Page 39 of Flames and Blood

“Yes.”

“And she’s being delivered to the client right now.”

“That’s my read of it.”

Meyer opens his eyes.

“So the runs are over,” he says. “There’s no more blood to collect. The courier’s out of a job, and he doesn’t matter to anyone anymore.”

“He matters to me. He’s the only person outside that operation who knows where that blood went.”

“Can you find him?”

I turn the sheet around and put my finger on the bottom of it. The same signature, over a hundred times, and under the last one a printed line the clerk filled in the day the account was opened. A name. A carrier number.

“He signed his own name for a year,” I say. “I’ve found men from less.”

“Where do we start?”

“The carrier number belongs to a freight office. Offices keep records of their drivers, and the records have addresses. The office is within range of here. We go there, I get his address, and then he and I have a conversation about where he’s been delivering.”

“And if he doesn’t want the conversation?” Kent asks.

“Nobody wants the conversation. He’ll have it anyway.”

“How far?” Meyer asks.

“A day. Hard driving.”

“Then we should have left an hour ago.”

“I’ll take that up with the sun.”

Kent laughs, which pulls the arm, which makes him swear, which makes Meyer say something about swinging it, and the two of them go back and forth for a while.

“Can I ask you something else?” Kent says when it’s finished.

I look up at him. “Depends what you’re going to ask.”

“Why her?”

“That’s not something I’m going to answer.”

“I’m not asking who she is. Faine told us what you told her: a woman called Kalli. I’m asking why you.” He shifts against the wall. “It’s not a job. Faine called us off it. You’ve had a phone going in your pocket all day, and you haven’t looked at it once.”

“No.”

“So it’s not work. It’s not money. It’s not orders.”

“No.”

He waits. I let him wait.

“Right,” he says eventually. “Here’s the worst part. I’d have come anyway. You didn’t even have to tell me.”

“Why?” It’s my turn to ask questions now.

He thinks about that for a second. “I have no idea. But it’s the most fun I’ve had in years, so there’s that.”