He Held Her at the Concert novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Hug
I didn't take the pie box.
"I'm not here to fight," Patricia said. "I have been up all night, Hannah. My son has not slept. I think we all said things."
"You called me sick on camera."
"I was frightened."
She set the pie on the counter anyway and held out both arms.
Maggie was at the grill with her back to us, and I could feel her not turning around.
I let Patricia hug me, because the whole diner was watching and I wanted them to see I had been polite.
Her perfume was the same one she wore at Christmas.
She patted my back, and then she patted my coat pocket, twice, and said, "You're so thin."
"I'm fine."
"I know you are."
She left a minute later, and she left the pie.
Maggie threw it in the trash with the box.
On Monday morning, at nine forty, I stood on the sidewalk outside the label's building in Midtown, with Declan on one side and Maggie on the other.
I put my hand into my coat pocket for the cassette.
There was a lint ball, a subway card, and the lining.
I tried the other pocket.
I turned them both inside out on the sidewalk.
"Hannah," Declan said.
"It was here."
"Where?"
"On me. I've had it on me since Saturday. I slept with the coat on the bed."
Maggie had gone white.
"Sunday," she said. "The hug."
"She patted my pocket."
"Twice," Maggie said. "I saw her do it in the mirror behind the grill. I thought she was being motherly."
"You thought."
"I thought, Hannah! She's a monster, but she's a monster in a camel coat!"
She grabbed her phone and pulled up the diner's security feed.
The picture was grainy.
Patricia's hand went into my pocket with a small neat motion, and came out with the tape tucked under her wrist, and the whole thing took less than a second.
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