Page 68 of Thin Ice

"I may have told him something else," I said. "This is the one I honestly can't confirm or reject. Nolan walks in Forest Park some mornings, early, in the wooded part on the west side. It helps on days when the hip's bad. I don't know whether I mentioned that when I told Frey about Nolan's maintenance program."

"That's worse than remembering you did share it."

"Yes."

I heard Mac breathe deeply. "I'm going to tell you what I see, and you're not going to like it. Then I'm going to give you your orders."

"I'm ready."

"What I see is a source who arrived credentialed and friendly. He fed you real, verifiable material on a schedule, and he took payment in your answers to his questions. Frey didn't get past your guard, Elias. He placed himself somewhere beyond it. Somebody studied what you were likely to trust and delivered precisely that."

"That makes it sound bad."

"It wasn't good."

"What are my orders?"

"Change nothing toward Frey. Don't vary your tone or response time. If he calls, you're the same tired man doing two jobs. Do not confront him. Michael will start documenting from our end tonight. He will pull out the employment records, phones, and financials. You're not solving the Frey problem. Your entire job is Nolan, and now you're going to be honest with me about whether you can still do it."

"I can do it."

"How's your head, Elias?"

I knew that question was coming.

"Bad," I said.

"Okay," Mac said. "Now I believe you. Go stand your post."

I was still at the island, notebook open in front of me, when the hall floor creaked.

Nolan came out of his bedroom in a t-shirt and sweatpants, moving carefully on the way to the bathroom. He stopped when he saw me.

"It's almost one."

"I know."

Under the new arrangement, I had to share.

"I called Seattle," I said. "I disclosed us to Mac. He now knows the relationship, per company policy. I reported the folder, too. He knows that you know everything."

"What happens to you?"

"Eamon reads it all, and I get a plane ticket to Seattle when the Cup Final is over. I don't know the details yet." I closed my notebook. "They didn't pull me. Mac wouldn't change operators two nights before Game Seven."

Nolan took three steps toward me. "You could've sat on it two more days," he said. "Nobody would've known."

"I'd have known."

"Yeah." He held back a smile. "That call wasn't boring."

He turned around and his bedroom door clicked shut. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

***

I slept until 6:05 without Maddie's voice waking me earlier.

Nolan had turned his alarm off the night we got back from Boston, and he left it off. His door stood open. The bed was empty and made. His sneakers were gone from beside the closet, and the mat was still rolled in the corner.