Chapter 11: Six Minutes

The snow was still falling when Ray woke, and the stove had burned low.

Nico was already awake, sitting up in the nest of blankets with the pale light on his face.

He was holding a folded sheet of paper.

"I need to show you something," he said. "And I need you not to get up until I've finished."

Ray sat up slowly.

"That's from the report."

"It's page nineteen."

Nico unfolded it.

"I told you I read your incident report. I told you I chose you because you went back."

"I remember."

"There was a second reason. I didn't tell you, because I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to put it on you."

He held the page out.

It was a page from a billing record, a table of times and amounts, with one line highlighted in yellow.

Ray read it.

The highlighted row was a car service booking, made at 10:41 p.m. four years ago and charged to the Cushing Shield company account.

It was for a black sedan, held at the south ramp of Leo Brandt's garage.

The approval at the bottom was signed V. Cushing.

Twenty-one minutes later, the text had arrived on Ray's phone.

Bring the car round to the south ramp.

"The police report says a mix-up in dispatch," Nico said quietly.

"I'm a forensic accountant, Ray. I check what people say against what was paid for."

"Dispatch logged no car request that night."

"Vera booked a car and parked it where you would find it, and then she sent you to it."

The room was so quiet that he could hear the stove tick.

"I only saw it three weeks ago," Nico said.

"After Milwaukee, when I was choosing a guard, I read everything on you. I thought, that can't be right."

"Then I thought, it's probably a bad filing system. Then I thought, I'll get to know him first."

"You should have told me."

"Yes."

"You should have told me on the first day."

"Yes." Nico's voice shook. "I was afraid you'd stop trusting me and take me to a hotel and hand me to her."

Ray stood.

He walked to the window and stood with his back to the room, his fists tight, and the world outside was white and blank.

Vera, with her reading glasses on a beaded cord.

Vera had come to the Army hospital the week he was discharged.

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