Epilogue
Barry Marks sat on his bunk and stroked the fur of his dog, Honey. The animal had been through it, and he was angry as hell at whoever was so careless as to leave antifreeze out. There were barn cats and other dogs on the ranch that could have gotten into it. No one admitted to feeding Honey the beef stew, but the guys always slipped her a piece of meat or bread when they were eating.
A knock on his door startled him and Honey. She sat up, her ears pointed, and she gave out a small growl and low bark. Barry went to the door and opened it. Andrew was on the other side. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, sure.” Barry muted the television he had going but wasn’t paying attention to.
“I talked to Ken today. He said there was antifreeze and half a can of beef stew at the campsite.”
“So, somehow this guy snuck onto the ranch, found my dog, and poisoned her?” Barry gave a sarcastic laugh. “That meth head was thin, sick, and eaten up with meth, man. He couldn’t have walked that far in that distance of time.”
“He could have driven,” Andrew said and then sighed. “The pylon you found. It disappeared.”
Barry’s head jacked up. “What are you talking about?”
Andrew leaned forward. “Ken worked the site and then waited for the state lab. When the techs finally got there, Ken went to show them, but the rocks were all gone.”
“You saw them, though, didn’t you?” Barry demanded an answer.
“I saw the pictures of them. By the time I got to the site last night, it was dark, and Ken didn’t want to trample anything accidentally.”
“A guy in a ghillie suit could have moved up on it and taken them.” Barry tapped his leg, and Honey jumped up and sat down on his lap.
Andrew shook his head. “Maybe, but who would know our code, man? There’s no one from our unit left except for Toker, and he’s in a wheelchair and lives in California. Razor, Pip, and Frisco died that day. Fish was never found. That explosion, man.”
Barry’s mind flashed back to that fucking mission. “Yeah.” He closed his eyes. “And Gunny killed himself.”
Andrew nodded. “I don’t know what this means, Barry. I don’t understand it, but we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Barry looked at Andrew as he stood up. “I’d like to get to the bottom of it before whoever it is kills someone.”
Andrew stared at him for a minute. “So would I.” He turned and walked out the door. Barry picked up the phone to call Kathy. She was his grounding stone. Just talking to her took the edge off his anger. And he really needed to talk to her tonight. Even if Andrew didn’t believe it, one of their team left that message, and it was intended for either him or Andrew. Since he was the one being shot at, odds were it was for him. The violence had escalated, and the one person who should believe him, didn’t. Just as he’d told Tegan. Life and he had a hate-hate relationship, and that bitch was coming back to slap him again.