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.”
Neither spoke again for a solid five minutes as they hiked the open trail. That amount of time typically flew by, but these minutes dragged on awkwardly until Brendan couldn’t hack it anymore.
“We should get to know each other a little better before raking up that mess,” he said. Kim’s serious expression loosened at this. “What do you do for work? I never asked you when you said you worked a late shift the other day.”
“I’m the receptionist at the hospital.” She shielded her eyes against the sun and stared intently at a stand of small trees off in the distance. “It’s not glamorous, but it’s pretty much my job to lose, so I’ll stick with it.”
“You probably see some interesting patients roll through there.”
“Ugh, you would not believe the messes that end up there. Recently it’s been a whole bunch of serious burn cases. Most of the time they arrive with the EMTs, so they get rushed right past me, but a couple of smoldering arms have come my way.”
“Sounds nasty.” Brendan knew all too well the disgusting scent of burned flesh and hair.
“It’s totally gross, and usually it’s hands, chest, or face, or a combo of the three, so it’s kind of hard to miss.”
“Ever have to deal with people you know? Shallow Creek ain’t a big place.”
“Yeah, not that long ago it was my ex in there with a bad burn on his neck.” Kim wasn’t too impressed with this guy from the shift in her tone. “He made up some story about a firework accident, but I overheard Dr. Channing telling Chloe, one of the nurses, that most of these burn victims have been cooking meth in their trailers.”
“That doesn’t sound smart.” At least now Brendan didn’t need to worry about the ex-boyfriend throwing a wrench in the works if he and Kim ever had a thing. The guy sounded like he possessed all the brains of a doorknob.
“It’s not safe either,” Kim pointed out. “For anyone. I mean, they do this in trailers right next to their neighbors. You could be watching TV when suddenly the place next door explodes and sets your house on fire. Brice actually lives right near Michelle, but I never talked to her about it.”
“Brice? That your old flame?”
“Yup. Long gone and so long.” She waved into the distance for effect. “Thank the Lord.”
“Sounds like a genius to me, cooking homemade meth.”
She nodded.
“I Googled it after I heard the doctor talking about it. They stick it all in an empty two-liter bottle of Coke, then microwave it, and then shake it, or something like that. The damn things explode more often than not, giving them really bad burns.”
“So you think this is happening a lot around town?”
“Seems like it, judging on how many idiots immolate themselves.”
Kim suddenly cut up a side trail that eventually led up to a slightly elevated plateau. To some people, this part of Texas looked desolate, but the mix of colors and textures took Brendan’s breath away. The sun drew out all the hidden pigments of the exposed rock formations, revealing a majestic view that so few cared to see firsthand.
“You still running your little investigation?” she asked him before prompting him to slide the backpack off his shoulders.
“Yeah, trying to.”
Kim opened up the pack on the ground and started pulling things out. She unfolded a plaid blanket and laid it out for them to sit on while she unpacked their lunch.
“Brice ran around with Scott, my cousin,” she said while handing him a sandwich. “I figured you might want to know that.”
“Interesting.”
“And my cousin Dave ODed about a year ago. That was Scott’s younger brother.”
Brendan left his sandwich untouched.
“Kim, you don’t have to share all this personal stuff if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s fine.” The breeze caught some of her hair and dragged it across her face. She automatically tucked the wayward strands back behind her ears. “If you can do something to fix all of this, I want to help.”
“You’ve already been a big help.”
“Have you spoken to Casey again about all of this?”
“No.”
“You guys seem to be working on the same thing. She thinks her sister was killed by one of the gang dealing the meth.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“Yeah,” Kim said. “You should talk to her.”
Brendan mulled that over. “What do you really know about her?”
Kim shrugged. “Not much really. I met her almost a month ago. We hung out a few times. She didn’t really know anyone around town and she’s really nice, so I didn’t mind hanging out.” When Brendan didn’t ask a follow-up, Kim smiled and punched him in the arm. “Why are you asking? Do you like her?”
“No, nothing like that,” Brendan said, not wanting to admit to Kim that he plain didn’t trust Casey.
“You can tell me if you do.”
“I don’t.”
She nodded and they both nibbled at their food, soaking in the sights peacefully, or so Brendan thought. Kim put her half-eaten sandwich down, but kept looking away as she talked.
“Michelle and I haven’t spoken much since her drug problems back in the day.”
“Kim, really, you don’t have to—”
“But I want to,” she said forcefully, now staring him right in the face. “I want to tell you, because I want to get to know you. I want to ask you questions and have you feel comfortable enough with me to answer them. You seem like a really good guy, and I know Michelle has always thought the world of you.”
He and Michelle’s deviant relationship was one topic that Brendan didn’t think he’d ever be comfortable sharing with Kim. He didn’t have much time to consider the various consequences involved before Kim launched into the whole story.
“Michelle was driving me to a bar. I wasn’t old enough, but she told me she knew the bouncer and it wouldn’t be a problem. I was eighteen, still in school. Impressionable. Stupid. The usual bad teenage combination. My night out with my older sister was going great until she pulled into this dingy trailer park that doesn’t even exist anymore. It was called Pine Oaks, or something stupid like that. Back then there were rumors around high school that the Torres Cartel operated out of that neighborhood. I was freaked out, so I asked her what she was doing, but she told me not to worry about it; she was just going to score us some coke so we could have more fun.”
Brendan put a hand on her knee when tears formed in her eyes. She shifted around to sit right next to him, so he instinctively put an arm around her and drew her close. Kim rested her head on his shoulder as she fought off the strong emotions trying to escape.
“She parked her car in between two houses, in the shadows, so that no one would see us, she said. Her dealer and his buddy grabbed her and dragged her towards their house. She screamed and I jumped out of the car screaming, too, but no one paid any attention. In that kind of neighborhood, this crap happens a lot, I guess. One of the guys grabbed me, too, and bent me over my sister’s car.”