Chapter 5: The Dead Room

When I got to Ebba's kitchen, there was a new deadbolt on the front door.

A box of Kasper's shoes sat on the porch.

"The locksmith came at noon," my grandmother said. "He was very polite. He liked the cake."

She set a mug of tea in front of me and sat down across the table with her glasses on top of her head.

"Did you get them?"

"No. He says they're a love letter."

"I'd like to read the letter he wrote me," Ebba said, "right after I burn it."

I laughed so hard that I had to put my head down on the table.

It was the first time I had laughed in two days, and it came out wrong.

Ebba rubbed my back with one strong hand.

"Sleep first," she said. "Then fight."

I slept four hours in my childhood bed and woke up at dusk with the flash drive still in my fist.

At three in the morning I pushed through the steel door to the loading dock.

Roan was already on the step with two coffees.

I sat down next to him and held up the flash drive.

"Kasper's audio engineer gave me this at the elevator. Episode 12."

Roan looked at it for a long moment.

"You want to listen out here?"

"I don't want to listen alone."

He nodded and took out his phone.

We had only one pair of earbuds between us, so he gave me the left one and kept the right.

That put my head against his shoulder, because the cord was short.

I pushed play.

The sound of Kasper's radio voice filled my left ear, warm and slow.

"Welcome back to Therapy After Dark. It's late. You can't sleep. I'm here."

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