Page 30 of To Die For

Braddock nodded, his eyes glimmering. “If you want to see misery mixed with horror, Devine, try telling your kids that their mother’s dead. So I can sympathize with that little girl.” Braddock snapped back and said, “Okay, I appreciateyourcandor. So you said you came out here to escort the girl to see Glass. Has that happened?”

“It has.”

“Does she want to go live with him?”

“Seems to. He’s rich and she’s suffered through poverty, and has no other family.”

“Okay. What’s DHS’s interest?”

“It’s not just us. The Bureau placed Betsy Odom into protective custody shortly after her parents died. She’s been staying in Seattle with an FBI agent assigned to her. So Danny Glass is the obvious interest, but Odom told me she never even met the man.”

“So why waste manpower and dollars on that? What can she provide the Bureau that’s of value?”

“Don’t know. But the Bureau could be hedging its bets in case shedoesknow something.”

“But if your work is done, are you out of here?”

“I made arrangements to hang around and see if I could shed any light on the case.”

“And why would you want to do that?”

“I don’t like things that don’t make sense,” replied Devine.

“Considering your age, you didn’t stay in for the full retirement ride, even though you made captain. You said you stood up to those in uniform and it didn’t sit well with the Army brass? Was that the reason you left the Army prematurely?”

“There’s a reason for everything, and that’s as good as any.”

“I’ll be up front, I have no jurisdiction to work the Odoms’ deaths.”

“But youareworking the Rollins case. And maybe the twain shall meet one day.”

“Is your theory that Rollins was killed by Glass because he was going to tell you something incriminating about him that might foul up his chances to adopt his niece?”

“It’s a theory. Maybe the only one I have right now. But Perry Rollins was a low-level crook. So how does he get dirt on a global kingpin like Glass?”

“Shit happens, even to global kingpins,” replied Braddock. “I think I might have to speak to Betsy Odom.”

“You’ll have to go through the Bureau.”

“Oh, joy, joy,” said Braddock, making Devine grin. “I guess I get the FBI hedging its bets on Odom, on the off chance she has something on her uncle. But then why does Glass want to adopt her? If he had her parents killed, why not kill her, too?”

Devine thought back to Glass’s manner around Odom.

“Well, from what I saw, he genuinely seems to care for the girl.”

“Well, presumably he loved his sister, too, andshe’sdead.”

“Maybe he knows who actually killed her and her husband, and wants to protect Betsy from them.”

Braddock nodded slowly. “A guy like Glass does have a lot of enemies. But if the cops in Ricketts covered this up and wrote a bullshit report? They’re working for whoeverdidkill them.”

“I might have to make my way out there and look around.”

“Make sure you’re armed and watch your back every minute.”

“But you said you didn’t really know the cops in Ricketts?”

“But I know cops who do. Ricketts is isolated in a mountainouscorner of the state where people do what they have to in order to get by. And from what I’ve been told, the longtime police chief there, Eric King, lives up to his surname. That town ishisdomain.”

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