Delilah Haze's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

Dex was gone. Delilah came to the diner at closing and found his rag on the counter, his napkins scattered, his stool empty. The manager said Dex had bolted after two men in suits left cards on the counter and asked when the late shift ended. Delilah's chest went tight. The men were tracing the leak, and Dex was the loose thread. If they found him first, he'd lead them straight to her. She had to reach him before they did. A scruffy cat with one eye watched her from the dish rack. Under it, wedged between two plates, sat a folded napkin. Dex's cramped pen ran across it: a street name she didn't know, and one word. Library. She grabbed it and ran. The library was a squat wooden building with neat windows and a red door. Inside, a woman in a cardigan sorted returns with gloved hands. Delilah had never met her, but Dex's napkin had sent her here, so this had to be the one he trusted. The woman looked up over her bifocals. "You're not here for books," Petra said. It wasn't a question. "A busboy sent me. Dex. Did he come through?" Petra set down a book. "An hour ago. Shaking. He said men were following him. I told him to sit at the table out back and wait." She pulled off one glove, finger by finger. "I hide things in books. Sixteen of them, spread across the branches. Financial records. The same man you're chasing, I'd guess." Delilah's breath caught. Someone else had the same fire. "Then you're who I've been looking for." "Maybe." Petra's voice stayed flat. "The boy first. He won't last out there alone." They went through the back door. A wooden picnic table sat in the yard. Dex was under it, knees to his chest, folding a napkin so hard it tore. When he saw Delilah, he crawled out. "They saw my face," he said. "At my sister's building. I ran here. I don't have anywhere left." Delilah knelt. "You're not going anywhere alone. You stay with her." She looked at Petra. "Can you keep him?" Petra studied Dex, then nodded once. "The basement has a cot. No one signs in. No one asks." She helped him up by the elbow. "He stays. You keep moving." Delilah felt the knot in her chest loosen. Dex was off the street. The trail to her had gone cold, at least tonight. She had found more than a hiding place. She had found someone building the same case from a different room. But Petra stopped her at the door. "Those men came to the diner. Now the boy's here. If they trace him this far, they trace everything I've hidden." She pulled her glove back on. "You didn't hide a loose end. You moved it into my library."