The Edge

Chapter 67

“It’s been raining so much any trace from the vehicle is gone,” said Sergeant Fuss. She and Devine were standing in front of the outbuilding where Hal had been killed and Dak wounded. Dak had been taken to a trauma hospital in Bangor. Hal’s body had been transported to Augusta via helicopter for a high-priority postmortem. Guillaume had accompanied the flight.

Dawn was breaking, and Devine was so tired he felt he was back in Ranger School.

“Did you find a casing?” asked Devine.

“Yep.”

“NATO or polymer?”

“The latter. Looks to be the same shooter as with Jenny.”

“But NATO was the one that almost killed me,” said Devine, really to himself.

Fuss eyed the outbuilding. “So, elvers, huh?”

“Apparently so.”

“Always wondered where he got his money.”

“To his mind he’s reinvesting it in the town, and I guess he is.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

Devine said, “Nothing. It’s not my jurisdiction. So what are you going to do about it?”

“I’ll have to confer with the chief.”

“I expect you would.”

“But if we do nothing...?”

“No skin off my teeth. Unless what Dak was doing is connected to his sister’s murder.”

“You think?”

“I don’t know one way or another. I certainly have no proof.”

“Okay, we’ll let you know what we find.”

“I’m heading over to Jocelyn Point to make sure Alex is okay. I already filled her in on what happened, but I wanted to give her an update.”

“Right.”

Alex answered at his first knock. She must have been watching from the front window.

“Thank God,” she whispered, weeping quietly into his shoulder after he gave her a positive update on her brother. “I... I can’t lose Dak, too.”

She led Devine to the kitchen and made him coffee. “You must be exhausted,” she said, watching him closely.

“I’ll catch some sleep later.”

“When can I see Dak?”

“He’s having his surgery now. We can drive up after he’s out of recovery. Bullet went in and out. If it had hit an artery he wouldn’t have made it.”

She paled at this stark description and he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so blunt. I guess I just got used to doing that in the Army.”

“No, I’m fine. Thank you for telling me.”

“So, did you know Dak’s friend, Hal?” he asked her. “I didn’t get his last name.”

“Hal Brockman. I knew he worked with Dak, but I didn’t know how or with what. He’s come by quite a few times. He seemed very nice. He was from the south, I think.” She rubbed her eyes. “Who could’ve done this, Travis?”

Devine didn’t provide an answer because he had none.

He left there with a promise to pick her up at eleven and drive her to Bangor.

Halfway down the road his phone buzzed. It was Françoise Guillaume. She sounded exhausted. She told him the post on Hal Brockman had just been completed.

“It was a .300 Norma Magnum round,” she confirmed. “Pretty much intact despite it having careened through one body and entered another.”

“Fuss already found the polymer casing, so I was pretty sure it would be the Norma. So maybe one shooter for Jenny and the shot taken at Dak?”

Guillaume said, “Out of my professional jurisdiction, but personally I would agree with that assessment.”

But I had the NATO round fired at me. So was it connected to the people who kidnapped me? And then chased me the other night? That seems logical.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“Um, could you come to dinner at my house tonight? I... I sense things have gotten off the rails between us, and I’d like to talk to you. And... I might be able to share some things with you. Insights.”

“Okay, sure.”

She told him a time and he clicked off.

I wonder if you know where your uncle is? Maybe around a certain elver-smuggling operation early this morning shooting a .300 Norma Magnum round into two people?

He didn’t have time to think about that right now. He had another mission to complete before driving Alex to Bangor.

He had to find a secret in Earl Palmer’s past bad enough to blackmail the man.