Alistair McIntyre - Shallow Creek

“You know it.”

“And Michelle’s fine?”

“Yes, we’re both fine,” Brendan said, tiring of this back and forth.

“Okay, good. Just let me handle this, alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just keep your nose out of this. This is police business.”

“What are you going to do, man?”

“Trust me on this, and stay out of it.”

Before Brendan could argue further, Marcus ended the call.

Chapter 26

The shower felt good after his morning run at the same park he’d ran with Marcus at before. The same two ladies had been there, but Brendan’s mind was way off in the clouds and he hadn’t engaged them, even when one tried to talk to him. He’d had enough trouble with married women recently, and he definitely didn’t need more.

Despite it all, the storm had passed over without so much as a drop of rain. Nobody knew anything, and nobody was saying anything. The only negative consequence of the whole ordeal was that Michelle acted like she despised him. Or at least, that’s how he interpreted her aggression after dinner last night. Since she was the married one in the affair, that probably meant she took on the lion’s share of the guilt and remorse. She had a family to protect after all.

Brendan guessed he did, too. He didn’t agree with his parents’ views on life really, and their obsession with reputation and such, but he didn’t want to be the one dragging the Rhodes name through the muck again. It wasn’t fair to them that their kids turned out to be such screw-ups. The biggest laugh of all was that Grant now appeared to be the most stable one of the three. Who’d have guessed that ten years ago?

When he was done cleaning up and dressing, he grabbed his phone. Scrolling through the phonebook for someone to talk to, he settled on one person he hadn’t upset yet. She answered on the third ring.

“Hey, Kim. It’s Brendan.”

“Oh, how’s it going?”

“Not bad,” he said, wondering what to say next. “Uh, you working today?”

“No, I’ve got the day off.” She didn’t sound suspicious. Actually, if anything, she’d perked up a bit.

“You want to take a drive out into the country, maybe take a hike through the wastelands of Texas?” he asked as smoothly as he could.

She laughed. That was always a good sign. “Sure thing. Are you going to come pick me up?”

“I’ll be there ASAP.” When he was done silently pumping his fist in the air, he quickly added, “Unless you need more time to get ready.”

“No, no. I’ve been up for a while,” she said even quicker. “Let’s get going.”

Everything else was pretty sucky, but on the drive to Kim’s mom’s house, Brendan felt some honest-to-God happiness forming. This diversion was exactly what the doctor ordered.

As soon as he turned his pickup into her driveway, Kim shot out of her door and descended the stairs dragging a giant backpack behind her. He started to get out to offer his gentlemanly assistance, but she waved him off. Kim opened the passenger side door, tossed the pack into the backseat, and jumped up next to him.

Kim wore actual hiking boots, as opposed to cowboy boots, and had donned blue jeans for their trip. He was impressed. The girl knew what she was doing. Brendan checked out his very self-assured companion until she looked his way.

“Come on. Let’s get on the road.”

And that he did, without any argument. They’d already made the short trip out to the state highway before she ran a hand over the top of the dashboard.

“You keep a clean truck.”

“That’s right,” he said. “She’s my baby.”

“There aren’t even wrappers in the door pockets or anything.”

“I know. That’s one thing that drives me crazy.”

Kim produced an umbrella from under the seat.

“Didn’t figure you for the kind of guy who used one of these,” she said, fidgeting with the release. “You’re probably not going to need it out here any time soon.”

He snatched the umbrella from her and slid it into the empty pocket in his door.

“Yeah, but I’m sure a pretty lady like yourself would appreciate me having one around on the off-chance you need it.”

“Aw, I didn’t figure you as the chivalrous type either.”

“You’ll learn a lot hanging with me.”

“Oh yes, because you’re so old and wise.” She cut him a sideways glance. Then she acted the part of closely examining his face. “Well, I’ll give you ‘old’ and we can work on the wise part.”

“Ha, thanks for nothing.”

They continued on in this manner for over an hour, until the perfectly flat highway morphed into the merest suggestion of elevation. Now Kim was digging through his mostly empty glovebox and yammering on about how ridiculous it was that all he kept in there was a copy of his insurance card and some Tums. Brendan tried to stay focused on her, but a black Dodge truck had populated his rearview mirror for the last ten miles.

“Is something wrong?” Kim asked.

“No.” He tore his eyes away from the Dodge’s reflection. “Why?”

“Because you keep spacing out on me.” Kim put a hand on his forearm, which rested on the wide center console between them. “Do you have PTSD?”

“What? No. Don’t worry about it.”

Her eyes stayed locked onto him for a few moments before she pulled her hand off his arm. She reached into the backseat and forced the oversized backpack through the gap between the front seats. Now holding the monstrosity in her lap, she started unzipping random pockets and milling around inside it.

“You heading out on safari?”

“Very funny.” She produced a thermally insulated lunchbox and unzipped it, revealing a series of plastic baggies inside.

“Drugs? You shouldn’t have.”

Kim slapped his arm. “No, dummy. It’s just lunch.”

She held up one of the baggies and Brendan could see a lovely ham sandwich sealed up safe and sound. Maybe he should’ve considered bringing some nourishment along for such an extended trip, but the thought hadn’t really crossed his mind while he was rushing out of his parents’ house. All he had was the one water bottle resting under his armrest.

“Good thing I’m not Jewish. Thanks for thinking ahead.”

The signs for the state park appeared closer and closer together on the roadside. Brendan’s mirror still showed the mysterious black truck, but now he was seriously doubting himself. Could he just be paranoid? This was the main highway that led to a large portion of the state, and there weren’t that many stops along the way, so it shouldn’t be that unusual for two vehicles to travel vast distances with different destinations in mind.

An arrow etched into a short stone wall commanded Brendan to turn right into the park. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the Dodge slowing down in his rearview, but then the truck shot off down the highway. It could’ve been some kind of optical illusion to do with turning and looking backwards at the same time, or something.

Whatever, the truck was gone now.

Brendan killed his truck’s engine in the vacant parking lot and grabbed Kim’s pack off her lap. When she gave him a look of surprise, he smiled. “Chivalrous, right? Come on, I’m not getting the door for you. Let’s go.”

Chapter 27

“What really happened that night, back in high school?” Kim asked.

“Which night is that?”

“The one where you drove your brother’s truck under-aged.”

Brendan kicked a stone and watched it skitter off the path and into the short bushes.

“Why do you care? You were, what, sixth grade when that happened? Michelle wasn’t even in high school yet.”

“Didn’t mean to pour salt in the wound. Sorry.”