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She said, "I&039;ve never heard of hiain"

"When ht he have done that?"

"I&039; have you been sheriff?"

"Two years," she said "Long enough to get to know the locals, anyway"

"Pellegrino said you&039;d been here all your life Ito know the locals is concerned"

"Not true," she said "I haven&039;t been here all my life I was here as a kid, and I&039;m here now But there were years in between"

There was so wistful about her tone There were years in between I asked her, "How did you spend those years?"

"I had a rich uncle," she said "I toured the world at his expense"

And at that point I suspected I was in trouble At that point I suspected my mission was about to fail Because I had heard that answer before

12

The waitress brought out Elizabeth Deveraux&039;s ether Deveraux had ordered the saer and the squirrel&039;s nest of fries My pie was peach and the slice I got was about half the size of a Major League hoer than the dish it was in My coffee was in a tall stoneware lass

It&039;s easier to let a pie go cold than a cheeseburger, so I figured I had a chance to talk while Deveraux had no choice but to eat and listen and couys are real busy"

Deveraux chewed and nodded

I said, "A wrecked car and a dead woain and chased an errant pearl of er An elegant gesture, for an inelegant act She had short nails, nicely trimmed and polished She had slender hands, a little tanned and sinewy Good skin No rings None at all Especially not on her left ring finger

I asked, "Any progress on any of that?"

She sed and smiled and held her hand up like a traffic cop Stop Wait She said, "Give "

So I ate ood The crust eet and the peaches were soft Probably local Or ia I didn&039;t know er in her right hand, her left taking fries one by one frorease frolisten She was a slim woman She must have had asips of water I drained ood as the pie

She asked, "Doesn&039;t coffee keep you awake?"

I nodded "Until I want to go to sleep That&039;s what it&039;s for"

She took a last sip of water and left a rind of bun and six or seven fries on her plate She wiped her mouth and then her hands on her napkin She folded her napkin and laid it down next to her plate Dinner was over

I asked, "So are you ress?"

She smiled at some inner amusement and then leaned sideways away frole, and she looked ain, slowly, a crooked path, all the way from my feet in the shadows toto be ashamed about, really It&039;s not your fault"

I asked, "What isn&039;t?"

She leaned back in her chair She kept her eyes on mine She said, "My daddy was sheriff here before me Since before I was born, actually He won about twenty consecutive elections He was firood public servant"

I said, "I&039;m sure he was"

"But I didn&039;t like it here very ine? It&039;s the back of beyond We got books in theorld out there So I had to get away"

I said, "I don&039;t blarained Like public service Like law enforcement It starts to feel like a family business, the saht Kids follow their parents into law enforcement far more than most other professions Except baseball The son of a pro ballplayer is eight hundred times more likely to make the Majors than some other random kid

She said, "So look at it frohteen?"

I said, "I don&039;t know," although by that point I was pretty sure I did know, more or less, and I wasn&039;t happy about it

She said, "I went to South Carolina and joined the Marine Corps"

I nodded Worse than I had expected For so on the Air Force

I asked her, "How long were you in?"

"Sixteen years"

Which hteen years at home, plus sixteen as a jarhead, plus two as Carter County Sheriff Sae as me

I asked her, "What branch of the Corps?"

"Provost Marshal&039;s office" I looked away

I said, "You were a military cop"

She said, "Public service and law enforcement I killed two birds with one stone"

I looked back, beaten

I asked her, "Terminal rank?"

"CWO5," she said

Chief Warrant Officer 5 An expert in a specific specialized field The sweet spot, where the real as done

I asked her, "Why did you leave?"

"Ruone, reductions in force are coured it would feel better to step up than be thrown out Plus rino take over"

I asked her, "Where did you serve?"

"All over," she said "Uncle Sam was my rich uncle He showed , and so The waitress came back and took away our empty plates

"Anyway," Deveraux said "I was expecting you It&039;s exactly ould have done, frankly, under the same circumstances A ho secrecy or sensitivity on the base? We would have put an investigator on the post, and ould have sent another into town, undercover"

I said nothing

She said, "The idea being, of course, that the undercover guy in toould keep his ear to the ground and then step in and stop the locals e the Corps If strictly necessary, that is It was a policy I supported back then, naturally But now I am the locals, so I can&039;t really support it any

"Don&039;t feel bad," she said "You were doing it better than souys did I love the shoes, for instance And the hair You&039;re fairly convincing You ran into a bit of bad luck, that&039;s all, withwasn&039;t subtle, was it? But then, it never is I don&039;t see how it ever could be And to be honest, you&039;re not a very fluent liar You shouldn&039;t have said the 110th I know about the 110th, of course You were nearly as good as ere But really, Hayder? Far too uncommon a name And the khaki socks were a ht them yesterday I wore socks just like them"

"I didn&039;t want to lie," I said "Didn&039;t seeht My father was a Marine Maybe I sensed it in you"

"He was a Marine but you joined the army? What was that, mutiny?"

"I don&039;t knohat it was," I said "But it felt right at the tiht this reat"

"Don&039;t feel bad," she said again "You gave it a good try"

I said nothing

She asked, "What rank are you?"

I said, "Major"

"Should I salute?"

"Only if you want to"

"Still with the 110th?"

"Teht now is the 396th MP The Criation Division"

"How many years in?"

"Thirteen Plus West Point"

"I&039;m honored Maybe I should salute Who did they send to Kelhauy called Munro Sa," she said

I said, "Are you ive up, do you?"

"Giving up was not in the mission statement You kno it is"

"OK, I&039;ll trade," she said "One answer for one answer And then you ship back out You hit the road at first light In fact I&039;ll get Pellegrino to drive you back to where he picked you up Do we have a deal?"

What choice did I have? I said, "We have a deal"

"No," she said "We&039;re not ress Absolutely none at all"

"OK," I said "Thanks Your turn"

"Obviously it would give uy they sent to Kelham is the ace IAbout the balance of probabilities here As in, do they think the proble? Or is the other guy?"

"Honest answer?"

"That&039;s what I would expect from the son of a fellow Marine"

"The honest answer is I don&039;t know," I said