Chapter 45 Chapter Forty-Five

Brené McKenzie packs her backpack and throws out her second cup of cocoa of the day. Thinking of Graham and their first date again.And then the last time they went out alone—it was at a woods club off Route 32, dancing until midnight.That was a week before she found out he was "having an affair." Why don't you ask me to come with you... Why didn't he ask her to go to a therapy session with her? "Hey, Boo?" A woman's voice interrupted her recollection. "How about going to Bennigan later?" asked Jane Stiles, also a police officer, and she went on to say, "I'll see Reggie later. Oh, that pretty guy from State Farm, who Go too. The man I told you about."

Bryn whispered, "I'm not divorced, Jane." The two words "not yet" were drawn out. "I'm just saying he's a handsome guy. It's just information. I didn't ask you to have a banquet." "He sells insurance." "We need insurance. That's not a problem." "Thanks, but I have work to do. Buy me an insurance policy." "funny." Brené Mackenzie was thinking of Hart now, of the Harbor Inn.She walks down the corridor.Walking up and down this corridor so often, she was a little bit blind to it.On the walls of the hallway are photos of officers who died in the line of duty.Four police officers had died in the line of duty over the past eighty-seven years, but Eric Mons' picture hadn't hung up yet.The county keeps these pictures in expensive frames.The first officer to die in the line of duty still had a mustache.He had been shot in connection with the Northfield, Minnesota, train robbery.

She passed another county map, a large one, and stopped, taking a look at the blue patch that represented Lake Montaigne.She is asking herself, think about it, is what I am going to do right or wrong? Then she laughed.Why bother to ask this question?It's fine.I've made up my mind. She took out the key from her pocket, opened the door and walked outside into the beautiful and bright afternoon. Is he really a murderer? That is our understanding. Michelle Kepler was driving through a seedy Milwaukee neighborhood, heading toward Lake Michigan.She said to her son, "All you have to do is walk up to that woman and say you're lost. She'll park there, and when she gets out of the car, you go up and say that. 'I'm lost. Yes.' Say it again."

"I got lost." "Fine. I'll show her to you when the time comes. Watch your face, you know, look really unhappy. Can you do that? Do you know how to act unhappy?" "Hmm!" Brad said. She said angrily, "Don't say you know if you don't know. Say it again, do you know how to act unhappy?" "have no idea." "Unhappy is the way I look when you do something wrong and let me down. Do you get it?" He nodded quickly.This time, he understood. "Very good." She smiled. In downtown Milwaukee, Michelle's car passed the Harbor Inn and then around the back of the block.Go back to the hotel again.The parking lot was only half full.It's five o'clock in the afternoon.Brené McKenzie was still half an hour away.

"good." "What did you say, Mommy?" "Hush." She circled around again, then parked in an open space on the street, twenty feet from the parking lot. "We're going to wait for that woman to drive in before we do what we're going to do, she's going to park somewhere over there. See? . . . Fine. Then you and I get out of the car. I'll go around that way Over there, from the back. You walk right up to her and knock on her window. Tell her you're lost and scared. She'll get out of the car. What are you going to say to her?" "I got lost."

"anything else?" "Fear." "What should you look like?" "unhappy." "Very good." She gave him a big smile as a reward, and messed up his hair. "Then Mommy's going to... talk to her for a while and then we'll run back to the car and go home to Sam. Do you like Sam?" "Yeah, he's funny." "Do you like him more than Mommy?" The little boy's hesitation was like a hot iron on her skin. "No." She put aside her jealousy as much as possible.Time to focus. Michelle checked the place.Occasionally, a car passed by, a customer came out of the small restaurant across the street, and a local old man walked slowly on the sidewalk.Other than that, no one else was around.

"Now, stop talking and turn off the radio." Then her phone rang.She looked at the text message and frowned.It was from a friend in Milwaukee.The content is concise and to the point.The man had just heard that Gordon Potts had died in Eau Claire about twenty minutes before. Bizarre accident, said the text message. Michelle's face tightened.What an accident, what a fucking joke.Hart did it.But it's also good news for Michelle.With Hart missing, she always felt uneasy in public in Milwaukee.Now she knew he was out of town, at least for the moment. I don't know if it's God or luck smiling at her.

When the appointed time came, she saw a Kennesaw County Police car pull into the car park of the Harbor Hotel.Her palms began to sweat. God or luck... "Okay, Brad." Michelle snapped the car lock and walked out.Her son emerged from the other side of the car. "Mummy's going to go around there," she said softly, "and I'm going to get behind that woman. Don't look at me. Just pretend I'm not there. Do you understand?" He nodded. "Don't look at me as I walk towards that car. Say it again." "I'm not looking at you."

"Because if you look at me, that woman will take you away and put you in jail. That's the kind of woman she is. I love you so much, and I don't want that to happen. I did it for you. Do you know how much I have suffered for you and your sister?" "Know." She hugged him. "Okay, go now and tell her what I taught you. Remember 'unhappy'." As the boy walked toward the car, Michelle crouched and slid past the line of parked cars.From the pocket of her leather jacket she took a Glock, a new one, bought by Sam Rolfe, who had given up the old one and replaced it with this new one.The old one was really nice, I got it from Neiman Marcus, but it's completely ruined.She walked through the woods that cold night in April with the gun in her pocket.