The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The Paint Shed
I did not open the lining in the car.
I did not want to do it with the heater on and the windows fogged and his hand on my knee.
I did it at six the next morning in the paint shed at the boatyard, in daylight, which was my rule.
The shed stood at the back of the yard, a long tin building that smelled of marine enamel and turpentine.
The Sea Marija stood black in her cradle behind it.
The yard foreman had given me the key without being asked.
He had looked at Niko's man at the gate, and then at me.
"Whatever you need, ma'am," he said.
I put the case on a bench under the window.
The light came in gray and flat across the paint cans.
Niko stood in the doorway.
He had not come in.
He stood with his shoulder against the frame and his hands at his sides, between me and the yard.
He did not look at me.
He looked at the gate.
"I will be here," he said.
"I will not be behind you."
"I know," I said.
I took out my knife.
I slid the blade under the lip of the brown lining at the corner, where the glue had gone yellow and brittle, and peeled it up.
It came away with a soft dry tearing.
Underneath was a flat packet wrapped in oilcloth and tied with fishing line.
I knew the knot.
It was a bowline on a bight, the knot my mother tied on every spool of line she owned.
I had watched her tie it a thousand times on the deck of the Kalevala.
I sat down on an overturned bucket.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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