Page 8 of Twin Threats In Austin
A loyal fan wouldn’t willingly wear apparel from a rival team.
Kage’s TV room in the rental home he’d lived in when he’d been arrested had an entire wall of Houston Astros memorabilia—all bought with money gained illegally. All sold at auction.
Kage wouldn’t wear a Texas Rangers ball cap. He just wouldn’t.
Chapter Three
“Are you hungry?” Rochelle asked her passenger. Her stomach reminded her that she’d choked down half a dry bagel for breakfast along with a large black coffee too many hours ago.
“I could eat,” Camden said in a distracted tone. He knew Kage better than she did, and his wheels must have been turning after this last interaction.
“Mind if we go through a drive-through while we talk through what just happened with Kage?” she asked, motioning toward the famous burger fast-food chain up ahead and on the right.
“Sounds good to me,” Camden responded.
Rochelle made the turn and then got in line behind four other vehicles. “Figure we can review the surveillance tape together while we eat. See what else we can find on there.”
“Maybe we can catch Kage drinking alcohol,” Camden said. “Catch him in one lie, and we’ll have a better edge next time we talk to him.”
“At least we know where to find him,” Rochelle said before inching up one car length. “He’s not going anywhere while on parole without alerting his parole officer.”
“True,” he stated.
“The fan-loyalty issue is something to consider,” Rochelle said, moving up another car length. Soon, they’d be at the squawk box, where she could half scream her order into what felt like the void.
“I can’t get past that one—the wrong ball cap,” he said. “Which might just be bias on my part.”
“Makes sense though,” she said. “Especially when I apply the logic to my father.”
“Fanis short forfanatic,” he pointed out.
“What’s your favorite sports team?” she asked, curious about what he liked.
“Used to be the Miami Heat during the Holy Trinity era,” he said without hesitation.
“Holy Trinity?”
“LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade,” he responded like it was common knowledge. “I’ve heard them called the Big Three.”
In Texas, sports held a similar status to religion. The mantra she’d heard repeated over and over again when she’d been anywhere near the high-school-football coach was: family, God, football.
Growing up here, she figured the order was wrong. Football would never have come last to most of the kids she’d gone to high school with. At least Austin had its own funky, artistic vibe, even if it had become corporate before her eyes. The city’s flawed thinking had been that no one would move there and overrun the city if they didn’t build roads.
The city hadn’t built roads, but people had moved there in hordes anyway. Now, the traffic was a nightmare despite the loop that had been built too late. At least some drivers were able to escape the nightmare that was downtown traffic. Not that it bothered her enough to want to move. This was the only home she’d ever known.
Back to sports, she would file the ball-cap information for future use, then see if anything else similar popped up.
“What do you want?” she asked her distracted partner as she pulled up to the squawk box.
“Whatever you’re having,” he said as he studied his cell.
Rochelle ordered two hamburger meals with Cokes before pulling around to the pay window. Before she could reach for her wallet, Camden handed her a couple of twenties from his pocket.
“This one’s on me,” he offered.
She thanked him, paid, and then pulled up to the food window. After taking the bags and handing over the drinks, she found a parking spot toward the back of the small lot. No other vehicles were parked there beyond the spaces marked for employees.
Camden set up the food using the console as a makeshift table while she pulled up the surveillance footage and wound it back to half past eleven.
