“Sometimes I use a five-in-one tool and go through the molding,” the man said flatly. “But that can leave a mess of wood shavings.” He pointed toward her bedroom. “You should lock your back windows more often, Ms. Borland. It’s a dangerous world out there.”

“I’m calling the cops.”

“No you’re not,” the man said.

She stared at him, her palms pressed against the white kitchen counter to steady her nerves. He had a handgun when she’d seen him outside of Jed’s place. Did he have that gun on him now?

“I need to get into Jedidiah Harrington’s house,” he said. “Except I cannot be on camera. I cannot be photographed.”

She stared at him. She could feel her heart beating fast against her blouse.

“Do you have a key?” he asked.

“No.”

The relationship between Kelly and Jed had never risen to that level in the five weeks they had dated. And now it had been nine months. A couple texts exchanged. Pleasantries.

“Too bad,” the man said.

He stood up and flattened the wrinkles on his shirt with his hands.

Kelly glanced down at her car keys. She moved the Honda key between her index and middle fingers. Protruding out like a weapon.

The man turned toward her then, and Kelly’s mind raced. What had she done to deserve the luck she’d had in the last five years? First with her art, which had shown such promise, but didn’t sell. And then with men. Losers. Drunks. And here in Mason Falls . . . Jed.

“He’s not stable, you know,” the man said to Kelly. “Sooner or later, it won’t end well. Especially if these crazy lies he’s been writing get out. The people I work for—”

“Jed’s just a talker,” Kelly said, her knuckles white around the car key.

“You don’t know that,” the man said.

He stopped five or six feet from her. There was a bulge at his waist. Right side. Under his blazer.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said nervously. “He’s nothing to me.”

“But if you had a key, you could help him.”

“I don’t, though.”

“Or, if you could figure out some other way. Some way to get me what I need . . . it might be worth a hundred thousand to you.”

Kelly’s breathing calmed, and her eyes widened.

“Dollars?” she clarified.

59

I found Marvin asleep on the couch, a cup of tea on the table in front of him.

The hall clock read four a.m., and I found my way into the guest room that was once my wife’s room when she was growing up. Threw my duffel on the ground and fell onto Lena’s old pink comforter.

They’d cleaned me up real good at the hospital, and I’d caught two hours of sleep there, but I was fading fast.

I closed my eyes, and in a minute I was high above Mason Falls.

As I soared through the clouds, it was daylight and I saw the high walls of Condesale Gorge and the rocky canyons below it.