فصل 06 - بخش 11

6

Howie drove with Ralph riding shotgun and the other three in the backseat. The sun was up, and it was going to be another hot one.

‘Just wondering how the cops in Tippit got in touch with you,’ Yune said. ‘I didn’t think anyone in authority knew we were down here.’

‘They don’t,’ Alec replied. ‘If this outsider actually exists, we didn’t want to raise any suspicions with the Boltons about why we’re going in the wrong direction.’

Ralph didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what Holly was thinking at this moment: Every time you and the others talk about the outsider, it’s conditional.

Ralph turned around in his seat. ‘Listen to me now. No more ifs or maybes. For today, the outsider does exist. For today, he can read Claude Bolton’s mind any time he wants to, and unless we know differently, he’s in the Marysville Hole. No more assumptions, just belief. Can you do that?’

For a moment, no one replied. Then Howie said, ‘I’m a defense lawyer, son. I can believe anything.’