We stay at Celeste's for another hour.
Not for operational reasons, those are finished. The independent representation is filed, Théo's standing is protected, Reves has given up the last piece of insurance he was holding and is sitting at Celeste's kitchen table with the specific quality of a man who has set something down and is deciding what his hands are for now.
We stay because Théo asks Faye three more questions and she answers all of them, and because Celeste makes fresh coffee and nobody leaves, and because some things need the time they take rather than the time that is convenient.
I watch Lucien in the periphery throughout.
He is at the edge of the kitchen present, not intruding, the quality he has in rooms where something is happening that belongs to other people. He is holdi
