章 48: Chapter 48

As soon as he was out the door, she closed it behind him. The snick of the lock sounded permanent. He hesitated for a moment, torn between following her wishes and following his own—which was to pound on the door until she let him back in—but in the end he walked away.

He didn’t take the elevator—he never did—but went to the stairwell at the far end of the hall and jogged down to the basement.

Once there, he took his belongings out of the trash bag. He turned cold when he found the brown envelope she must have put in there. She always kept that in the false bottom of her shoulder bag, and if she was giving it to him…He unzipped his backpack and carefully tucked the envelope under his clothes so it wouldn’t be seen.

From habit he folded the trash bag and placed it into his backpack also, covering everything. They’d learned those bags could come in handy, as a raincoat, as ground cover if they couldn’t find a place indoors to sleep, maybe just as shelter.