Jake nodded.“Yeah.I guess I didn’t really put that together when I was in school.”
“He was… well, he was a character.I always enjoyed his company.”Mr.Everly shook his head.“So sad what happened.”
“Yeah.It was… too bad.”
Cal wasn’t sure why Jake sounded so stiff.He’d expected a detective to be all sorts of comfortable with the uncomfortable.Didn’t detectives have to do all sorts of delicate things?And in a small town like Marietta, more often than not, with people they knew?
Still, Cal figured that was his sign to take over.
“We have some questions to ask you, Mr.Everly.I don’t want to put you out, considering we just showed up on your doorstep out of the blue with no warning, but—”
“Come in.Come in.An old, retired guy doesn’t get many visitors these days.”He waved them inside, all smiles and kindness.
Everything was small, a little worn, but cozy.Dark woods and colors, but light streamed in from the windows.Mr.Everly gestured them toward a leather couch before taking a seat on a recliner.
Cal was pretty sure Jake was as uncomfortable and awkward as him taking a seat next to each other on the couch, but there weren’t really any other choices.
“I followed your career, Cal.Impressive.”Mr.Everly glanced over at Jake, leaned forward with a kind of exaggerated conspiratorial glance.“I like to takesomecredit.Always told him he should be a lawyer.”
“Yeah, but it was never a compliment.”
Mr.Everly laughed and slapped his knee.“No, it sure wasn’t.”His smile seemed so genuine.“But my God, you were a bright, sharp kid, Cal.I’m sure you still are.Smart enough to get out, huh?”
Get out.He’d thought so once upon a time.That he’d left because he was too smart, toogoodfor this place… not running from his own memories.
“Back now,” Cal said, not sure why he needed to point that out, considering he had to be grateful he’d gotten out for a while, lived a different, non-Bennet life.Maybe he’d always been running away from the truth, but there’d been good lessons out there too.
“Well, boys, what can I help you with today?”
Cal glanced at Jake, a nonverbalgo for it.
Jake nodded almost imperceptibly.“Mr.Everly, I was wondering if you could tell me about the hunting trip.”
Mr.Everly didn’t take that in with surprise so much as… a kind of discomfort.He shifted in his chair.
“I know it’s been a long time,” Jake continued.“I’m sorry if it might be… difficult, but they recovered my father’s remains recently, and… I’m not expecting to find anything important here.It was an accident.That much is clear.I’m just trying to get a sense of, well, who my father was, I guess.Something I just couldn’t do at fourteen.And part of that is having a picture in my head of what went on the day he died.”
Cal glanced at Jake.Either the guy was being really earnest—something Cal hadneverseen before—or he was really good at knowing what angles to use to get someone to talk.
Cal voted the latter.
“I understand that,” Mr.Everly said quietly.“Lost my father young too.You hit a certain age, and suddenly you want to understand who they were.”Mr.Everly blew out a breath.He got a kind of faraway look in his eyes.“Your father was… well, he was our comic relief.Never took anything too seriously like Gerald and I did.”
“Sounds like him,” Jake said.
Maybe there was ahintof bitterness, but it was hard to tell if Cal was imagining it or not.
“I’m not sure the three of us would have really been friends if not for Vietnam.A teacher, a rancher, and a…” Mr.Everly trailed off, cleared his throat.“A jack of all trades,” he decided loftily.
This time when Jake snorted, it wasdefinitelybitter.
“But we got to know each other when we came back.Down at the VFW.Didn’t start going on our little hunting trips until the nineties, I’d say.Gerald’s boy wasn’t much into hunting, and I never had any children of my own.Charles…”
“Never thought to bring me, I’m sure.”Jake managed a smile, but Cal didn’t think heorMr.Everly found it particularly convincing.
“Well, our trips with the three of us were more about getting away.Talking about our military days.Gerald and I, in particular, saw some particularly… terrible things as soldiers.It was kind of like… group therapy.”Mr.Everly chuckled somewhat self-deprecatingly.“Charles was the comic relief when Gerald and I got a little too morbid.He’d deployed, of course, but hadn’t dealt with quite what Gerald and I did.”
“And there was always alcohol on these trips?To help with that?”
