He Hid Me for Twelve Years, Now the City Knows My Name novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Paper on the Table

In twelve years I had never been inside the Ashdown Tower.

I had stood across the river from it, on a pier, with my coffee, and watched his window light up on the forty-first floor.

At eight on Tuesday morning I rode the elevator to that floor beside him, in my work clothes, with my badge clipped to my belt.

The doors opened on a long glass room with a table in the middle.

Nine people in dark suits turned to look at me.

Lorna rose from the end of the table with a coffee in each hand.

"Kate," she said warmly. "I got you a cappuccino. I remembered the cinnamon."

I took it.

She squeezed my shoulder and sat down at my left.

At the head of the table sat a man in his sixties with a silver pen, the board chair.

"Ms. Malloy," he said. "Thank you for coming. We admire what you do."

"Thank you."

"The company has an interest in a quiet resolution."

"I haven't been loud," I said.

"No," he said. "That's to your credit."

He slid a single sheet of paper across the table.

I read the heading.

Confidentiality and Mutual Release.

Under it, in small type, was a paragraph that said Ms. Malloy agreed to describe her relationship with any member of the Ashdown family as a friendship, and nothing more, in exchange for two million dollars.

I read the paragraph twice.

"You're paying me to say friend," I said.

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