-yada, blah-blah.”

“He might be going to prison.”

“Then I’ll get to stay at his mansions and use his jet all by myself. Even better.”

“You seem to have an answer for everything.”

She wiped her mouth and abruptly rose. “I need to go back and get some sleep for my fav uncle. I want to be raring to go.” Odom dead-eyed him. “Just to be clear, you fuck this up, Travis, I fuck you up.”

“You’ve got a sailor’s mouth all right.”

She smirked. “Actually, I’m on my best behavior because you seem so fragile.”

“My job is to just escort you over and back. That’s it.”

“But the thing is, I think you might turn out to be Meatball Number Two. Let’s go.”

She strode off, making Devine leap up and hustle after her.

I just got my ass handed to me by a twelve-year-old going on forty-two.