The Seventh Time novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Delphine

Delphine stood under the one working light at the warehouse gate, and she looked ten years older than she had in the ballroom.

She wore a wool coat with no jewelry, and her hair was pulled back in a rubber band.

Her mascara had run and dried.

She held a banker's box against her hip with both arms.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

I stopped on the other side of the chain-link.

"You called in the inspection."

"Yes."

"On Saturday."

"Broderick told me to. I did it from my own phone, in his office, while he stood behind me." Her voice was flat. "I'm telling you before you hear it from his lawyer."

"Why?"

"Because I'm done being the one who does what he says."

The wind pushed her coat against her legs.

I looked at her for a long moment, at the girl who had touched my grandmother's brooch and smiled.

I unlocked the gate and let her in.

We sat on two upturned crates in the dock office, under a bare bulb, with the space heater ticking.

The cot was gone from the corner.

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