Chapter 14: After Eight

I did not answer Dani on Wednesday night.

I read her message four times on the walk to the hotel, and then I put the phone face down on the nightstand.

On Thursday the lawyer in Boston emailed me a letter for the district attorney, and I read it standing up and signed it.

By eight that evening the office had emptied, and I stayed where I was.

I sat at my desk by the window with my screen lit and nothing on it that needed doing.

I knew exactly what I was doing.

I was breaking it on purpose.

At ten past eight I heard his door open across the floor.

I kept my eyes on my screen and listened to him come closer.

He stopped behind my chair, and I could smell rain and paper.

"It's ten past eight," Declan said.

"Is it?"

"You know it is."

I turned the chair around.

He was standing very close, with his sleeves rolled and his tie pulled loose, and he was not smiling.

"I wanted to see what you'd do," I said.

"I'm doing it."

"What is it you're doing?"

He did not answer. He looked at my mouth, and then at my eyes, and then at my mouth again.

He put one hand on the arm of my chair and leaned down.

I could feel his breath on my lip.

I did not move. I wanted him to be the one who closed it.

I wanted it so badly that my hands were gripping the edge of the seat.

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