We put it in the trunk with enough cash to survive for a year and the attorney sealed it and I took it and I left. Why a mail order arrangement? Because it was the fastest way to disappear into a name that wasn't mine and a place that wasn't on any map. Fletcher Aldicott would think to look. She said it simply.
I didn't intend. I wasn't planning to deceive you past what was necessary. I was going to tell you. I just needed to know first whether I was She stopped again. Whether you were safe here, he said.
She looked at him. Yes. The fire snapped. Outside the snow was coming down in earnest now, heavier than the morning had promised. He could hear the wind moving around the north corner of the house, looking for the gaps.
What's in the letters? He said. She picked up the one from the table beside her. This one says that a man named Croft, that's Fletcher's name for a hired man he uses for difficult business, has been seen in Harlo Creek asking about a woman traveling alone with heavy luggage. He was asking at the station.
She set it down. The first letter was a warning that Croft had found Philadelphia had lost my trail at Chicago. This one is telling me he's found it again. Who's writing to warn you? My father's attorney.
He's been watching for movement. A pause. He's a good man. He's the only person in Philadelphia who knows where I am. Gideon looked at the fire for a while.
He was doing the math of it, the shape of the problem. A hired man in Harlo Creek asking questions. A woman in his house with documents worth millions. A Montana winter that would trap everyone in place for months regardless of what anyone wanted. "All right," he said.
She looked at him. That's all. What else do you want me to say? I've put you in danger. I've done it by being here and I knew I was doing it and I did it anyway because I was out of options.