Page 61 of To Die For

“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’theardthe 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 somebucks 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.”

“Ididn’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.”

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