Excluded and Uninvited novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Six Hundred Dollars

Greg texted me at noon: "One conversation. Brewery on Second Street, tonight at six. Bring nothing but yourself."

Jo said not to go.

Katja held out her own phone.

"Then bring this," she said. "He'll make you empty your pockets. He won't ask me for mine."

"He doesn't know you're coming."

"I'm not coming. I'm sitting at the bar and ordering a beer, like a stranger."

She started the voice recorder, slid it into the inside pocket of my jacket and patted it flat.

"It runs three hours," she said. "Don't touch it."

At six the brewery was loud and warm and smelled of fryer oil.

Katja sat at the far end of the bar with her back to me, nursing a beer.

Greg had the long table in the back, with three people from the Thursday Crew at it.

I knew them all.

One of them had borrowed my truck to move a couch.

Greg stood up and spread his arms for a hug, and when I didn't take it he put one hand on my shoulder instead.

"Man," he said. "Thank you for coming."

"Phone," said the guy who borrowed my truck.

"Left it at my sister's."

Greg patted down my jacket pockets.

His hand passed over the recorder twice and kept going.

"Sit," he said. "Beer's on me."

I sat.

The people at the next table were looking at us.

That was why he had picked the place.

"I'm going to say this in front of everybody who loves you," Greg said. "I made a mistake with that video. I cut it wrong. I wasn't thinking."

"Okay."

"The department letter was a worse mistake. I was scared for you."

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