I kept adding just as much salt every time! I was dying just because I thought you liked it!”
“I didn’t know this telling the truth thing would be so nice,” he says.
“It’s very nice, especially if I get to sleep in.”
Bear stands at our feet, drool running from his mouth as we eat our donuts, so I grudgingly give him a small piece.
“Let’s end this shit so every day can be like this.”
“Deal,” Shepherd says.
Dave picks us up in town in his old truck even though we assure him he doesn’t need to risk something by picking us up. But he was more than adamant, and we thought it’d look better if he drove us instead of a random vehicle coming in.
“You boys back for good?” he asks.
“We’re back for now. It’ll all depend on what we can accomplish with the rest of this shit,” Shepherd says.
“I used to be an investigative journalist, so hit me with what’s going on. I followed so much shit in my time. My job was figuring out the truth and making it newsworthy, and I would go to great lengths to accomplish that. I’ve seen and heard it all, so let’s see if I can help,” he says as he turns the truck onto the road that leads back toward the cabins.
I look at Shepherd, still unsure if we should trust Dave, but I suppose he could have already turned us in. Shepherd apparently feels he’s trustworthy enough, because he says, “I was brought in off the street and raised to be a bodyguard for Tony Warren, a businessman who built his empire by the transport of weapons. But he’s always been so ‘clean’ that no one can ever get anything on him. At least that’s what it looks like from the outside.”
“Ah, I know the name. I was retired by the time he started making a name for himself, but I remember him,” Dave says. “So let me guess, he’s staying clean and off the record because Killian’s father is working with him.”
“Yes. Killian’s father was using his men to transport the weapons out of the city. Then whenever there was a call on it or something was off, William would just send his men to ‘handle it.’ Instead, he was keeping it covered up. I’m still not sure why William started to stab Tony in the back. Or was it the other way around?” Shepherd asks me.
“No, I’m pretty sure my father moved first. I would listen in on them when I was younger and as I got older, my father started to tell me what was happening because he needed me. Basically, Tony thought things were going too far, that my father was being too risky and taking over too much. Tony started to draw back, pulling some of the stuff from my father. My father has always been a sick man who’s always looking for an opportunity to hurt and kill. What was probably just Tony trying to cover his ass, my father took as weakness. And so he began to fuck with Tony to make his men start losing faith in him. Things like how my father would invite Tony’s top runner over. Of course the man trusted him, my father was part of this business too, but it was his pictures I found on my father’s computer. Pictures of him dead.”
“Like as a threat to Tony?” Dave asks.
I shake my head because I don’t think that’s what this is. “No… my father likes to kill people. I found folders filled with pictures of people he’s killed, so I tried getting away but that’s when Tony grabbed me,” I say. “My father would kill invaluable people and then he’d spread the rumor that Tony couldn’t even protect his top runner but my father could. It created a ripple in the ranks.”
“So he was trying to get them to want his protection, except that in truth they needed protecting from him?” Dave asks.
“Yes. My father… my father’s a fucking serial killer, and it’s ‘okay’ because they’re ‘bad people,’ but it’s not. He doesn’t care who he kills.”
Shepherd sighs as he rubs his head. “So I’ll just kill him. William has to leave the house. I’ll just kill him when he does.”
Dave glances back at Shepherd in the rearview mirror. “So you chop off the head but the body still stands. I’ve seen this again and again throughout my career. You have to destroy it at the source. You have to