The Edge

“Globally, it’s billions of dollars a year,” said Hal in a reverential tone. “And I’ve been to China and Japan. Once the elvers get there, man, they are dumped into this supply chain that is full of corrupt assholes, smugglers, killers. Chinese mafia has their fingers all over unagi.”

“And maybe some of them came over here because your sister was getting ready to expose them, and so they killed her?” said Devine.

Dak shook his head. “No way. I can’t believe that’s what happened.”

“Did she ever say anything that made you suspect she knew you were involved in this?”

“Never, not once. I swear.”

“Okay, so you get your supply from Canada? Why not here?”

Hal replied, “We also deal with people here, but Maine has gotten pretty good about ferreting out folks like us. And Nova Scotia is right across the Gulf and New Brunswick is just a little bit north.”

“Lock this place up,” ordered Devine.

Dak said, “Please, Devine, do not shut us down. I’ve got big plans for Putnam.”

“I could give a shit about that. And you said you were going to make millions off selling this property.”

“Hopefully, yeah, but that could take a year or two to complete.”

“Again, I don’t care. Now lock it up.”

Dak was about to respond, but he didn’t. Or rather couldn’t.

The bullet zoomed through the open doorway and hit Dak in the arm. He slumped to the floor bleeding, and screaming in pain.

Devine already had his Glock out and fired multiple rounds in the direction of where the shot had come before taking cover behind the wall.

Then, silence. Until he heard a vehicle start up. Devine was about to run to his truck and take up pursuit when Dak screamed, “Hal!”

Devine looked over to see Hal on the floor, blood pouring from his chest. He knelt beside the stricken man.

Only one shot had been fired, so it must have ricocheted off Dak and hit Hal, concluded Devine. He didn’t have time to even locate the wound before Hal gave a long rattling breath that Devine had heard before on fields of combat.

“Is Hal... is he going to be okay?” said a sobbing Dak, holding his bloodied arm, and crawling over to them. “Is he breathing?”

“No, he’s not,” said Devine curtly. “He’s dead.”

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.”