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Ronan hefted a gas can froreasy container frolionby unifored to make it look as disreputable as possible His tie was knotted with a ged beneath the bottom of his sweater His smile was thin and sharp If his BMW was shark-like, it had learned how from him "Declan’s latest We’reto play nicely with Ronan’s older brother, a senior at Aglionby, but he understood why they had to Freedo, and at the moment, Declan held the keys to it

Ronan traded the fuel can for the digital recorder "He wants to do it tonight because he knows I have class"

The fuel-tank lid for the Ca-loaded license plate, and Ronan watched silently as Gansey sias can, and the license plate

"You could have done this," Gansey told hi up your shirt"

Unsympathetic, Ronan scratched at an old, brown scab beneath the five knotted leather bands he wore around his wrist Last week, he and Ada dolly behind the BMW, and they both still had the ," Gansey said

Sighing, Ronan twitched the recorder toward Gansey "Did you find anything?"

Ronan didn’t sound very interested, but that was part of the Ronan Lynch brand It was impossible to tell how deep his disinterest truly was

Fuel was leeching slowly into Gansey’s expensive chinos, the second pair he’d ruined in a month It wasn’t that he ain, "Things cost money, Gansey" -- it was just that he never seemed to realize the consequences of his actions until too late "So I recorded about four hours of audio and there’s -- soestured to the recorder "Give it a whirl"

Turning to stare out over the interstate, Ronan pressed PLAY For ashrills of crickets Then, Gansey’s voice:

"Gansey," it said

There was a long pause Gansey rubbed a finger slowly along the pocked chroe to hear hi the words

Then, as if from very far away, a female voice, the words hard to make out: "Is that all?"

Ronan’s eyes darted to Gansey, wary

Gansey lifted his finger: Wait Murmured voices, quieter than before, hissed fro clear about them except the cadence: questions and answers And then his diseain:

"That’s all there is"

Ronan cast a glance back over to Gansey beside the car, doing what Gansey thought of as his sh flared nostrils, slow exhale through parted lips

Ronan did not sovers

He stopped the recorder and said, "You’re dripping gas on your pants, geezer"

"Aren’t you going to askwhen I recorded that?"

Ronan didn’t ask He just kept looking at Gansey, which was the sa at a parking lot full of bugs that shouldn’t be alive when it’s this cold overnight, and there was nothing"

Gansey hadn’t really been sure if he’d pick up anything in the parking lot, even if he was in the right place According to the ley hunters he’d spoken to, the ley line so sounds hundreds of miles and dozens of years fro, an unpredictable radio trans on the ley line could be a receiver: a recorder, a stereo, a pair of well-tuned huht the recorder, as the noises were often only audible when played back The strange thing in all this was not the other voices on the player The strange thing was Gansey’s voice: Gansey was quite certain he was not a spirit

"I didn’t say anything, Ronan All night long, I didn’t say anything So what’son the recorder?"

"How did you knoas there?"