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Ski crouched down at the base of a pine, sitting on the heels of his boots and putting his back to the rough bark. "Army. Special Forces. Covert missions."
"You're good."
"If I was good, I'd have slit your throat before you knew I was here."
"Did you think I might be Starks returning to the scene of the crime?"
Ski shook his head. "I smelled your tobacco smoke. He isn't a smoker."
The older man considered him for a moment. "How come you left the Army?"
"I got wounded."
"Iraq?"
"Afghanistan. Before it became the place to be," he said drily. "I got shot. Spent months recovering. By the time I was released from the hospital, my stint was almost over. I didn't re-up."
Dodge kept smoking, saying nothing. For reasons Ski couldn't explain, he would like to win this man's approval. Short of that, he'd like to alleviate the contempt with which Dodge Hanley seemed to regard him.
"I already had my degree, but I went back to UT, took courses in criminology, then brought my advanced degree back here to my hometown."
"Why this pissant burg? Why not a metropolitan department?"
"I like to ski."
Dodge's expression went blank. "I don't follow."
"Waterski. Boat. Fish. Hike. Big cities don't allow for much of that."
Dodge harrumphed. "Or, could be you're lazy and lack ambition."
"That's been said." He stated it frankly, without apology or contradiction.
Dodge kept his eyes on the deputy as he ground out his cigarette against the stump. "You like to ski. Is that how you got your nickname?"
Ski picked a chunk of pine bark off the ground and bounced it in his palm. "One summer night--I think between ninth and tenth grades--me and some buddies got a few bottles of rotgut whiskey, sneaked out a motorboat belonging to one of the guys' dads. I took a dare. Broke my arm, a few ribs, and my collarbone. From then on I was called Ski."
"What was the dare?"
"To slalom a half mile barefoot and blindfolded."
Dodge gurgled a laugh. "Jesus."
"I might have been sober enough to pull it off, but the guy driving the boat was wasted. Pulled me right into the shallows and a grove of cypresses." He caught himself chuckling over the reckless stunt, then sobered and assumed his professional demeanor. "Now, if I catch somebody driving a boat while drinking, I haul him to jail. No leniency, no excuses."
Dodge lit another cigarette.
After a time, Ski said, "Who are you? And don't tell me a friend of the family, because you've got cop written all over you."
"Former cop. Currently, an investigator for a law firm in Atlanta."
"Okay."
"What?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Freelance work."
