Chương 5
Both of them listened until the sound faded.
“Where are the documents?” Logan asked.
Amelia wiped beneath one eye.
“At Nora’s.”
“Nora from the diner?”
“Yes.”
Logan stared.
“She has them?”
“She has an envelope.”
“Does she know what’s inside?”
“No.”
“Why Nora?”
“Because nobody pays attention to her.”
“Vance noticed her today.”
“I know.”
That changed the problem.
“When did you give them to her?”
“Last Thursday.”
“Where?”
“Behind the diner after work.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That means you don’t know.”
“No.”
“Did Nora ask questions?”
“She asked whether I was in trouble.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That it was insurance paperwork.”
Logan rubbed his forehead.
“Call her.”
Amelia took out her phone.
He caught her wrist before she could unlock it.
She froze.
Logan released her immediately.
“Not that phone.”
“Why?”
“Because Vance is expecting you to communicate with him through it, and we don’t know what access anyone has.”
“You think he tapped my phone?”
“I think assuming anything would be stupid.”
“So what do we use?”
Logan looked toward the pegboard over his workbench.
An old prepaid phone sat inside a dusty plastic organizer beside electrical connectors.
It belonged to a customer who had left it in a truck nearly a year earlier and told Logan to throw it away.
Logan had removed the battery and forgotten about it.
He opened the organizer.
“No.”
Amelia shook her head.
“What?”
“You’re enjoying this.”
Logan turned.
“What?”
“The secret-phone thing.”
“I am absolutely not enjoying this.”
“For the first time since I met you, you look comfortable.”
That stopped him.
He held the dead phone in one hand.
Amelia stared at him with something worse than anger.
Recognition.
“You know how to do this,” she said.
“Yes.”
“And I don’t.”
“No.”
“So every time I thought you were distant, every time you checked a door twice or woke up because a car slowed outside, that wasn’t just you being weird.”
“Some of it was me being weird.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Then her phone buzzed again.
They both looked at it.
A second message from Vance appeared on the locked screen.
Need an answer now.
Another notification arrived beneath it.
If Mercer called anyone, Cal is done protecting you.
Amelia’s face changed.
“Protecting me from what?”
Logan held out his hand.
“Give me the phone.”
This time she did.
He did not open the message.
He photographed the lock screen with his old phone, preserving the visible notification and timestamp.
Then he handed hers back.
“What are you doing?”
“Keeping what we can keep.”
“Can we go get the papers?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because if Vance knows you have them, Nora may already be watched.”
Amelia’s breathing quickened.
Logan stepped closer but stopped before touching her.
“Call the diner from the house phone.”
“What do I say?”
“Nothing unusual.”
“She’ll know something’s wrong.”
“Good.”
Amelia stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“Ask whether you left your scarf there.”
“I wasn’t wearing a scarf.”
“Nora doesn’t know that.”
“She might say no.”
“Then you ask her to check the booth.”
“And?”
“And listen.”
Amelia went inside.
Logan followed.
The kitchen suddenly looked offensively normal.
Two cereal bowls sat drying beside the sink.
A grocery list was attached to the refrigerator with a magnet shaped like Yellowstone.
Amelia picked up the cordless landline they kept mostly because their internet provider had bundled it for almost nothing.
She dialed the diner.
Nora answered on the fourth ring.
“Rusty Spoon.”
“Hi, Nora, it’s Amelia.”
There was a pause.
“Oh.”
“I think I left my blue scarf there.”
Another pause.
Longer.
“You weren’t wearing a blue scarf.”
Amelia looked at Logan.
He said nothing.
Nora lowered her voice.
“Amelia, honey, if this is about what you gave me, you need to come get it.”
“Why?”
“Sheriff Vance was here again.”
Logan felt Amelia’s eyes meet his.
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether you’d been by lately.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Amelia gripped the phone harder.
“Is he still there?”
“No.”
Nora breathed into the receiver.
Then she whispered, “But one of his deputies is sitting across the street.”
Logan held up one finger, and Amelia stopped speaking.
“Nora,” he said quietly enough that only Amelia could hear, “ask whether the deputy came inside.”
Amelia nodded.
“Did he come in?”
“No.”
Nora’s voice crackled through the old handset.
“He parked across from the pharmacy and has been sitting there ever since.”
“Can you see who it is?”
“Deputy Krall.”
Logan knew the name.
Evan Krall was younger than Vance, maybe thirty-five, with a narrow face and the permanent squint of a man who had spent too many summers outdoors without sunglasses.
Logan had repaired the alternator on Krall’s personal Jeep the previous winter.
The deputy had paid in cash and complained for twenty minutes about child support.
“Is anyone else in the diner?” Amelia asked.
“Four customers.”
“Do any of them know about the envelope?”
“No.”
Nora lowered her voice again.
“At least I didn’t tell them.”
Logan took the receiver gently from Amelia.
“Nora, it’s Logan.”
There was a small pause.
“Well, I figured.”
“I need you to leave the envelope where it is.”
“You don’t even know where it is.”
“That’s good.”
“You sound like one of those people on television who tells civilians not to panic.”
“I’m not telling you not to panic.”
“That’s encouraging.”
Despite everything, Nora sounded irritated rather than frightened.
Logan respected that.
“Do not take the envelope home.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not give it to anyone who says they’re helping Amelia.”
“Even you?”
“Especially me unless Amelia is physically standing beside me.”
Nora exhaled.
“Now you’re making me nervous.”
“Good.”
Amelia shot him a look.
He ignored it.
“If Vance or Krall asks for it?”
“I lie.”
“No.”
Nora went quiet.
“You tell them you don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“That’s lying.”
May you like
“It’s also safer than inventing details you have to remember.”
“You have a very depressing way of being reassuring.”
