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His back stiffened.As usual, he was in his suit.Black coat.White dress shirt.Black pants.And a gun gripped in his hand.Slowly, he faced her again.“Maybe you and your brother talked about possibilities.”
“Excuse me?”
“If he ever did find himself on the outside…where would he go?What would he do?Maybe you came up with a hypothetical plan, just in case.”
“Ididn’t.” They’d never talked about escape.Just about proving his innocence.
“You can’t run with him, Lark.”
What?Run with him?Where?“I don’t know what you’re talking about.I’m here to help you find him.”Shannon had said that she’d seen a light.Maybe whoever had been inside had left something useful behind.“If you aren’t searching, then I will.”She hurried toward the red door that still hadSTAFFwritten across the top in a whimsical script.She’d done that, her second day in the building.In an attempt to make the place her own.
“Shannon looked in there already.She cleared the room,” Oliver said from behind her.
The door hung partially open.Lark’s fingers shoved against the wood to open it fully.
Her nose twitched.The scent of flowers was everywhere in this building.Ever since she’d been a child, Lark had loved the smell of fresh flowers.Flowers were fragile but so beautiful.And they made people happy.People always smiled when they were given flowers.Joy would slide on their faces, even in times of grief.Flowers brought joy, and the joy took the place of sadness, if only for a little while.
There had been so many flowers at my mom’s funeral.
But there had been hardly any at her father’s.
“He’s not in there, Lark.”
Her desk was gone.Her filing cabinets.The workspace where she’d carefully prepared bouquets with ribbon and twine sat empty when once she’d been snipping and shaping the flowers and…
Flowers.
There were flowers in her old workspace.Flowers—
Where there shouldn’t be any.
“We need to go outside,” Oliver said.“If it’s your brother, if Shannon and Everett run him down…”
Her steps stumbled forward.
“Youwant to be there, right, Lark?To tell him to stop.To tell him not to run.”
Her head shook.
“You don’t want to tell him to stop?”Oliver’s voice deepened.“Thought that was the whole point in you coming along?Or were you just saying that to get away from Executive Assistant Director Ballard?Because you thought if you didn’t act like you were helping to find Lane, then you’d get locked away.You couldn’t meet up with him if—”
“White bouquet.”She surged toward it.From the doorway, it had just looked like old flowers, tossed onto the floor.
But the flowers shouldn’t be there.She’d carefully cleaned out every single inch of the building.She’d made a list.
Donate flowers.Don’t let them die.
Sell equipment.Make as much profit as you can.
Floor to ceiling clean.The building has to be in top-notch shape.
Get a realtor to—
“What the hell is that doing here?”Oliver’s voice snapped out from behind her.But he was only behind her for a moment.In the next instant, he’d hurried around her.Easy to do since she was frozen in place.
“I donated all my flowers.No flowers should be here.” But a fresh bouquetwasthere.Right where her desk had been.White flowers.Tied with…what was that wrapped around the bouquet?
Oliver crouched next to the flowers.
