Page 35 of Code Violation

Forrest set the Believe—CSBFS coffee mug where Nero could reach it and took the chair next to him. His cup matched Nero’s, both decorated with a silhouette of a Sasquatch set against a simple map of the region with red map pins where there’d been supposed sightings.

Nero stared at the cup, his lips moving as he silently figured out what the letters stood for.

“Ah, yes, Cooper Springs Bigfoot Society. But Bigfoot is one word. Are you a member?” he asked.

“Yeah, but Rufus didn’t think BS worked very well for the merch. And of course I am.” Forrest scoffed. “Rufus wouldn’t let me into the pub if I wasn’t a member and in good standing. For most of us, it’s a joke, but Rufus is a believer. He doesn’t think all the sightings are valid, of course, but he had an experience when he was a boy, and he firmly believes the big guy saved his life.”

“That’s cool.”

“Are you serious?”

“Well, yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“A lot of people make fun of the Bigfoot Society and Rufus.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I am not like a lot of other people.”

“Oliver Cox is also a member, and Ned was too. My grandpa gave them all endless amounts of shit about it, and they kept trying to convert him.”

“So Rufus and Ned were good friends? Maybe I should talk to Rufus about him. I was going to talk to him anyway.”

“Sure.” Forrest shrugged. “Might be a good idea.”

Nero turned in his seat. “So, tell me about the Ned Barker you knew.” He picked up the pen, turned to a fresh page in the spiral notebook, and waited for Forrest to begin.

Where did he want to start? It was hard to talk about Ned without bringing in his own early childhood, but maybe Nero had heard something already. Maybe that was why he’d wanted an interview? That seemed far-fetched even for Forrest and his tendency toward conspiracy-theory thinking.

Nero raised his eyebrows when Forrest didn’t start speaking right away.

“I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you. You said he was a friend of yours. How about you start with how you met and go from there?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Most things are.”

“I first met Ned—and Rufus—when I was seven. Which was also the first time I met my grandfather.”

“Keep talking…”

“There’s a lot I don’t know because Grandpa never talked about what happened up there. I think he wanted Lani and me to grow up as normal as possible for the most part and thought leaving the past behind was the best way to do that.”

If Forrest’s nightmares were any indication, Grandpa had been right.

“What I do know, from things he said and what Rufus has told me since he died, is that our dad got involved in a survivalist movement way back when. An end-of-the-world sort of homesteading pioneer movement. His wife—girlfriend, whatever she ended up being—Dina Paulson was a big part of it too. Dina may have been a leader. They left town and moved into the woods. These days we’d call it living off the grid.”

Forrest’s memory was sketchy, but he remembered practicing his reading before bed so they must have had some kind of power for light, possibly a generator or a camp light. It could even have been solar power. Expensive, but maybe Dina’d had money.

“I know this doesn’t seem to have much to do with Ned, but this is how I know him. He, Rufus, and Oliver Cox were Grandpa’s best friends. When I wasn’t raising hell in school, I hung out here with them, listening to their stories about, well, Bigfoot and anything else they came up with. Ned was the one that remembered we were kids. He convinced Grandpa that a Happy Meal wouldn’t kill us. And he got me my first Halloween costume. It was a clown mask.”

Nero shook his head. “How did that go over?”

“That’s a story for another time. When Grandpa, uh, died”—Forrest guessed the jury was clearly out now on whether it had really been an accident—“Rufus and Ned stepped in to help us. I was an adult, of course, but they kept me from going completely off the rails. Xavier’s mom, Wanda, stepped up too. She invited Lani to live with her. Lani was a senior in high school, so living with me was torture anyway.”

“Was Ned married?”

“He was once. They split up a while back, but it was friendly. I know, everyone says that and then it’s not. But it was. They kept in touch, and both doted on their grandkids. Ned always said they were better friends than lovers. I imagine Kit—she’s Oliver’s sister—will help Oliver arrange the funeral or celebration of life.”

“So, he was happily divorced, had grandkids, was healthy, had a good job. No enemies that you are aware of?”

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