Page 37 of The Evening Wolves

Tean moved over to join him while Jem picked up the watch. “Thirty bucks,” he said. “Walmart.”

“You know that just from looking at it?” Theo asked.

“Sure. You used to be able to boost them—” Jem cut off.

North muttered, “Nice save.”

Emery took the wallet and began laying out its contents: a driver’s license, two Visas issued by Wells Fargo, a hundred and sixty-seven dollars in cash, a loyalty card for Super Subs with four of the ten sub-sandwich silhouettes punched out, and an expired condom. Jem picked up the cash and began riffling through it.

“I counted that,” Emery said.

Tean shifted in his seat like he might say something, but Jem just laughed.

The driver’s license was the obvious place to start. Emery examined it, checked the security features, and grunted. Then he handed it to John. After a moment, John shrugged.

“It wouldn’t be hard to acquire an ID,” Emery said. “Jem said he saw Social Security cards and driver’s licenses in that van. Vermilya could have gotten the necessary documents without much difficulty.”

“Your turn or mine?” North asked.

“Yours,” Shaw said.

“Bullshit.”

Shaw gave him a lopsided grin and jogged toward the front of the house.

“Let me see that,” North said, plucking the license from John’s hand.

“You said you heard someone identify him in a bar,” Emery said. “You left out some rather pertinent details, such as how you found him and how you ended up following him out to that meth lab.”

“Yeah, well, I got kind of busy when someone started shooting at me.”

“Nobody was shooting at you—”

“Boys,” John said.

“Have you ever thought about letting them kiss?” Auggie asked without looking up from the papers. “Just once. So they can get it out of their system.”

Theo started laughing so hard he had to walk out of the room.

“Funny you should ask,” John murmured.

“Bunch of fucking comedians,” Emery said.

That was when Shaw came back carrying a laptop. He set it up on the counter, and he and North bent over it together, quibbling for a few seconds until Shaw said, “I know how to do it, North!”

Grumbling, North drifted a few feet away.

Tean whispered something in Auggie’s ear, and Auggie broke down giggling. Jem had a huge smile on his face.

“What is so fucking funny?” Emery asked.

“You know what?” Jem said. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“You all are a real fucking cluster of ass-nuts, you know that?” North said. “He’s got a little house on the east side of town. All the utilities in his name. It took me one search. We got there, sat around for a while, and then he walked out of the house and got in that fucking Jeep. We decided to see where he was going.”

Emery frowned. “He didn’t notice you tailing him?”

North snorted.

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