Chapter 24

The small stones struck the window just as Hannah set the pizza carton on the table. Ping, ping, ping. A pause, and then, ping, ping.

“That’s Runner’s signal,” she said.

Virgil had been engrossed with his self-appointed task of supervising the preparations for serving the pizza. But the pings distracted him.

He chortled, hopped down from his perch on the back of a kitchen chair, and vaulted up onto the windowsill.

“Looks like Runner knows you’re back in town,” Elias said.

“Word travels fast in the DZ. Besides, his crew has been keeping an eye on this place while we were gone, remember?”

She crossed to the window. Elias had been pouring a second glass of wine for each of them. He set the bottle aside and went to join her.

She opened the curtain and looked down into the alley. Night had fallen hours ago, but thanks to the nearby ruins, it was never entirely dark in the DZ. The alley behind the apartment was steeped in acid green shadows but it was easy to see Runner standing below the window. He was dressed in his signature black leather jacket and black trousers. A black cap was pulled down low over his eyes, partially concealing his profile but there was no mistaking his expensive running shoes and his lean, wiry build.

Hannah unlatched the window, hoisted it, and leaned out.

“Hi, Runner,” she said, keeping her voice low.

“Heard you were back,” he said. He tipped his head a little to look up at her. His attention switched to Elias. “Also heard the husband was still hanging around.”

“Yeah, I’m still here,” Elias said. He gripped the windowsill. “Out of curiosity, do you mind telling me how you heard that we were back?”

Runner’s shoulders shifted in an elaborate shrug. “Word on the street, man. I just came to check it out. Make sure Hannah was okay.”

“I’m fine,” Hannah said. “I finished the out-of-town job and I’m ready to reopen for business. Well, I will be as soon as I clean up the mess the intruder left behind.”

Elias leaned forward a little and looked down at Runner. “Any luck identifying the guy who tossed Hannah’s place?”

“I got nothing on him,” Runner said. He sounded deeply disgusted by the failure. “Sorry, Hannah. I’ll keep asking around.”

“Maybe you’ve got more than you realize,” Elias suggested.

Runner squinted up at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If the intruder was from the neighborhood you would have a name by now, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Runner said. “In the DZ you can’t keep a secret like that for long.”

“So we know he’s an outsider,” Elias said. “How often do you get strangers this deep into the Dark Zone?”

“Not often. When we do get ’em, it’s usually because they wandered in by accident. They don’t hang around for long, at least not after dark. The energy around here tends to freak out a lot of people.”

“This out-of-zone guy knew exactly where he was going, yet Hannah says she’s never seen his prints in her shop until the night he tossed the place.”

“Huh.” Runner sounded intrigued. “Hadn’t thought about that. But what does that tell you?”

“Not sure yet but we know something else, as well. This guy from out of the zone hit Hannah’s place the one night she was gone all night. We didn’t get back here until after dawn the next morning.”

Startled, Hannah looked at Elias. “I never thought about that angle. How did he know I wasn’t home that night? Do you think he’s been watching me?”

“Nah.” Runner sounded very sure of himself. “Someone in the DZ would have noticed a stranger hanging out in this neighborhood, keeping an eye on you.”

“Good point,” Hannah said.

Elias considered that briefly. “Maybe he paid someone local to watch her?”

Runner grunted. “Anything’s possible, I guess. But people in the DZ are pretty tight. If someone did get paid for selling out a local, it would be big news around here. Haven’t heard anything like that.”

Hannah drummed her fingers on the windowsill. “There is another, simpler possibility.”

Elias and Runner looked at her.

“What?” Runner asked.

“The photo of us leaving the Enchanted Night Wedding Chapel was in the early edition of the Curtain yesterday morning,” Hannah said. “That edition was already going into the newspaper vending machines by the time we left the Shadow Zone Motel. We saw a delivery van, remember? By the time we got back here we were both fielding phone calls from people who wanted to know if the story was true.”

“That photo was taken around midnight,” Elias said. “We know that because that’s when we showed up on the doorstep of the wedding mill. But the so-called reporter probably filed the photo and the piece naming us within minutes. It would have appeared online almost immediately. No self-respecting editor at the Curtain would have sat on that story for long.”

Runner shrugged. “I saw it around two that morning on my phone. I was making a delivery in Star Hook Lane.”

“There you go,” Hannah said. “No need to look for a rat among my neighbors. All we have to do is get a list of the Curtain’s online subscribers. The perp will probably be on it.”

Elias and Runner looked at her as if she had lost her senses.

“Are you kiddin’?” Runner demanded. “Everyone reads the Curtain. Must be thousands of online subscribers.”

“I know,” Hannah said. “Just trying to lighten the mood with a little humor. I really need to get some sleep.”