Chapters (46)
- COVER PAGE
- PRAISE
- DEDICATION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- SNEAK PEEK: EXIT .45
He must have thought that was some kind of mercy: the privilege of keeping an identity, right to the end. Identity as Andre perceived it. As if that’s all Locke was: a lawman, an enemy. He opened the wallet. The badge and his ID and credit cards. Not even a photo. The folded packet of sugar was still there, from his coffee that morning. He took it out and removed the paperclip. It happened without conscious thought. But now in a way it felt like a last, slim comfort, his best link back through time to a safer moment.
He said, ‘You don’t have to—’
When he stepped outside, the woman across the street was standing with her hands on her hips, looking at him. She came forward a few paces and stopped, almost with a jolt, like her logic had caught up with what she’d heard. By the time Andre reached the car and looked back, she was no longer in her yard.
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-ONE
He told Erin he should have moved her to a different hotel last night, and it definitely wasn’t a good idea to go back there now. What they should do was swap vehicles, check in at new accommodation and get Beauden to bring her luggage over from the Hilton. That got him a longish talk about how she didn’t want to be paranoid, or capitulate to people with false authority, and Vincent decided he would be quiet for a while.
They rolled along in silence for ten minutes on the 405, and then Erin said, ‘What were you doing out by the pool the other night? Looked like you were writing something.’
He smiled, thinking back to it: his ploy to meet Erin Jones, and seem like a cultured gentleman. Taking in the evening air while he tightened his prose. He told her all about his script: the big Catholic family who don’t get along, and then the dad dies and they have to make an effort to tolerate each other.
‘I’ve reached the part where the dad’s dead. I just killed him off last week. So now all the kids are flying in from around the country and getting into it with each other. You know, one of the daughters is in college and quite big on her feminism, and the brother’s this borderline misogynist, so of course they’re arguing about the gender pay gap, and male over-representation in CEO roles and that kind of thing. Anyway …’
He told her what he’d said to Lamar, about being tempted at first to write a war story—something like Dispatches by Michael Herr, but set in Iraq. But then he sat down and tried to go back there, and he just didn’t have the inclination.