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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.”
“Fuss already found the polymer casing, so I was pretty sure it would be the Norma. So maybe one shooter for Jennyandthe shot taken at Dak?”
Guillaume said, “Out of my professional jurisdiction, but personally I would agree with that assessment.”
But I had the NATO round fired at me. So was it connected to the people who kidnapped me? And then chased me the other night? That seems logical.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Um, could you come to dinner at my house tonight? I...I sense things have gotten off the rails between us, and I’d like to talk to you. And...I might be able to share some things with you. Insights.”
“Okay, sure.”
She told him a time and he clicked off.
I wonder if you know where your uncle is? Maybe around a certain elver-smuggling operation early this morning shooting a .300 Norma Magnum round into two people?
He didn’t have time to think about that right now. He had another mission to complete before driving Alex to Bangor.
He had to find a secret in Earl Palmer’s past bad enough to blackmail the man.
CHAPTER
68
YOU WANT TO LOOK THROUGHmy grandfather’s things?” asked Annie Palmer.
Devine was sitting at the counter in Maine Brew, and she was standing across from him restocking the refrigerated cabinets.
“Yeah.”
“Why?
“To see if I can find a reason for what happened.”
“He was depressed, Travis. Depressed people sometimes kill themselves.”
“Granted. But I’m not sure he took his own life.”
“You mentioned that before, when we were up on the roof at Jocelyn Point with Alex, but you never bothered to explain to mewhyyou thought that,” she said. Her face twisted in anger. “Even though youtoldme you would. And we both saw him fucking hanging there.”
“Okay, it’s time for me to lay out my theory for you. Better yet, I’llshowyou.” Devine stood, walked over to one of the tables, grabbed a chair, and brought it back behind the counter.
“What are you doing?” she said, staring at the chair.
The place was still relatively empty at this hour, although the cook in back and two waitresses were readying the place for the morning crowd that would be arriving soon.
“Proving a point,” he replied.
He climbed onto the chair and then stood on his tippy-toes while she stared goggle-eyed at him. He reached up and gripped a metal pipe that was attached to the ceiling.
“What the hell are you doing?” exclaimed Palmer.
Next, Devine tried to kick the chair away while still standing on it. To do so he had to partially lift himself off it and kick at the chair back and seat. He made several spirited attempts, flailing some, before finally managing it on his fourth try.
