“Go on,” Petra said as she settled back in her chair to study him.
Psycho reached up and rubbed the scar in the center of his forehead, but Petra leaned forward and stared at him in shock.
“What happened to the spider web tattoo?”
“I was able to get it removed, unfortunately, the scar remains.Not from the tattoo removal, but from what happened and why Flynn owes me.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Can you tell me if you’re ATF or DEA?”
“ATF.”She held up her hand as she rose to her feet and went to her purse.She withdrew her own slim black wallet, and together they looked at each other’s.“Wow, you have credentials from both agencies.”
“Yes, because I wanted the added protection, and like I said, they owed me.”
“How?”
He again pointed to the scar in the middle of his forehead.“They were the ones that indirectly caused this.In my home state, I was a cop for the local sheriff’s department.Almost fifteen years of service.I rode a motorcycle for pleasure, not for my job, nor for any bad reasons, just because I like bikes.A group of bikers arrived in town.”He shook his head and held up his hand.“All good.They are all former military and Flynn had basically hired them to see if they could find out where the drugs were coming from.Everyone involved behind the scenes knew it wasn’t them.Because they had a gigantic meeting in the area I worked, I learned of what they planned.”
“Being a cop, you were privy to that information.”
“Correct, however, the main character in this entire operation and I had a hate slash dislike relationship.She hated me, I disliked her, but, if she wasn’t involved, then the operation wouldn’t take place.”
Petra couldn’t believe that she felt instant jealousy at his words.
“Nothing like you might be thinking.I had a history with her, and I didn’t know it at the time, but I fucked up.Nothing sexual, nothing romantic, nothing like that.”
“Then what was it?”Petra hid her clenched fists beneath the table.
“Are you former military?”
“No, I got my degree and right out of college I was recruited by the ATF.I’ve worked my way up to where I am now.”
“Okay, I can’t give you names, I still need to protect the innocent.Anyway, I was in the Army.When I got out, I went to college to get my degree, and after that, I started with the sheriff’s department.I did like you, worked my way up to Deputy Sheriff.I was second in command.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with that woman?”
“Background context.Anyway, a buddy of mine reached out to me with a favor.He was black ops with the Marines.”
“Ah, secret missions, no one is to know you’re there.In and out.”
“Correct.Anyway, their team consisted of five members.You couldn’t get any more elite than this team.My boss at the Sheriff’s department was a former member of that team.When he left, they brought someone else in.The favor asked of me was to contact the only living relative of this new recruit and inform her that he had died in the line of duty.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Correct.I ended up going to my boss and asking him how I could do it.He gave me suggestions, and I followed through with them.I typed up a letter on official letterhead stating that he served his country well and died a heroic death.I arrived at her house with the letter, and dressed in my Army dress uniform.Everything was going well until she started questioning me about when she could expect to receive his body, I panicked.She must have seen it because she started yelling at me, calling me a liar, and then I blurted out that she would never get his body because he was nothing but pink mist.”
“Jesus, Psycho, that was cruel.”
“I know, but like I said, I panicked.She kicked me out, and I didn’t see her until several years later.It was only about a week before those bikers showed up.I didn’t know that she was friends with my boss, or that he knew why I was tasked with this favor.He never told me about it.”
“Shit, was it a set-up?”
“Not really, it all came out at the end and when I saw her again it was at my boss’s house.She was extremely cold and standoffish to me.So much so that after she left, my boss asked me what I did to piss her off.That’s when I reminded him what we had discussed about telling her that her brother had died.”
“She didn’t believe you.Do you know why?”
“A couple of days later, it was revealed that it was all my fault she didn’t believe me.See, the letter I typed up was on Army letterhead, and I wore my Army dress uniform.”
