Carter Reed novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Second

At seven that morning, Carter had every man he owned standing in the terminal yard.

Forty of them, in work jackets and hard hats, in rows under the cranes.

The sun had barely cleared the river.

I stood on the loading platform beside him with my hair still damp from the hospital and my bag over my shoulder.

Tori stood behind me, and the guard I had tied off in the courtyard leaned on a crutch at the foot of the steps.

"Come up here," Carter said, to no one in particular.

The grey-bearded man climbed the steps.

He had a quiet, easy way of walking, a man who had spent fifteen years being the one Carter relied on.

"Boss."

"The man from the roof is awake."

"I heard."

The second looked out over the yard.

"I'd say a man bleeding on a table would say anything."

"Then let's talk about something that doesn't bleed," Carter said.

A few of the men shifted.

A crane groaned overhead.

"I've been with you fifteen years," the second said.

"I know."

"I carried your mother's casket."

"I know that too."

"Then you know I'd never."

"The back door alarm keeps a log," Carter said. "It was disarmed at 3:12 on Thursday night with a fob."

"Plenty of men have fobs."

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