Chapter 11: Labs

Dexter pressed a button on my phone and held it up so I could see the screen.

"Deleted," he said. "See? Nothing."

He dropped it into my hand.

The swinging door banged, and Norman stood there with his chest rising and falling.

I didn't know how long he had been behind it.

"Out," Norman said.

"Mr. Hendry, I'm leaving."

"Out of my kitchen, out of my diner, and out of my parking lot."

Dexter straightened his coat and walked through the dining room with his head high.

On the way past the counter he waved at the woman who had hugged him.

Nobody waved back.

The door closed behind him, and I stood in the kitchen with my phone in my hand.

"He deleted it," I said.

"I heard it anyway," said Norman. "Every word after the pie."

Hallie came through the door a minute later, breathless from a run across the lot.

She took my phone without asking and tapped it twice.

"Recently Deleted," she said. "Thirty days, then it's gone. Nobody ever remembers to check."

The recording was sitting there, nine minutes long.

I laughed out loud, and it came out shaky.

"Don't play it for anyone yet," she said. "Save it for Saturday."

The next morning, Norman drove me to the hospital for my follow-up.

My blood was drawn. The doctor from the ER came out in his jacket and sat across from me with the lab report.

"Your numbers are climbing," he said. "Slowly. The anemia is better. Your kidney markers are better. That's what three meals a day does."

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