Chapter 7: The Watcher

A black sedan was parked across from my building with the engine running.

I saw it from half a block away.

I stood behind a mailbox and watched a man in the driver's seat finish a cigarette he didn't throw out the window.

He was big, in a plain coat, and he was looking straight up at my floor.

I went in through the delivery alley.

Eleven was standing at the loft window when I came through the door.

She had the curtain pinched between two fingers and her body turned to the side, so that the street couldn't see her.

"Step back," I said.

"There's a man outside."

"I know."

"He's been there since eleven this morning." She let the curtain fall. "He got out twice to look at the buzzer panel."

"Did you answer the door?"

"No."

"Did you use the phone?"

"No."

"Good girl."

I hadn't meant to say it.

Something went across her face, quick and bright, and was gone.

I took off my coat with careful hands and put Rufus's photograph on the table.

I didn't say a word about the lobby.

Her eyes went to the picture and then to my face, and she took a long slow breath.

"He's dangerous," she said.

"Who?"

"Whoever sent that."

"You know who sent it?"

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