three times

answer an

e screen lighting up with his name like it had every other morni

e face down and c

all, I had fini

I had finished

icemail afte

it without

once been

t was

, I kep

myself. But even as I focused, I felt it-the shift. The sense of bei

, my phone b

ri

re you

age for a moment, th

hat when I was l

nged somewhere he

n't a

into someone I had

familiar

tor lobby. He looked exactly the way I remembered-calm,

ou were back," h

t advert

softly. "Yo

riage. Before I learned how to di

bout nothing important. And yet, the ease of th

arrived, he step

," he said as t

dered t

l," I co

. "That s

Hale stared at his phone

read m

nswered

he night before again and again, se

ned the

n't rea

lt impossib

ery search

e fina

s set

ge dis

year

at the ceiling of his office as somet

o

uld recover from wi

son you assumed would always be there had

here was a kn

n't o

n't n

y knew w

e door. Lower than usual. Controlle

d against the wood

ave opened the door before

tayed wh

giveness," he said. "I

d not

nt, his voice dro

t know,"

through me withou

ered-so quietly h

t was t

ootsteps retreate

g was silent again before

Adrian Hale was on t

d he knocked, I wasn'