Long Lost - By Harlan Coben Page 0,43

the exit.

When we entered the lobby, my phone vibrated. Win sent the following text:

BRING TERESE TO THE PENTHOUSE. THEN GO TO ROOM 118.

ALONE.

The two seconds later, Win added:

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TEXTING BACK SOME WITTY ALBEIT HOMOPHOBIC COMEBACK VIS-А-VIS THE "ALONE" COMMENT.

Win was the only person I knew who was more verbose in texts than in person. I took Terese up to the penthouse. There was a laptop with Internet access. I pointed to it. "Maybe you can start digging into this Save the Angels charity."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Downstairs. Win wants to talk to me."

"I can't go?"

"He said alone."

"I'm not really sure I like that idea," Terese said.

"Neither am I, but I find it's better not to question him."

"How crazy is he?"

"Win is sane. He is just overly rational. He sees things in black and white." Then I added: "He tends to be more of an ends-justify-means sort of guy."

"His means can be pretty extreme," she said.

"Yes."

"I remember that from when I helped you find that donor."

I said nothing.

"Win isn't trying to spare my feelings, is he?"

"Win and sparing a woman's feelings," I said, making a scale with my hands. "I don't think that's a factor."

"You better go."

"Yep."

"Will you tell me what happens?"

"Probably not. If Win wants to keep something from you, it's for the best. You have to trust that, I guess."

She nodded and stood. "I'm going to wash up and then hit the Internet."

"Okay."

She started for the bedroom. I reached for the door to the corridor.

"Myron?"

I turned toward her. She stood facing me full. She was beautiful and vulnerable and strong and she stood like she was readying to take a blow and I wanted to jump in the way and protect her.

"What?" I asked.

"I love you," Terese said.

She said it just like that. Facing me full, beautiful and vulnerable and strong. Something in my chest rose and took flight. I stood there, frozen, the gift of speech temporarily taken away from me.

"I know the timing sucks and I don't want it to interfere with what we're doing now. But either way, if Miriam is alive or if this is all some horrible practical joke, I want you to know: I love you. And when this is over, however it turns out, I want more than anything to give you and me a try."

I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again. "I'm kinda with someone."

"I know. I guess my timing double-sucks. But that's okay. If you love her, then that's that. If you don't, I'm here."

Terese didn't wait for a response. She turned and opened the bedroom door and vanished inside.
Chapter 18

I staggered to the elevator.

How had that Snow Patrol song put it a couple of years back? Those three words, they say so much, they're not enough.

Baloney. They were enough.

I thought about Ali in Arizona. I thought about Terese standing there and telling me that she loved me. Terese was probably right-the best response was to not let it interfere. But it was there. And it was gnawing at me.

The blinds were drawn in room 118.

I reached for the light switch and then thought better of it. Win sat in a plush chair. I could hear the clink of ice in whatever he was drinking. Alcohol never seemed to affect Win, but this was awfully early.

I sat across from him. We have been friends for a very long time. We met as college students at Duke University. I remember seeing his photograph in the freshman face book the first day I arrived on campus. The entry listed him as Windsor Horne Lockwood III from some obnoxious-sounding prep school on the Main Line in Philadelphia. He had the perfect hair and the haughty expression. My father and I had just lugged up all my stuff to my fourth-floor walk-up. Typical of my father. He drove me to North Carolina from New Jersey, never bitching once, insisting on carrying the heaviest items himself, and we sat down and took a break and I started paging through the face book and I pointed to Win's picture and said, "Hey, Dad, look at this guy. I bet I never even see him in my four years."

I was wrong, of course.

For a long time I felt Win was indestructible. He had killed many, but none that didn't seem to deserve it, and yes, I know how disturbing it is to say that. But age has a way of creeping up on all of us. What seems eccentric and edgy when