Chapter 17: What the Driver Said

Ronan Keane let Brent's car pull away from the Delaney Labs curb, and did not watch it go.

He watched the town car behind it.

It was black, with a gray-suited driver at the wheel, and it had been parked across the street since a quarter to ten.

The driver had not gone in. He had not gotten out. He had watched the lobby doors through the windshield the entire time.

Ronan had seen that face before.

It had stood in a gray suit and cap at the foot of Odessa Maddox's front steps on Sunday night, while Cora ate soup.

"Stay with Pearl," he told Cora, and kissed her temple before she could ask. "Two hours."

"Where are you going?"

"To buy something," he said. "I'll be careful."

It was the first lie he had told her since the river road.

It was not quite a lie. He was going to buy something. He just wasn't going to pay in money.

He followed the town car for eleven blocks, in the gray car, with two vehicles between them.

It turned into the third level of a public parking structure downtown and stopped in a corner stall beside a concrete pillar.

The driver got out. He was fifty or so, with a soft belly and careful hands, and he took a phone from his pocket.

Ronan parked a row behind him and shut off the engine.

On the dashboard, his hands shook.

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