Page 168 of To Die For

Devine raced past a stunned Shore, who was trying to sit up.

Before Devine could reach Rose and Odom, the second man pulled a gun and shot Rose twice in the chest.

“Kor!” screamed Shore, who had seen this and gotten to his feet.

Devine raced past the fallen Rose and after the man, who was now sprinting away with Odom.

Devine pulled his gun but couldn’t fire because he might hit the girl.

The man cleared the tree line and Devine heard a vehicle start up.

He redoubled his efforts, but got to the road only in time to see taillights disappearing.

Devine turned and sprinted back into the woods. He called Campbell on the way, telling him what had happened. He saw Shore kneeling in the dirt and ran up to him.

Shore gazed at him, the tears streaming down his face. “He’s dead. Kor’s dead.”

A horrified Devine looked down at the body.

“I’m gonna kill those mutherfuckers. Kill ’em!” screamed Shore.

He turned back to look down at his dead friend, while Devine stared up ahead at what was left of the trailer. And then he looked behind him, where Betsy Odom had just vanished.

CHAPTER

77

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING DEVINEsat in Campbell’s hotel room in Seattle with Campbell, Nate Shore, Ellen Saxby, and Detectives Braddock and Walker.

Shore had not said a word all the way into Seattle. He was now sitting in a chair and staring at the carpet, his body so tensed, it looked like he had been frozen.

“We had alerts out everywhere from the minute you called me,” said Braddock. “So far there’s been no sighting of Odom.”

A morose-looking Saxby said, “They have a lot of resources. She could be far away by now.”

Campbell said, “We’re attempting to ID the other dead man. Your friend pretty well sliced him up.” He paused and said to Devine, “How did you get out of there alive?”

“Saw what looked to be a drone directly coming our way. Didn’t figure it would be on our side. And it obviously had a bomb attached.”

“I don’t see how it ran the circle of security we had put up,” noted Saxby.

“To hell with the fuckin’‘circle of security,’” bellowed Shore. “We need to find Betsy and get the sonofabitch who killed Kor.”

Devine put a calming hand on the man’s thick shoulder. Shore looked like he wanted to punch right through the wall he was staring at.

“And we will, Nate, I promise.”

“How? How we gonna do that sittin’ ’round here talkin’?”

“Us running around with no purpose or plan is not going to help Betsy or catch the people who killed Korey,” said Devine.

Shore hung his head and didn’t respond.

Campbell said, “They did kill two of the perimeter guards on the rear flank, which opened up a hole. And that old logging road they escaped on didn’t show up on any map we had.”

“Someone knew the area well,” Braddock said.

Devine said, “I think the drone came on hot and heavy so I could spot it.”

---