Chapter 12: Found

Russell's house in Lake Forest sat on a bluff over the lake, all glass and pale stone.

The gate opened before we reached it.

Finn was at Hank's yard for the day, learning to honk.

Abe drove with his window down and his elbow out, and he was humming.

It took me a mile to place it.

"Is that the 'Beer Barrel Polka'?"

He stopped.

"No."

"You said no more lies."

He looked at me sideways.

"It might be the 'Beer Barrel Polka,'" he said.

I laughed, and for a mile I forgot to be afraid.

Russell met us on the front steps in a grey sweater, barefoot.

He hugged his brother first, long and hard.

Then he kissed my cheek.

"Welcome," he said. "Nobody comes up that drive without me knowing. You're both safe here."

A man in a dark jacket stood at the corner of the house with an earpiece.

Another one was down by the boathouse.

Abe looked at them.

"New?" he asked.

"Since the bomb." Russell put his arm around Abe's shoulders.

"Let my head of security walk you around. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. You always do."

Abe looked back at me.

"Go," I said. "I can read a contract by myself."

Russell showed me into his study.

It was a long room with a wall of windows onto a stone terrace and the grey lake beyond it.

The desk was older than the house.

The contract was laid out on the blotter, twenty pages with yellow tabs where I was supposed to sign.

"Take your time," Russell said. "I have to make a call. Business never sleeps, even when your brother comes back from the dead."

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