Page 34 of To Die For

“But what about when you were growing up?” asked Devine.

“Just lived with relatives here and there, and they either rented or squatted, or lived in the basement of other folks’ places.”

“And your parents?’

“Joy juice got ’em when I was a baby.”

“Joy juice?”

“Heroin and drivin’ ain’t too good a combo. They went right off a cliff, so’s I was told.”

Devine looked at Shore. “You still have family?”

“Cops and cancer got my parents. Lived some with my grandparents. Really been on my own since I was fifteen.”

“I’m really sorry, guys. You said you met Dwayne in school?”

Shore said, “Yep. Went to middle and high school together. He ain’t had nothin’, either, same as us. We formed a little gang. Not a real one, but just for fun. I played football, and Dwayne and Kor would come cheer me on.”

Rose grinned. “He was real good, call him the bulldozer.Dozerfor short. Put the hurtin’ on you, man. Coulda got a scholarship to some football college.”

“Then I wrecked a knee, came out a half step slower, and it went asses-up. Glory Days, like the Boss say.”

“That’s Nate’s way of sayin’ we fucked ourselves up real good after high school,” noted Rose. “But you joined the Army, Dozer, while I was doin’ my cookin’ thing.”

Devine focused on Shore. “Army? How long were you in?”

“Too long,” said Shore curtly, while not looking at him.

“How about Dwayne?” asked Devine.

“Naw. Dwayne ain’t too smart but he smart ’nuff not to do what we done,” said Rose.

“Then when he was ’round twenty-five he moved away,” added Shore. “When he come back, he was hitched and had Betsy. Surprised the crap out of us.”

“How’d you reconnect?”

“Hell, he looked us up. Don’t know for sure how he done it. But he come walkin’ into the rehab place we was at one day and said, ‘Hey, Kor, hey, Dozer.’ Like ain’t no time gone by.”

Shore said, “Coulda knocked me over with a feather. Made me feel real good he ’membered us like that.”

“Wewassurprised,” said Rose. “But then it was like we ain’t never been apart, you know? Just slid back in like it was high school again. And Alice was real nice. She and Dwayne sure loved each other. She was younger than we was. Alice really looked up to Dwayne, seemed to me.”

Devine nodded at all this. “So you have no idea where he got the money for the house and car?”

Rose glanced nervously at Shore, who said, “Look, Dwayne was a real nice guy, give you the shirt off his back, but he would say shit, too.”

“Like what?”

Shore shrugged. “Like he won the lottery. That how he say he got this place and the car.”

“The lottery? So you didn’t believe him?”

Rose chuckled. “When he say it, I was lookin’ at Alice and she done this eye roll thing, man. And…”

“And what?”

“Well, she ain’t look too happy is all.”

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