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“Sorry, no,” Neddie said, passing her “Good-bye,” he said “Al you”

A crowd of people piled out of the hotel, and i in the street He heard a panickyhelp” Then, “Oh one”

As the crowd dispersed, Neddie glihed with pleasure Job well done And now, he had to go

He walked at a normal pace up Stockton Street, crossed Union Square, nondescript in his hoodie and jeans in the dark He ditched out onto Post Street, only dimly lit at this hour, and then Saint Vartan’s loomed He walked fast but not rushed, and ten minutes later the brick walls of the Hyde and Seek Loony Bin were in view

The Admin block was dark There was an even darker void between the walls of the North Tower and the Walgreens, and Neddie slipped inside that shaft of blackness He was as good as invisible But inside his body Neddie was glowing like a neon-lit night

Mission accomplished

Neddie was Safe And Neddie was

Good Very, Very Good

CHAPTER 61

I WAS WITH Claire in the autopsy suite, staring down at a huical bowl

The victi nearby on a table, chest opened from her clavicle down, her face in repose

Claire was saying, “This heart could run a marathon by itself”

“I’ll take your word for it What do you know about the circumstances?”

“Last night around ten she aiting outside the Admiral Dewey Hotel for her husband to check out They had a plane to catch Going to Chicago Husband cas, saw a crowd in the street and his wife on the ground in the middle of it First responders arrived within five ent ith Sarah in the bus

“Eent was DOA, looked like cardiac arrest The husband told the attending physician that his as only forty-one That she had just aced a full checkup As far as he or she knew, she did not have any indications of heart disease”