And also, now, with the shape of the situation fully visible, like something else entirely. "One week," Cole said. "One week," Victoria confirmed. Outside the desert was doing its late day color shift, the light going amber through the gaps in the roll-up door, striping the floor in long warm lines. Cole noticed it and thought it was strange how the light didn't care what was happening inside.
"My phone rang again this morning," he said. "Far. A different number this time. " "What did you say? " "I didn't answer. " He paused. "But I know I have to. Staying quiet only tells them we're not scared enough to respond. " Victoria looked at him.
"What will you tell him? " Cole thought about it. About the 120,000 and what would follow it. About Gerald Marsh's initials written in a dead car's belly, and about Stratton Group, and about Emma sleeping 10 miles from here while Cole stood in a locked shop with someone else's secret. "I'll tell him I need more time," Cole said. "And while they think I'm considering their offer, we finish the documentation. " "And then? " He looked at the car.
"Then we make sure they can't make this disappear. Not legally, not quietly, not with any amount of money. Victoria was looking at him with an expression he hadn't seen from her before. Something that had moved past assessment into something more unguarded than that. Like she'd been watching to see who he was and had arrived at a conclusion she hadn't been certain of until now.
"Okay," she said. It was a simple word, but she said it like she meant it the full way. Cole nodded once and went to lock up the shop. Down the street a car he didn't recognize idled at the far end of the access road for 40 seconds and then pulled away without turning its lights on. Cole saw it from the side window and didn't look away until it was gone.
Cole called Farr back on a Thursday morning standing in the locked workshop with the car 3 ft away and Emma at school and Victoria on the line as a silent third party on a separate phone listening. Farr answered on the second ring. Same precise diction, same measured distance in his voice. "Mr. Bennett, I appreciate you returning my call. " "I've been thinking about your offer," Cole said.
"I hope constructively. A hundred and twenty thousand is a serious number for a burned salvage car. " Cole kept his voice neutral somewhere between interested and non-committal. "But I've had the vehicle examined since we last spoke. There are aspects of it that suggest the number might be conservative. " A brief silence. Farr adjusting.