Carter Reed novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: The Mass
Carter drove us to the funeral himself.
He did not let his second near the car, and he said nothing about why.
I understood and kept quiet too.
St. Lucy's stood at the end of a long South Philly block, and every parking space for six streets was full.
Giorgio had packed the church.
Men in black overcoats lined the steps, and their eyes followed me from the curb to the door.
I wore the black dress and Wyatt's parka over it.
Under the parka, taped flat to my ribs, was a printout of the spreadsheet.
Carter's hand found mine as we walked up the aisle.
His palm was warm and dry and he held on as if I might float away.
The casket sat at the front, closed, buried in white lilies.
Nico's photograph stood on an easel beside it, a smiling boy in a rowing sweater.
I stared at that smile and felt nothing but cold.
We slid into the fourth pew from the back.
Giorgio sat in the front pew alone.
His wife had not come.
Tori sat next to me in her bartender's black, rigid as a post.
The priest said the old words.
They rolled over my head like weather.
Then Giorgio walked up to the lectern and put both hands on its sides.
The church went quiet enough to hear the candles.
"My son was thirty years old," he said, soft and slow. "He was kind, and he was good to his mother. On Monday night he went to the aid of a friend in a parking garage, and a woman killed him."
A murmur went through the pews.
"A woman with a tire iron. A woman who sat at my table on Thursday and said it out loud, with no shame."
His head turned, and he looked straight at me.
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