The World Never Ended novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Rented Kitchen

The detective said it would take days to trace the photograph.

He said the picture had been sent through three apps and a phone that no longer existed.

He said Dean was too smart to stay in one building.

I said thank you, and I walked out of the courthouse holding Shane's hand, and I did not cry until I was in the car.

By evening my mother had gone home to Gordon.

My son and the baby were asleep in the back room of the apartment I had rented.

It was a small place, with a kitchen the size of a closet and a window over the sink.

I stood in that kitchen at ten o'clock with a cold cup of tea.

I could not sit in the quiet, because in the quiet I kept listening for my daughter.

The knock came at the door, soft, three times.

I knew it was him before I looked.

"I swept the place," Shane said, when I opened it.

"This morning, with the medic's scanner."

"No cameras, no mics, no trackers in the baby things."

"You didn't have to."

"I know. I wanted you to be able to stand in a room."

I looked at him in the hall light.

He had shaved the beard down to a shadow, and the bandage showed white at the collar of his shirt.

He did not step inside.

"Cora, I can go," he said. "You've had a day. You don't have to do what you said in the corridor."

"Come in."

He came in, and I locked the door, and I turned and stood against it.

"The doctor cleared me on Thursday," I said.

"Did she."

"I told her I had a reason to ask."

He breathed out, a short, shaken laugh.

"I want to be somewhere I choose," I said. "For one hour."

"I want you in it."

"I want nothing in the room that anyone planned."

"Tell me how."

"You don't touch me until I say."

"Yes."

"Then I'll say."

I took his wrist and led him two steps into the kitchen, and put his palm against my face.

He closed his eyes.

His thumb moved on my cheekbone, very slowly, and I felt his whole arm shaking.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The World Never Ended from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.