The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Cherry Blossoms
I left the deadbolt unlocked on the last Saturday in March.
It was the first week the cherry trees on Ruston Way came out.
They stood in a long row along the waterfront, a hundred of them, pale pink against the gray bay, and the wind took the petals off in drifts and carried them across the road.
I had stood at my window that morning for a long time, looking at them.
I had not looked at a tree in seventeen years.
Then I had gone to the door, and slid back the bolt, and left it.
It was a small thing.
My hand did not shake.
I put the go-bag in the closet, behind the winter coats, and shut the door on it, and I did not take it out again.
He came at ten.
I heard him in the hall, and I knew the step, and I went to the door and opened it before he knocked.
He stood on the mat in a gray jacket, with no overcoat, and a small paper bag in one hand.
It was the first time I had seen him in daylight without a coat.
"You left it open," Niko said.
He had seen the bolt from the hall.
"I did."
"Is it a mistake?"
"No," I said.
"Come in."
He came in.
He did not look around at the room.
He looked at me.
He held out the bag, and I took it and opened it.
It was a pair of cheap brass keys on a ring, with a paper tag in his square handwriting.
Foss Waterway office, back wall.
"The lease is signed," he said.
"You read it.
"Your lawyer read it.
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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