Thieving Fear

Chapter 32

"Isn"t the one Rory took enough?"

"You put on weight since then. Hey, no bad thing. We don"t need the author looking like a ghost even on your sort of book. Maybe he can take some shots after we"ve all had lunch."

"Does Charlotte know about the things you"re asking me to do? Isn"t she still Ellen"s editor?"

"Sure thing. I"m just trying to help their books along. Makes sense for all of us."

"What"s keeping her? Shouldn"t she be here by now?"



"She was finishing something off downstairs. I guess it"s taking longer than she thought. She could catch us up at the restaurant if you"re famished, Ellen."

"No, I want to wait for her. We shouldn"t leave her on her own."

"She isn"t, believe me, not down there."

"Shall I go and find her?"

"You can"t do that, Hugh."

"Why not? Why are you telling him that, Glen?"

"Because n.o.body gets to go behind the scenes by themselves unless they"re part of us, not just your brother. Here comes the elevator. Maybe that"s her now."

"Gee," Rory said, having turned to watch that letter rob its neighbour of the light. It continued to glow, if somewhat fitfully, as the metal doors parted below the display. The inside of the lift seemed dim, perhaps by contrast with the street, where the window of a taxi caught the sunlight, flaring in his eyes. The blank patch it left on his vision appeared to loiter behind Charlotte as she stepped into the lobby, so that he couldn"t immediately tell whether somebody was at her back. No, the gaping gloom was deserted, and in a moment the doors shut before the light shifted to the lowest number. Rory rested his hands on the upholstery to push himself off the settee, so fast that the blank patch engulfed his vision. He mustn"t start imagining that it had wiped out Hugh and their cousins or the editor, let alone the place Rory had taken ages to reach. "Now we"re all here," he said.

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