The Mole in His Bed novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Left Side

The marshal drove me back to Falls Road and said nothing.

I sat on the couch with the cut notebook in my lap and the recorder button in my fist, and I ran the evening through my head until it was dark.

At one in the morning somebody knocked, and the marshal's voice said, "Ma'am, it's the lieutenant again."

I opened the door myself.

Neil stood in the hall with no coat and his hair wet, and his hands hanging at his sides.

"Come in," I said.

He came in, and I locked the door behind him.

"You said her name," I said.

"I know."

"In my kitchen. In front of me. I told you where the line was."

"I know what you told me."

"You said, 'Paula, pass the salt.'" I walked around him slowly. "You said it as easily as you say my name."

"Cora."

"Say it again. Go on."

His mouth tightened.

"No."

"Then what did you come here to say?"

He drew a long breath.

"That I'm not going to say that name in this room," he said. "That I'd cut my tongue out first. And I want to talk about later."

"There is no later."

"I know that's what you said."

"There is no later, Neil. You made your choice at a podium."

"Then I'll stand here and be punished," he said quietly. "I'll take whatever you've got."

That stopped me.

His eyes didn't leave my face. They were red at the rims, and he hadn't slept in days.

I thought: he means it.

"Take off your shirt," I said.

He took it off.

"Trousers."

He did, with his eyes on me the whole time.

I stood fully dressed in the middle of the floor and looked at him standing naked in front of me.

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