For several seconds, I remained beneath the canopy, watching his figure disappear beyond the hotel gates.
How did a private letter reach that crowd before I did?
The question should have had an obvious answer.
Ryan took it. He promised he would give it to Shadric.
For seven years, I had treated those two statements as though they proved each other.
They did not.
A car door opened behind me.
Shadric stood beside a waiting Vale car, one hand resting on the open rear door.
He looked at me.
"Are you all right?"
I looked towards the road where Mr Hale had disappeared.
"Did you know he would come after me?"
"No."
"Did George?"
"You should ask him."
"That is becoming everyone's favorite response."
Rain darkened the shoulders of his coat.
He made no attempt to get into his car.
N
