Bury This by Andrea Portes Read Free Book Online Page A

table gets emptied. A replacement drink gets set down. No questions asked. Guess she’s a regular.
    â€œWas there ever any weird people coming through? When you were there? Anyone you’d suspect?”
    Slurp. Clink .
    â€œWell, you know, we had some odd ones, yes. But mostly it was the groups I hated. We had a few Hells Angels. Real rowdy, you know?”
    â€œHells Angels?”
    â€œOh yeah. Biker guys. All in leather. And some union guys. Sometimes there’d be some hubbub down at the plants . . . next thing you know we’d be checking in the union guys.”
    â€œWhat about a lone individual? Did you ever check in someone you thought, ‘Oh no, hide my purse!’”
    Katy smiles. Reach out to them. Make them feel like you are gonna be best friends for sure.
    â€œLook, there were some creeps. I’m not gonna lie. One guy even offered me five hundred bucks to go up to his room. Just to watch him . . . you know. A real normal-looking guy, too. I’m not kidding.”
    â€œReally?
    â€œOh, yeah. And there was this one guy asked if I would . . . uh, forget it.”
    â€œNo, c’mon, I have to know now.”
    â€œOkay, well, there was this one guy, wanted me to come up and call him names, like call him a baby, and he’d put on diapers and shake a rattle and stuff. Offered me three hundred dollars. Said that was it . . . that was all I had to do.”
    â€œWow. Did you do it?”
    â€œHell, no! I mean, sure, sounds like easy money but . . . you never know.”
    â€œUnbelievable.”
    â€œI know! But, you know, it was mostly people traveling through, families on a budget, you know. In summers, lots of fishing. Peak season. The rest of the year, well, we had some husbands, getting their rocks off, on the side. They’d pay for the night, be gone by twelve.”
    â€œBut no one in particular, maybe a regular?”
    â€œNot really. Creeps are creeps, you know.”
    A giant diamond ring on her finger, single setting on a spray-tan hand. Must be at least ten grand. Right there, in sparkles. Ice on her hand, ice in the glass. Clink clink clink .
    â€œAnd Beth? Do you remember anything particular about her? Anything odd that mighta stuck.”
    â€œWell, I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t say but . . . she seemed. . . . It was weird. I felt like, she seemed frail somehow. Like, she couldn’t remember anything, you know. She couldn’t even remember her own name.”
    Slurp. Swivel the ice.
    â€œI remember thinking . . . this poor kid. Man, she has no idea.”
    Clink .
    â€œI mean, she is in for it.”

NINE
    S hot in his arm, one shot in his side, he’d been lucky. No vital organs. Just barely. The randomness of fate, a broken weather vane, careening in the wind.
    Nineteen forty-four. A practical joke, waking up in this whispery, bleached, spick-and-span place after the ratatat-tat, ratatat-tat of that killing shore at Omaha Beach. Muck and water and spiderweb blood, dodging bullets in the brine, a kind of chaos worse than death itself. And yet, death all around, practically promenading down the beach in a black robe and parasol, “Yes, yes, children. Keep it up. Bring me more. More! You are prolific today. A great day. A hallowed day. A banner day for death.”
    And then this here, this hall of alabaster, almost a church in its respectful, stone silence. Waking up the first time, for seconds only, above him a nurse and doctor in matching white coats and matching white concerned postures.
    â€œAnd how is our patient?”
    â€œLt. Colonel? Lt. Colonel Krause? Can you hear me? Can you hear my voice?”
    And briefly, the thought “Have I made it to heaven? Is this the immaculate fluffy cloud place I’ve been hearing so muchabout? If so, I’d thought the nurses would be better looking.” And then a laugh, to himself.
    A laugh coming out of the patient.
    â€œHe’s