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"Bill, where are we at with the safe house? We can’tthe one a few blocks down fro as the judge extends the warrant"

Warner nods, throwing a winkuseful"

Chapter 7

LUKE

Rust always sees On faces, on storefronts, on nearby cars I noticed it years ago It’s just so the Oregon/Washington border toward Astoria, I would think his head is on a swivel, the way he scouts his rearviewsomeone?" I ask

"Always And you need to, too"

I nod, afraid to ask stupid questions that’ll arage, telling Miller that I won’t be back today Rust likes grand reveals He was always the one insisting on surprise birthday parties and blindfolds when opening presents

He turns his big black pickup truck--one of six vehicles Rust owns--down a lane gouged by tire tracks and riddled with ss to a logging co but dense brush and trees I spot the first camera a half-mile in, strapped to a tree "Motion-activated," Rust confirate blocks further passage More hidden cameras are trained on it Rust climbs out to unchain the padlock with a key tucked within a lock box "Don’t ever coto shake the edginess building inwhat I’h This is Rust! The guy who used to let me play hooky froame

When I don’t think we can drive any deeper into the woods, we round a bend and a double-story, forest-greenthe trees It dwarfs the small, dilapidated A-fra a small lake beyond Solar panels cover the entire south side of the roof I’rid out here

"Who owns this place?"

"Your grandfather He bought it five years ago"

"The one who died ten years ago?" Can’t be the other one, seeing as we have no ties to that side of the fa married in the first place

Rust ser side, whistling asbranches responds "I never took him for a fan of the outdoors"

Rust throws an ar We’re the sah Rust has twenty-two years on y tied doith a wife and kids, he has always said You get to live by your own schedule You don’t have to answer to anyone

Sometimes I wonder if he’s lonely I wonder, if I follow his advice and keep it shallow, if I’ll get lonely I do know that when I’ my best friend with a woman who he trusts unequivocally, envy spikes inside ofhis body into the metal door It creaks open, and I sidle in behind him as he hits a switch and fluorescent panels flicker on, illu the junkyard within That’s what it looks like at first glance, at least But closer examination reveals that there’s order to the chaos Closest to s--an expensive car part if you ever have to replace yours Farther down, catalytic converters sit stacked Those things are about a grand each Next to them are the ri tires beside thee, less shed are the re from factory stereo systems to batteries to quarter panels And in the center of it all sits an array of used vehicles--Hondas, Toyotas, a shiny red Ford truck, even an ’87 Olds in here" Rust watchesfor a reaction

An odd sense of satisfaction swirls through uess big enough "So you’re chopping cars"

He sood connections across seas" I follow him as he strolls over to pat the hood of the Cutlass "The foreign es with Vlad But I want you eased into this, so we’ll start you off s two offences? What the fuck does that eventhat shit the second he turns around "I’ from RTM"

"No, Luke" A wry s in stolen cars, and not just a few here and there Stealing isn’t a coreith a grandfather who stored cases of na room table and electronics under the bases that "fell off the truck" That’s what he’d always tellto keep it to myself I’m surprised he didn’t use a place like this to store all of that stuff Then again, Rust always called Deda a "dabbler" and not a true businessh conversations to know that Rust was pushing hier scale, to turn the thousands he earned intoout meat in his friend’s don Portland butcher shop It was a good balance, he said