Room 14's Secret novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Visiting Hours

Zachary's POV

The letter had been in my jacket since Monday.

It came in a county envelope with a jail stamp, and the handwriting inside was a man's who had never learned to press hard.

I'll tell you where it is. Only you. Not her. Please.

I had not shown it to Melinda.

I told myself it was because she had enough, and that was true.

The rest was that for five years I had planned what I would say to Quinton Teel, and I wanted to say it without her watching my face.

On Tuesday morning I drove to the county jail and signed the book.

The visiting room had six steel tables bolted to the floor and one deputy by the door.

They brought Quinton in wearing tan with his shoelaces gone.

He had lost weight in three days.

His collar, for once, was dry.

He sat across from me and looked at my hands on the table.

"You can hit me," he said. "I'd understand."

I had a long list.

I had said it in my head in Kandahar, and in the truck outside Ward C, and in a dozen motel rooms looking for her.

"My sister asked me not to," I said.

"Leanne did?"

"She said hurting people is how Giselle wins. She said it in the van on the way to the hospital."

His face did something I did not want to see, and I let him have it alone.

"You took the job to find her," he said.

"Nine weeks."

"I read her bills every month. I signed them." He wiped his mouth. "I told myself it was a clinic. I told myself she was resting."

"You told yourself a lot of things."

"Yes."

He did not argue.

I had counted on an argument.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Room 14's Secret from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.