LITMIR.BIZ

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couldn’t be serious.

      Apparently he was.

      He took out an ID from his back pocket, complete with an Oso County sheriff’s department badge, and showed it to her.

      “‘Nathan Bedford,’” she read aloud from his ID. “That name sounds familiar.” She turned back to him. His eyes narrowed, as if he didn’t believe her. She didn’t care if he did or not. But his cynical expression goaded her. And then she remembered how she knew him. “Cottonwood High School. You hung out with Joseph Suh.”

      His hardened expression gave way just a little. “I was friends with him for a long time,” he said. “You look familiar. What’s your name?”

      “Lily Doyle. And I wasn’t exactly friends with him. I tutored him in English composition.” She’d hung around with a totally different crowd than Nate and Joseph when they were all in high school. And every day after school, she’d had a job stocking shelves in a grocery store. If she wasn’t in class or at work, she was either studying or sleeping. She hadn’t had much time for friends.

      “Pip-squeak,” he said after a few seconds.

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “That’s the nickname Joseph gave you. Because you were a couple of years younger than us and kind of small.”

      “Oh.” Had Joseph really called her Pip-squeak behind her back? She’d had fond memories of working with Joseph. He’d told her she needed to lighten up and he was always trying to make her laugh. He came from a nice family. His mom made sure Lily had a snack whenever she came to their house to tutor him.

      “Joseph said you did a good job,” Nate added. “His mom made him sign up for peer tutoring and he was mad at first, but if it wasn’t for your help, he might not have graduated.”

      Lily felt a lump in her throat. For some reason, now that Nate was speaking to her a little more kindly, it was harder to keep her emotions in check.

      “I haven’t seen Joseph in a long time,” Lily finally said. “I know he enlisted in the army. I hope he’s doing okay.”

      “Deployed to the Middle East three times,” Nate said evenly. “Made it through two of them.”

      “Oh.”

      The barrier Lily had built around her emotions dissolved in an instant. Tears collected in her eyes and then ran down her cheeks. Her shoulders started to shake and her nose started to run. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand.

      Nate grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser attached to a pole between the gas pumps and handed it to her. The thick brown paper was meant for cleaning windshields and it was rough on her nose. She used it anyway.

      Leaning against her car, she let the tears fall because this time she knew she couldn’t stop them. Part of her choking emotion was simply the terror of the day catching up with her. But sharp sadness over the death of Joseph pushed her over the top. What a horrible reminder that terrible things happened to people all the time.

      Finally she calmed down a little, took a breath and sighed. She wadded up the paper towel and tossed it into a trash can. Nate quickly got her another one. She didn’t really need it, but just throwing it away seemed spiteful so she put it into her pocket.

      Trying not to be obvious, she stole another glance at him. Nate Bedford had always been easy on the eyes. But she didn’t ever remember him looking this scruffy. And now he was a deputy sheriff? She would have been less surprised to learn he was an inmate somewhere.

      “Thank you,” she finally said. “Thank you for saving my life in there.”

      Nate nodded. “You’re welcome.”

      He looked past her shoulder into the darkness surrounding the Starlight Mart.

      A chill wind kicked up and Lily rubbed her arms.

      “It’s cold out here.” Nate flipped up the collar on his leather jacket and turned to her. “Are you ready to go back inside the store to talk to the sheriff?”

      “Yes.” Since he was asking instead of telling her, Lily figured she could work with him.

      “Good. Try to remember every single detail you possibly can. You never know what might help. I’ll see if I can join in the hunt to track down those two idiots and make them pay for what they did.”

      * * *

      Inside the Starlight Mart, Oso County Sheriff Ben Wolfsinger had taken up his usual role as the calm center in the midst of the storm. A slender, bronze-skinned man with gray shot through the black hair at his temples, Wolfsinger wasn’t a physically imposing man. But his confident demeanor and calm voice lent him a presence that drew people’s attention.

      Wolfsinger saw Nate and quirked an eyebrow. “Bedford. I heard you were here. Why aren’t you at home in Painted Rock getting some rest?”

      “I decided to go to the ranch instead. I stopped here to get something to drink on the way.” He introduced Lily to the sheriff.

      “You’re the lady we’ve been hearing about from our eyewitnesses.” Wolfsinger reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

      Nate watched Lily look into Wolfsinger’s eyes, take a deep breath, exhale and relax her shoulders a little. She had scratches on her neck and a bruise darkening the top of her right cheek. Thin red lines across her forehead and chin marked spots where something sharp, perhaps shattered glass from the cooler, or pieces of broken lightbulb, had sliced across the surface of her skin.

      Thinking about the creeps who had hurt her made Nate’s stomach tighten.

      As an elected official, Sheriff Wolfsinger could pull out some impressive political skills when necessary, but he was also a decent and compassionate human being. Which was probably why he kept getting reelected without doing any actual campaigning.

      A few minutes later they were sitting in the store’s office. Nate and Wolfsinger listened to Lily finish telling her story of what had happened. Nate was intrigued.

      Lily worked at a trucking company—Torrent Trucking.

      A sophisticated theft ring had been stealing cargo trailers along the highways crisscrossing Oso County for quite a while. It was a multistate problem and an interagency task force had been formed while Nate was away. Nate already knew he would be attached to the task force when he returned to duty, thanks to the specialized training he’d received as a military policeman investigating large-scale theft of military property. He was itching to get started.

      “We need to talk to Bryan Torrent,” Nate said to the sheriff. The owner of Torrent Trucking was well known in Copper Mesa. His parents had started several enterprises that Bryan inherited. Torrent Trucking was the only one still in business.

      “I will talk to Bryan Torrent,” Wolfsinger said, turning to Nate. “You go on to the ranch. Tell Bud and Ellen I said hello. Take your week off. Get some rest. There’ll be plenty for you to do when you report back to work.”

      “Yes, sir.” Nate stood. “Are you going to talk to Bryan Torrent tonight? He must know the two guys we’re looking for.”

      “Maybe not,” Lily said slowly.

      Nate turned to her, a quicksilver flash of suspicion squirming in his gut. “Why do you say that?” What did she know and what was she hiding?

      “I’ve only been working there a few weeks. Part-time. But I’ve never seen Mr. Torrent in the office. He doesn’t come around much.” She crossed her arms and let out a small, deflated laugh. “I thought working there would be a great opportunity.”

      She glanced down for a minute, then looked directly into Nate’s eyes. “Torrent Trucking doesn’t just dispatch trucks and drivers. There are warehouses on the property. Sometimes truckload deliveries are brought in, the pallets are broken down and the items are delivered

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