Chapter 29
GERALD
Gerald sits at his desk in the lobby of the Atlanta Reapers practice facility. The building is quiet. The evening crew has gone. The monitors show empty corridors and dark rooms.
He pulls out his phone. He types a text to Lorraine, who is at home, who is always at home at this hour, who has been receiving these texts for three seasons now.
Gerald: The rookie and the Russian.
Lorraine: Again?
Gerald: Different Russian. Same story. Different ending.
Lorraine: Better ending?
Gerald: Better ending.
Lorraine: You're collecting them, Gerald.
Gerald: They're collecting each other. I just watch the door.
Gerald sets the phone down. He looks at the lobby.
The trophy case with its growing collection.
The framed photographs on the wall. In the corner, small and easy to miss if you aren't looking, a photograph of five couples at a preseason barbecue, laughing, holding plates, the grill smoking behind them.
Six couples now. Gerald does the math. Six couples, found in this building, during his watch. Six stories that began with nervous men walking through the lobby with duffel bags and ended with those men walking through the lobby holding hands.
He adjusts his reading glasses. He picks up his book (a thriller that Lorraine recommended, which he is reading slowly because Gerald does everything slowly and the slowness is where the seeing happens).
The lobby is quiet. The building is at rest. The season continues.
Gerald reads. Gerald watches. Gerald waits.
The light is always on.