Page 28 of The Grave Robber

“How good are your acting skills?”

He sniffed and looked at me like I was crazy. “I’ve brokeredbillion-dollar business deals. Denzel wishes he was this good.”

I knew I liked him. “Perfect. You can’t let on that yoususpect anything. Just act natural, whether you’re making breakfast or in abusiness meeting. If you usually sing in the shower, sing in the shower. Don’tchange your routine. Not until we know more.”

“What if I’m going about my business, Paul walks by, and Iaccidentally stab him forty-seven times?”

“No stabbing him. We don’t know that he actually hadanything to do with this. And even if he did, we can’t prove it. Not yet.”

“Fine.” I could see the anger welling up inside him, and itwould only get worse the more he thought about everything that’d led up to thisday. It would bubble and simmer and eventually boil over, and then I wouldn’tbe able to stop him. I needed to figure this out before that happened.

“We need to keep this between us, obviously. You can fillJason in with explicit instructions to keep quiet but don’t do it over thephone. Don’t call or text anything about this and instruct him to do the same.Tell him in a loud and crowded place, far away from your phones. We may needhis help.”

“Should I do it now?”

“No. It’ll look suspicious if you leave in the middle of thenight right after I was here.”

“Okay.” He swallowed hard, bracing himself for the trials tocome. “First thing in the morning. But what about my daughter? We have to stopwhat is going to happen to her.”

“That’s the plan. You just need to trust me.” I didn’tmention how ridiculous that statement was. I barely trusted myself, and I wasasking this man, a stranger, to place his daughter’s life in my hands.Apparently, the old saying was true: Fake it ‘til you make it.

Chapter Six

It took me halfway through to realize

my life story has an unreliable narrator.

—True fact

I couldn’t tell if the incessant pounding came from the doorto my motel room or my head. It was probably the door since it woke up thefurry creature at my side. Either way, it was unwelcome and unwanted.

I tried to ignore it, but the visitor was annoyingly polite.Three knocks, just loud enough for me to hear, and then a few seconds ofblessed silence before they tried again. Eventually, one of us would give in,and I vowed it would not be me. Until I heard a lyrical voice calling out myname.

My eyes flew open, and I tried to sit up, but pain shotthrough every molecule of my body. I suddenly remembered why I’d downed half afifth the night before—well, one reason I’d downed half a fifth the nightbefore. Several different types of pain had set up shop in my extremities. Andmy intremities, come to think of it. Shooting, stabbing, throbbing, and justplain excruciating. I now had a deep understanding of adjectives I never knewexisted.

Just then, I heard the locking mechanisms turn, and the dooropened, spilling a harsh and excessively bright stream of sunlight into theroom. I squeezed my eyes shut to block it out as Halle hurried over and satbeside me on the edge of the bed. She felt my forehead before sliding her handto my cheek, then my neck, then my chest. “Eric?”

Lower.

“Are you awake?”

Just a little lower.

A male voice interrupted our moment. “Do I need to call anambulance?”

“Do it and die,” I said, my voice hoarse and unrecognizable.

Halle spoke softly to him. “No. Thank you, Nolan. He had arough night. Now, he’s cranky.”

“I don’t know. That’s a lot of blood.”

My leg wound had opened up at some point, but I stopped thebleeding with a little pressure and a lot of cursing.

“And we don’t allow dogs.”

I had a dog?

“It’s okay,” Halle said.

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