He found her. He found her.
And now I could go to Tor.
When my arms closed around him, Noc had hesitated then he’d given me a tight squeeze before he pulled his head back, looked down at me and studied my face with a weird intensity before he let me go, wrote down the address, grabbed my hand and pulled me through the Station.
And now we were headed that way.
“Jesus, babe, I cannot believe you convinced your folks and your friend this shit is true,” Noc said quietly and I looked at him.
“It is true,” I stated. “And, by the way, they’ve also met Tor, the other Tor who is not you so they will so totally corroborate what I told you when you see them. That is, before you see me disappear to another realm.”
And this was true, so true, I should have thought of it before; so true, I should have thought of it two weeks ago and tried contacting Noc then.
Alas, I didn’t. But now, we were on our way. So, God willing, all’s well that ends well.
He glanced at me. Then he glanced back at the road, shaking his head.
Then he muttered an unconvinced, “Unh-hunh.”
Whatever. He’d see soon enough.
I hoped.
We fell into silence and I broke that silence because I was scared, nervous and excited so I had to do something.
“Thanks for doing this,” I told him.
“We get this shit done then we get you to someone who can really do somethin’ to help you, then you can thank me,” he muttered.
“I’m not crazy,” I told him something I knew he’d never believe until seeing made him believe.
Again, I hoped.
“Yeah, babe.” He was still muttering.
See. He didn’t believe me. He totally thought I was crazy.
Whatever.
“I’m sorry you’re dragged into this,” I said. “I’ve been cleaning up Cora’s messes for awhile and from everything I gather, she’s unpleasant.”
“Unh-hunh,” he mumbled again. “She’s unpleasant.” The last he said like he was humoring a small child.
I ignored his tone and kept talking.
“So, well, it sucks you met her and you’re caught up in all this mess. I mean, maybe not, seeing as she helped you bring down an illegal gambling racket, though, she kind of didn’t know she was doing it. Still, you did it but, you know, sorry if she was cold or unpleasant or a bitch.”
Noc was silent.
I was not.
“How did you meet her, can I ask?”
“Baby,” he said gently, “you were there.”
“No I wasn’t.”
“Right,” he muttered.