Honeymoon

Chapter 94

I WASN’T REALLY in the mood for a moonlit ride, but there I was anyway. Just me and Nora Sinclair.

The convertible top was down and the night air whipped by, cool and crisp. The road, the signs—everything a blur. Nora was turning the backcountry roads of Westchester into her own personal autobahn, and I was just along for the ride.

What the hell am I doing?

That was the immediate question. Too bad I didn’t have an answer.

The information so generously supplied to me by attorney Steven Keppler of the bad comb-over had been handed off to Susan. She’d given it to the computer wizards at the Bureau, who were going to hack their way into Nora’s offshore account and trace her deposits and transfers. All of them. Who knew how many there were? They’d be keeping a particular eye out for anything involving one Connor Brown. Both before and after he died. Give them twenty-four hours, Susan said. Thirty-six, max.

In the meantime, all I had to do was one thing: stay away from Nora.

Yet there she was, sitting right next to me, more beautiful, more alluring, more intoxicating than ever. Was this one last hurrah?

Was it denial?

Or temporary insanity?

Was there a part of me hoping the computer wizards wouldn’t find a link, wouldn’t find a thing? That maybe she was innocent? Or did I want her to get away with murder?

I turned toward her. “I’m sorry…. What?”

She was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her over the roaring engine of the Benz, and the even louder noise inside my head.

She tried again. “I said, ‘Aren’t you glad you came?’”

“I don’t know yet,” I replied in a near holler. “I still don’t know where we’re going.”

“I told you, it’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“No,” she said. “You just don’t like it when you’re not in control. That’s good to know.”

Before I could say anything back, she barreled into a sharp turn, her foot nowhere near the brake. The tires screeched as the convertible lurched and seemed to have thoughts of flipping over.

Nora tilted her head back and laughed into the wind. “Don’t you feel alive?!” she shouted.