After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Thirty-One Voicemails

Quentin's POV

At ten to nine I stood in my office doorway and watched Gwen cross the floor with two coffees in a cardboard tray.

She had been bringing me coffee for six years.

She set one on my desk every morning and one on Harper's, and I had never once thought about who had told her how we took it.

"Morning," she called. "Good night, both of you?"

"Good enough," I said.

My voice sounded normal.

I had practiced it in the elevator.

She smiled and went on toward her own office, with her laptop bag over her shoulder and her heels clicking.

Harper was at the far side of the open floor, by the window, with Miles beside her.

She had her phone in her hand.

She looked across the room at me and I nodded once.

I had never wanted so badly to be wrong.

Gwen set her bag down behind her desk and went into the break room.

Through the glass I saw her fill a mug and stand there, stirring it, with her back to us.

Miles looked at me over his round glasses.

I nodded again.

Harper pressed the screen and held the phone to her ear on speaker, so that I could hear the ringing across the floor.

It rang once, flat and tinny.

I heard something else, too.

A low buzzing, from inside Gwen's office.

I had walked halfway across the floor before I knew I was moving.

It rang twice.

The buzzing came from the bottom drawer of her desk, a hollow vibration against the wood.

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