For most of the drive Cooper stayed silent. He was hoping that whatever it was he was missing would jump out at him. He could feel there was something else. Something far bigger which would help him make sense of it all. And he didn’t know how he was supposed to go about looking beyond, when he didn’t know what he was supposed to be seeing in the first place. It didn’t help that his thoughts were foggy. He seemed to be spending his days looking out into some kind of blur. And as such he sighed. Real long. Real hard. Checked neither Rosedale nor Maddie was looking and took out a couple more pills to try to straighten himself out.
‘A nickel for them.’ It was Rosedale.
Cooper made an effort to sound cheerful. The last thing he needed was for Rosedale to be on his case again. ‘Not even a dollar? Anyone tell you you’re cheap, Rosedale?’
Rosedale, turning off down the now-familiar track towards the Lemon water treatment plant, winked. ‘You’re lucky it was even a nickel. I don’t think your thoughts are worth more than that. Whatever goes on in that head of yours Thomas, it sure ain’t worth a buck.’
Cooper rubbed his eyes. Tired from being awake most of the night. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’
‘Go on, try me. I’ll raise you five.’
Cooper gave Rosedale his best effort. Grinned at Maddie. ‘Okay, what we’ve got is a plane registered to a guy, Emmanuel. A plane we know he couldn’t afford. Probably someone bankrolled his account so he could put it in his name. And now he seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, although we do know he’s been part of a deliverance. We know somehow Papa Bemba’s involved. We also know Emmanuel has visited Lemon, twice, but both times under different names. But what we don’t know is who the other person was who went with him. Then there’s Zola, who lost her grandson, and although Bemba said he would heal him and couldn’t or didn’t, Bemba still did pretty damn well out of it. She seems to be terrified of Lemon which Emmanuel had warned her about, and then lastly there’s good ol’ Charles Templin-Wright, who says he only knows Bemba from the posters dotted around the area, yet he’s driving his car around. The same car we saw the night in the forest with the Commer truck… Go figure.’
Cooper turned to Rosedale as they pulled up outside the large electric gates of Lemon. ‘Now tell me those thoughts aren’t worth a dollar.’
Rosedale nodded his head. Turned off the engine. Looked at Cooper. ‘You’re right, they aren’t. Not even close, sugar… Come on, Maddison, let’s go, unless of course you want to wait for boy wonder here.’