Pipe Burst Guest novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Pipe, Again

Nico was sitting at my dining table when I came in, with one lamp lit and a sheet of cream paper in front of him.

He had not taken off his coat.

I stopped just inside the door and put my keys down very quietly.

"Fishtown," I said.

"Yes."

"Cesare called it a break-in. He said somebody went in through the third floor and left the cash."

"The cash wasn't what I wanted."

"Business in Camden."

He did not look away.

"I lied," he said. "I'd do it again, and I'll say that first so you don't have to dig for it."

I crossed the room and picked up the paper.

It was heavy, with an embossed seal at the bottom and my father's signature across it.

Pay what is owed to Orsatti.

Ines's father.

The room tilted, and I put my hand on the back of the chair.

"That's his signature."

"It's a good copy. Look at the date."

I held the page to the lamp.

There was a seven in the day, with a short bar through the stem.

"My father wrote them plain," I said slowly.

"And Tullio crosses his. I saw it on the payroll in the old captain's hand, the same seven, all down the column."

I read it a third time.

Then I laid it down on the table and sat in the chair, because my legs had made the decision for me.

"He didn't do it," I said.

"I can't swear to what he knew after."

"He didn't write this."

"No," Nico said. "He didn't."

I put my face in my hands for exactly as long as I could afford.

When I looked up he was still watching me.

The relief drained out of me, and something much hotter came in behind it.

"You went in there without me," I said.

"Yes."

"I sat across from Cesare and let him call my father a murderer, and you had the proof in your coat the whole time."

"I didn't have it yet. I got it at a quarter to ten."

"You knew where it was. You knew what Ines planned. You stood outside a window and listened to the two of them, and you didn't call me."

"You'd have said no."

"Of course I would have said no! It's mine!"

"Then it's the second thing you've done without asking," Nico said, and stood up.

I stared at him.

"The pipe," he said.

I had waited four days for him to say it, and I felt the floor drop anyway.

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