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“I—”
“You believed I was really up here investigating you, right?”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” replied Dak.
“So this elver stuff is a big business?”
“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 MUCHany 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.”
