Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

D EVINE DIDN’T BOTHER TO STAY at the bed-and-breakfast recommended by Mercedes King. He didn’t think it would be good for his health. He found a hardware store still open, bought cardboard and duct tape, and did his best to fix his mess of a 4Runner for the drive back.

He got on the road and along the way he called Nate Shore on the phone he’d given the men.

“Hey, Nate, it’s Travis Devine. You still at the Odoms’?”

“Yeah, man, we both are. Ain’t got nowhere else to go right now.”

“I’m heading your way. Be there in a few hours. You don’t have to wait up. Just leave the back door unlocked. I’m going to spend the night and I need to ask you guys some things.”

“Okay, sure. And we’re night owls, so we’ll be up. Hey, you gonna be hungry? We got some food.”

“Fast food?”

“No, we went grocery shoppin’ again. We run through what you got us. Anyways, Kor made us some fish. Best thing I ever put in my belly.”

“Where’d he learn to cook?”

“Taught himself. Mostly so’s he wouldn’t go hungry. But Kor always like cookin’. He worked at a bunch of restaurants, did caterin’ on the side. Went from glorified bottle washer to line cook, grillin’, fryin’, sauce, seafood, and roast stations. Kor done it all. Was doin’ good at a real fancy place in Seattle, cloth napkins and real silverware.”

“So what happened?”

“Meth happened. Cookin’ wears you down, man. Kor needed somethin’ to give him a pop. And it popped him all right. Cost the dude all he had, just like my shit done to me. Been a bitch, for sure.”

“Okay. See you in a few hours.”

At first, Devine drove the same route he had been forced to drive with the two men. He turned down the dirt road and pulled to a stop where the two men had been lying in the dirt. They were gone, and so was the truck with the shot-up tire.

He got out and looked around, his gun at the ready and his senses on alert because bad guys sometimes did come back to the scene of their crimes. He used his flashlight to look for shell casings and found one. From where it was located, he figured it might have been fired by the person on the motorcycle. He pocketed it, looked around for a few more minutes, and then got back in the Toyota.

He drove down the road and then stopped right around the spot he had seen the motorcycle fleeing the scene. He shone his light on the slim tire track that could only have come from that sort of vehicle. He took a picture of it with his phone and got back into the 4Runner and drove off. Then something occurred to him. He hadn’t heard the motorcycle. And those machines were usually pretty loud, particularly when they were wound up.

Okay, that tells me a lot.

The tape and cardboard mostly did their job, and he didn’t freeze to death by the time he pulled in front of the Odoms’ home hours later, nor did he get stopped by the police, who might have had some difficult queries about his shot-up ride. Nate Shore answered the door. He had on a white tank top that showed off impressive sets of delts, triceps, and biceps, and a pair of camouflage pants that looked like the real deal to Devine.

“Last time we talked I found out you were in the Army,” said Devine as Shore closed the door. “But you got out?”

“Yeah. I joined up right outta high school. Figured I could get me some college money, or learn a skill I could use to make some bucks after I got out. Made it to sergeant, E-5. Finished my contract with the Army and then came home and hooked back up with Kor. He was doing his cookin’ thing and I started workin’ construction. We was doin’ okay till we had our ‘troubles.’”

“So you didn’t re-up even though you made it to E-5? What, Army wasn’t for you?”

Shore glanced away for a moment, his expression hard for Devine to interpret. “Um, I liked it okay, even qualified for Delta Force after I made sergeant. Hardest damn thing I’ve ever done. They beat you up, man, no lie. Didn’t know I could even do some of the stuff they made us do. And I had to jump my ass outta perfectly good planes. Had some damn smart suckers in that group. Way smarter’n me. Some of them dudes were real good at foreign languages and we also had some guys who were hot shit with counterterrorism stuff. Me? My wheelhouse was weapons, hand-to-hand, and blowing shit up.”

“Delta! Damn, Nate, that’s an elite status,” noted an impressed Devine. “Most of the Delta recruits come from the 75th Ranger Regiment, but I had some Ranger buddies who were fine soldiers who tried to qualify but couldn’t cut it.”

“Yeah, it was somethin’ all right. Pushed me right to the wall, and then through the wall.”

“So what happened? You don’t make Delta and then walk away.”

“ I didn’t walk away.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Truth is some rednecks in Delta had a problem with guys who looked like me. Made my life pretty damn miserable. And the brass just looked the other way. So’s I didn’t re-up. I don’t mind bustin’ my butt to get somewhere, but I ain’t spendin’ my life takin’ that kind’a shit from a bunch’a assholes.”

“I’m truly sorry that happened, Nate.”

Shore shrugged. “Ain’t like I don’t see that stuff on the outside, too.”

Korey Rose popped his head into the room. “Hungry?”

Devine smiled. “I am, yeah. Very.”

Devine’s last meal had been breakfast, which seemed days ago.

“Got it all set up for you in the dinin’ room. Be right in.”

The “dining room” was only two strides away.

There was a place setting for one.

“We already ate,” explained Shore, rubbing his six-pack belly. “You want a beer?”

“Yeah, I would. I had a glass of wine earlier, but didn’t drink a drop of it.”

“Bad wine?” asked Shore.

“Bad company.”

Shore left and then came back with a bottle of Guinness and handed it to him. “They was havin’ a sale.”

“You’re not drinking?”

“Drugs ain’t the only thing we got problems with. The booze, too.”

“So why’d you buy it?”

“For visitors. Kor likes to have things on hand to be hospitable and such. Just ’cause we got an issue, don’t mean other folks can’t drink a beer. But we don’t never buy no liquor.”

Rose came in with a tray of food in bowls along with serving utensils.

“What is it?” asked Devine.

“Cobia, nice light, flaky white fish. But with my secret ingredients it’ll taste better than anythin’ you’ve put in your mouth in the last week, guaranteed.”

He plated the fish, added two scoops of seasoned couscous and some warm succotash and grilled tomatoes; a salad topped with precision-cut avocado slices and strawberries was in a separate bowl.

Devine sat, picked up his knife and fork, and dug in while the two men watched him.

“Damn,” said Devine. “This is better than anything I’ve put in my mouth in the last month . And I was in Italy a month ago.”

Rose and Shore high-fived each other.

“What are your secret ingredients?” asked Devine.

Rose gave him a wink. “If I told you, they wouldn’t be secret no more, but to give a hint, you can work wonders with a balsamic glaze if you get the reduction just right, and sometimes I do a honey-lemon-basil pesto marinade and grill it to the point of what I call extreme deliciousness .”

As Devine began eating again, Shore said, “You mentioned on the phone some questions?”

Devine took a swig of beer and nodded. “I’ve been to Ricketts, where Dwayne and Alice died. The autopsy report isn’t complete yet; they’re waiting on tox results. But I think they’re going to stick to the drug overdose story.”

“That is bullshit,” exclaimed Rose.

“I know. The mayor there is married to the police chief, who’s about thirty years older than she is. The town seems to live way beyond its means. You two ever been to Ricketts, or Asotin County?”

They both shook their heads.

“What do you think is goin’ on there?” asked Shore.

“I’m not certain but something is off, maybe way off. Now, Betsy has a court hearing coming up. It has to do with Glass wanting to be her guardian.”

“That man can’t get Betsy,” said Rose. “No tellin’ what he might do to her.”

“Hey, can me and Kor be her guardians?” asked Shore. “We know her. She likes us. We was real good friends with her parents. That counts, right? I mean to the judge? And we got this nice place for all of us to live in.”

“You also have some problems in your past and being in and out of drug rehab will not be looked on favorably by the court,” said Devine. “And you don’t have regular jobs so how would you support her or yourselves?”

“Yeah,” said a resigned Shore, who glanced at Rose. “Ain’t the first time we hear that, right, Kor?”

Rose scratched his head and looked out the window. “Hey, what the hell happened to your truck? Your windshield’s all busted up. You hit somethin’?”

“Oh, I forgot to mention that somebody tried to kill me back in Ricketts.”

Shore and Rose exchanged surprised glances. Rose said, “No shit?”

“You gonna report it to the cops?” asked Shore.

“It might have been the cops who did it,” replied Devine.

“Fuck me,” said a stunned Rose.

Devine looked at him. “You ever think of getting back into the cooking business?”

Rose shook his head. “No way, too damn stressful. What made me do drugs in the first place. Just to keep up. But I like cookin’ for friends.”

“What did Betsy like to eat?”

“Burgers and fries and pizza mostly, just like all kids,” said Rose with a crooked grin. “But I got her to expand her culinary horizons a little. She even tried my chicken cordon bleu. Said it didn’t suck, right, Dozer?”

“Right. So what you gonna do about this court hearin’ and Danny Glass?” asked Shore.

“I’m going there with her, but I don’t have much leverage to make a difference.”

“But if you find shit on Glass?” said Shore.

“You got any in your back pocket?”

“I wish.”

After he finished his dinner, Devine went to his room and looked out the window in what had been Betsy’s bedroom. All he saw was darkness, and Devine had no way to know that someone was right now watching him through a pair of superb night optics.