There's a reason for that.
We worked it out the second week I was here, in his office with the door closed, the one and only time I've ever said the wordfirmout loud to him.
He doesn't ask what's on the right monitor. He never has
He just lets me work.
I pull the rental record up.
Todd paid with a Capital One card and listed Sharp, Texas as his destination in the agreement, which the Hertz kid didn't have to ask for. Most people leave that blank. Todd is the kind of man who fills in every blank because rules feel like manners to him.
Tyler to Sharp is about five hours.
He'll be at my gate sometime between ten and noon.
I take a long swallow of cold coffee and reach for the phone.
Phantom picks up on the second ring. "Talk."
"Hadley's dead husband's best friend just rented a car in Tyler."
"Comin' here?"
I pull the rental agreement up on the right monitor. "Comin' here. Should be at the gate by noon."
"Why?"
"To remind her she's a widow who oughta be available."
A long silence stretches between us. I hear Phantom take a slow breath on his end.
"You want me to send a brother to the gate with you?"
"No. I want him to meet me."
"Mm."
I lean back in the chair, the keyboard cold under my fingers. "Phantom."
"Yeah."
"Don't worry about it."
He laughs—short, dry, no humor in it. "I wasn't gonna. I was about to tell you don't kill him on the property."
I almost smile. "Wasn't gonna."
There’s a moment of silence.
He says, "Yet."
I say, "No, not yet."
He hangs up.
I walk over to Hadley's cabin around seven-thirty with the chicken salad plate she sent home with me yesterday, clean and dry, in my hand.
The morning's already getting hot. The cicadas haven't started up yet, but they will soon.