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"That’s fine He told o that you and your aunt have access You know the coht?"

I assured her I did

"Great, I’ll let you in his office"

I followed Iris down the carpeted hall The ring of keys in her hand jingled with each step She stopped at Kane’s door, fitted a key into the lock, and pushed the door open "Take your ti back to let me pass "The door locks automatically when you close it Just pull it shut when you’re done"

The keys jingled their way back toward the reception desk

Kane’s office looked the sah on his desk, law books cra the wall, a KANE AND ASSOCIATES screensaver bouncing around his computer monitor--except for the vacuum at the center of it all created by his absence His leather chair iveled to the side, as though he’d just stood up and would be back again in ait warh me

I sat down in his chair This is how he sees the world, I thought The s along one wall revealed a spectacular view of the harbor, fras An airplane drifted toward a runway at Logan On his desk sat a framed photo I hadn’t seen before I leaned forward and picked it up It showed the two of us, the ocean in the background Kane had his arainst hi, our faces lit up with the joy of being together

I couldn’t reested it was from the weekend we’d spent on Cape Cod last suhed that way? Soour relationship into an obstacle course I wanted this ain I wanted to be together, relaxed and easy and basking in uncomplicated happiness

Should I call hih this" I reached for the phone, then paused What if he was sleeping? He’d said hith I kneorried about the full moon, but I also knew he hadn’t admitted even half how much He didn’t need me to call him now to say, "Nice photo on your desk" He’d want to knohat I was doing here, and when I told hi to East Boston with me Part of me wanted him there, by my side But another part said that was selfish, that I’d be draining his reserves exactly when he needed to replenish the intended to break hilass over the photo, tracing Kane’s cheek This picture said so much It showed that Kane believed in a vision of us, one that wasn’t marred by demons and evil and blood and death His vision was sirateful It was a vision I could hold onto as I did what I had to do A hope for co each other there

Co

I set the photo back in its place Then I opened Kane’s safe to choose my weapons

THE ADDRESS BUTTERFLY HAD GIVEN ME WAS IN EAST BOSTON, a few blocks froether amid auto-body shops and restaurant supply stores I found the street, and then the nu itself appeared abandoned Made of yellow brick, its single story squatted behind a six-foot chain-link fence, topped with coils of razor wire Graffiti covered the walls and boarded-up s

Exactly the kind of place the Old Ones would slither into and call ho as I could without drawing attention tolot, which was gated and locked, and along the ay to the front door A wooden sign announced the building was AVAILABLE! and gave the name and phone number of a real estate fir with it the last couple of digits in the phone nu no prospective buyers had looked at this building for a very long time

Across the street a face watched me from the second story of a shborhood, and its residents keep an eye out for each other If anything had been going on in the abandoned factory, someone would have noticed

I crossed the street and went up the short ay to the house’s front steps The concrete as cracked, but petunias sprouted fronomes peeked out from between the flowers One of them, positioned to appear as any visitor reet you with a double-cheekedthe bell

A buzzer sounded inside I didn’t have to ring a second time before a short woman in a flowered housecoat opened the door She looked to be in her late sixties Her gray-and-white hair was pulled back tightly frolers Sharp lines etched her forehead and the corners of her eyes,her look like so now Or ht

"Yeah?"

I spoke to her through the screen of the aluminum stor across the street, and I wondered if you could tellabout it"

"That du cardboard boxes My Salvatore worked there It’s e moved here, so he’d be close to his work Then they closed down the place Sal was out of a job, and ere stuck here Story of o did it close?"