Just as I start to stuff the phone back into my purse, it pings with a text from him.
We’re all set with Halligan. Will fill you in when I see you.
Okay, I should be at the inn by 3.
Finally, the conductor announces that we’re approaching Albany-Rensselaer. After hauling my bag down from the overhead rack, I rock my way up the aisle to the end of the car and join the crowd of departing passengers.
I feel jittery, even weirdly fearful, and it doesn’t help when I step off the train and get my first taste of the local weather. It’s about sixty degrees, with a slight bite to the breeze. Though Melanie was murdered in mid-October, the weather is eerily reminiscent of that time.Lovely,I think.Just the fucking welcome I need.
Before crossing over the track to reach the station house, I fumble for my phone, desperate to order an Uber. To my shock, I hear a man call my name. I lift my head, searching ahead of me.
“Bree,” he calls again. “Bree, over here.”
Glancing farther to the right, I see Logan standing by the door of the station with one hand raised in greeting. Ofcoursehe’d show up without telling me.
I offer a tepid wave in return and flick my eyes to the left and right of him, making sure before taking a step that Lisa isn’t here, too. Thank God, he’s been smart enough not to make her part of the welcome wagon. As soon as I reach him, he leans toward me, obviously planning to kiss my cheek, but I step back a little, adjusting the strap of my purse, so that he can’t follow through.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I say.
“Happy to. I would have let you know, but I was afraid you’d tell me not to.”
“Maybe,” I say, smiling wanly.
“Plus, I figured you must be fried by this point, and it might help to see a friendly face.”
Friendly face.Is that what he considers himself to me? What’s he going to do next—suggest he, Lisa, and I meet for cocktails this week? And yet, I can’t deny that it’s good not to be facing this moment alone.
He takes my roller bag from me and leads me across the parking lot. He’s in what I came to know as his typical work outfit: nice jeans, a blue-and-white-striped dress shirt—perfectly pressed—and a navy blazer. His hair is slicked back a little, unlike when I saw him in Uruguay. Logan is at heart a power player, and maybe he feels that’s the role he needs to step into this week.
“So, when’s the meeting?” I ask as soon as we’re in his car. Yup, a black BMW, always his vehicle of choice.
“That’s another reason I came to pick you up,” he says, firing up the engine. “Halligan can meet today, so once I saw your train was on time, I suggested thirty minutes from now. You okay with that?”
“Sure,” I say, though I grumble internally. I’m grungy and sweaty and wearing the same underwear that I put on yesterday morning. But I can’t let that get in the way.
“I could ask him to postpone it until tomorrow or at least until later today, when you’ve had time to freshen up at the inn.”
“Really, I’m fine.”
I give Logan a minute to maneuver out of the parking lot before lobbing my next question at him.
“So, what’s he going to cover today, do you have any idea?”
“I don’t know the full agenda, but he mentioned he’d talked to law enforcement in Pennsylvania and Ohio, so that’ll be part of it.”
Logan is speaking matter-of-factly enough, but even after all these years, I can detect the undertone of worry in his voice.
“Did something he said concern you?”
“Not something he said. It washowhe said it. I got the feeling that whatever he has to report, we’re not going to like it.”
Chapter 7
“Not like it how?” I demand. I’ve been here ten minutes, and I already hate how things are going.
“I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait till we get there.”
I take a couple of long deep breaths, the kind that are supposed to calm you but have never really worked for me.
