Never In Another Life novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Ticket

At 5:58 on Friday morning I stood on the sidewalk outside the Duluth bus depot with Margo's envelope in my hand.

Declan stood beside me, a careful arm's length away.

He had not slept either.

Neither of us had been to bed, and we both knew why.

The Vancouver bus idled at the curb with its door open.

The driver looked at his watch, then at me.

"Last call, ma'am."

"No, thank you."

He shrugged, pulled the lever, and the door folded shut.

The bus rolled away into the gray, and the ticket and the two thousand dollars stayed in my hand.

"Evidence," I said.

"Evidence," Declan agreed.

I walked to the sheriff's drop box across the street and put the envelope inside with a note.

My phone rang before I reached the car.

It was the county.

A woman with a polite voice said a caseworker would visit my address on Monday regarding a report that had been reopened.

I thanked her.

I hung up.

"That's her deadline," I said. "She just kept her promise."

"Good," Declan said.

I stared at him.

"Good?"

"She spent it. She can't threaten you with it anymore." He opened the passenger door for me. "Now she has nothing left to hold over you but Saturday."

I got in the car.

By eight the plan was on the motel table, among the coffee cups and the stale bagels.

It was a bad plan, and it was ours.

Declan would go to the gala first, in a rented tux, because Constance had invited him by name and would not dare turn him away in front of the donors.

He would take the microphone.

He would say what he had done.

I would come in later, from the back, with a copy of the clip and a friend in the sound booth.

"Which friend?" I asked.

"The Foundation's sound engineer. I took out his appendix six years ago. He's been telling me for years he owes me one."

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