Read Going Once (Forces of Nature) for Free Online

showered and wearing his last set of clean clothes. He distinctly remembered playing basketball in this gym and kissing Nola out behind the building when they were in high school, and now he was back in the same place, but investigating murders. Life was crazy. He’d known coming home on work-related business wouldn’t be easy, but he’d had no idea how many memories it would evoke. He was sitting on the cot putting on his shoes when he saw the chief approach.
    “Hey, guys, we’ve got company,” Tate said.
    Wade got off the phone and Cameron closed his laptop.
    Beaudry was all smiles as he handed over the doughnuts. “Call it a mini-celebration.”
    “Thanks,” Tate said as he took out a doughnut and then handed the sack to Wade. “What are we celebrating?”
    “You have a witness to the shootings.”
    “You are kidding!” Cameron said. “Where? Who?”
    “A flood victim rescued by the National Guard witnessed three murders. They took her to the hospital in Tidewater, and when she finally woke up from the fever she came in with, the first thing she asked for was the police. She gave her statement to the Tidewater P.D. that she’d seen her neighbors murdered, and they notified us.”
    “Where’s Tidewater?” Wade asked.
    “About forty miles south of here—and that’s where we’re heading next,” Tate said.
    “I’m coming with you,” Beaudry said. “I know this is your case, but they were murdered on my turf, and I want justice as much as you do, maybe more. These people were my friends.”
    Tate nodded. “We’ll be leaving in a few minutes.”
    “I’ll take the cruiser back to the station. Pick me up there.”
    “Oh, hey...wait a minute,” Tate said. “What’s the witness’s name?”
    Beaudry paused. “Nola Landry. I believe you know her, right?”
    Tate’s stomach rolled the same way it had right before he’d walked into the morgue yesterday, and for the very same reason. Everything bad that had happened between them was tied to what was wrong between him and his dad.
    “Yes, I know her,” Tate said. “See you in a few.”
    Cameron and Wade were waiting for an explanation, but when it appeared Tate wasn’t going to volunteer any info, Cameron took the initiative.
    “So, you know the witness. What’s the big secret?” he asked.
    Tate knew they would find out soon enough when Nola caught sight of him.
    “She’s why I don’t date,” he muttered.
    Wade frowned. “Damn. Was she that big a bitch?”
    Tate sighed. “No. She was that good. No one else ever measured up.”
    Wade glanced at Cameron, then shrugged.
    “So what happened to screw it up?” Cameron asked.
    “It’s all tied into the mess between me and my dad. I’m driving. Get your things.”
    He walked out, leaving them to make what they wanted of that.
    Wade looked at Cameron, shrugged and grabbed the sack of doughnuts as Cameron picked up his laptop. They were on their way out the door when Cameron saw Laura Doyle in the makeshift kitchen. She looked up and waved as they hurried past. He was still smiling when they drove away.
    * * *
    Nola washed her hair, then left it down to dry. Tate used to say it was the color of dark chocolate, his favorite treat, and it looked even darker when it was still damp, like it was now.
    “I so need a hair dryer,” she said, and then thought about what she’d just gone through and sighed. “No, I don’t need a hair dryer, although a hair dryer would be nice. What I need is a house. Sorry about that, God.”
    The fact that she was talking to herself was immaterial. She’d been doing a lot of that since her mother’s death. She continued to run her fingers through her hair, combing and fluffing it, until the door to her hospital room opened and four men walked in.
    She recognized the parish police chief from Queens Crossing, but when she saw the three men with him, she went from shock to disbelief to anger so quickly it made her head spin. Unwilling to be caught in a vulnerable