Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 36

Colt's own interest in golf was about as deep as a puddle of water that had already been soaked up by a towel, but if it was for the sake of the investigation, he figured he could fake it a little.

"You play?" said Fred.

Colt returned a lying nod.

"Well, we don't have too many to choose from here in Orden, I'm afraid," said Fred, his smile waning only slightly. "Just the one, truth be told. But Lagoroc is home to six different courses, a few of which are quite nice."

"I see," said Colt. "Where's the one in Orden?" He already knew the answer to that, of course, but letting Fred tell him seemed a better way of building a rapport with the man.

"Oh, it's on the western edge of town. I could give you more specific directions if you like, but honestly, it's quite large, and Orden's quite small, so if you just head west, you can't miss it."

"Thanks. I'll have to give it a look." He turned to leave.

"Have a good day, Mr. Thompson. Perhaps I'll see you out on the green some time."

"Perhaps you will." Colt intended to make certain of it. And sooner rather than later. He didn't have any clubs, but most places allowed you to rent some, right?

Hmm. He hoped he wouldn't have to buy a set of fucking golf clubs for this case. The last thing he needed was more useless shit taking up space in his cabin.

Which reminded him of something he'd been thinking about occasionally.

Would it be possible to add another room to the cabin? Could he pull something like that off? Not right now, obviously, but in the future? Was that even possible?

He wasn't sure. The older they got, the more space the twins would need--and he certainly wouldn't mind more for himself, either. He'd managed to make that shitty cabin habitable again all by himself, so a part of him felt like he could do it, but he also didn't want to overestimate his carpentry skills. If he fucked it up, the whole damn cabin could collapse. And where he and the twins sleep in the meantime? If he had to take out a wall, that would compromise the structural integrity of the whole cabin. That could be fixed, of course, with new support beams in the right places, but still. Was it worth the risk? Not to mention all the effort.

Could be fun, though. A long-term project like that? Things were pretty busy right now because of this murder investigation, but eventually, he was probably going to be bored out of skull and need something to do.

Hmm. When he thought of it like that, it seemed almost inevitable. Plus, even if he botched the project, it could still be a decent learning experience. Any knowledge he gained could be used in future attempts. And to teach the twins, too. He did want to pass on as much useful knowledge to them as he possibly could.

Maybe he was being crazy, though. It was hard to tell, these days. Would Alice think he was nuts if he told her that planned to build an extension all by himself? She probably would, right? But then again, why should he give a fuck what she thought? She was a fucking lunatic, herself. He shouldn't bother trying to--

'Uh, Colt?' came Bohwanox's voice.

'Yeah?' He was already en route back to the cabin. It had taken a while to get the twins settled into the backseat and to stuff the stroller in the trunk. Allowing himself to become lost in thought might've made it go a little slower, but oh well. He was in no rush.

'Two guys just came into the bar that Malcolm Beaumont is drinking at.'

The car eased to a halt in front of a stop sign at an empty intersection. Colt's eyes remained vacantly forward as he tried not to immediately think the worst about what he'd just heard.

' They don't look like locals,' the reaper went on, 'and they're asking the bartender some pretty weird questions. Malcolm is eyeing them, too.'

'Is Malcolm already drunk?' asked Colt.

'Well, he's been drinking. Don't know if I'd call him drunk, though. He's still talking to the other customers like nothing's changed, but he's definitely keeping an eye on the newcomers.'

Sounded pretty normal for a cop. Or ex-cop. Whichever Malcolm was.

The day drinking, though? Not so much. But on second thought, if Malcolm and Rex had been close friends, then maybe that made sense, too.

Still, Colt could obviously understand the reaper's concern. If those two men happened to have come looking for another pair of men who'd mysteriously gone missing a few days ago, then that wasn't exactly good news, was it?

...Or maybe it was?

'Just keep observing,' said Colt. 'If Malcolm decides to go talk to them, make sure to remember everything that gets said. Both sides of that conversation could be relevant to the investigation in some way.'

'Yeah, uh, he's standing up,' said Boh. 'And now he's walking over to them. Yep. Okay. This is happening.'

Colt was still waiting at the stop sign. There were no other cars around, so he decided to remain there. This was Orden, so it wasn't like Sam & Jenny's was that far away, but it was in the opposite direction that he'd been going in.

He didn't actually need to turn around and go to that fucking bar, though, did he? What would that accomplish? He didn't need to hesitate like this. He just needed to step on the gas and go home.

But he stayed.

'Malcolm is asking what brings them to Orden,' said Boh. 'One of them is saying that they're looking for someone. TWO someones, in fact. Wow, talk about a coincidence. What're the odds, right? Hey, Colt, isn't that a funny coincidence?'

'Hilarious.'

Silence arrived as Boh was presumably letting the conversation progress, perhaps no longer feeling like he needed to provide Colt with a play-by-play. '...Okay, so Malcolm might be a little drunk, after all.'

Colt shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead. 'What did he do?'