Page 113 of The Dead Come to Stay

“No, youguessedit was. Foley made trouble. I am trying to clean it up. Why can’t you understand?”

Jo gaped at him. The utterance surpassed irony.

“You pretended to be a man who is dead and now you’vetrapped me in a high-rise so you can do paperwork. How am I supposed tounderstand?”

Burnhope mastered himself, then crouched next to Lina on the sofa.

“You like Lina, don’t you? I help people like her. We sponsor them—there are things we can do. But Foley didn’t want to play by anyone’s rules.”

“Your rules?”

“Yes,myrules. He could have left Lina alone. But no.” He stood up again. “Now I have to fix that, too.”

Jo was clutching her thumbs hard enough to hurt them and an internal tremor was causing her right foot to bounce uncontrollably—but she wasn’t the only one feeling restless. The Geordie had stepped back into view.

“Hadawy Burn’ope—gan on with it!” he sneered. “?’Av it away before somebody naps us—and gis me the money!”

“For God’s sake, all of you bequiet,” Burnhope snapped. “And you, just do your job.”

“Was his job to kidnap me?” Jo asked, turning to face the hulking figure. “Did he pay you to do this?”

“Nar!”

“That was just a freebie, then? Part of the service?” Jo shouldnotbe speaking this way; he’d tried to kill MacAdams with a pipe, and he presently had a knife on his belt. But her mouth just kept talking. “You work for him, is that it? Do his dirty work?”

“I divvent wark for ’im!”

“Then whodoyou work for?” she demanded. He adjusted his posture, somehow looking bigger and more square than before.

“Neebody.”

“Then let me out!” Jo said it as firmly as she could, though her voice sounded small and strained.

Burnhope grasped Jo by her arm and turned her about.

“Quiet—can’t you bequiet?” he demanded, but the Geordie seemed up for answering now.

“What divvy ye wanna wi’ her, anyhow?” he asked. “Who is she, e’en?”

“Shut up!”Burnhope shouted—really shouted. She could see the vein standing out in his neck. Then he took a breath. “I have loose ends to tie up. That’s all. Then Lina can go.”

“Just Lina? Why? You’re guessing she’s not going to go to police?” Jo hadn’t actually made the connection until after she’d said it... But it was true. “Oh my God.”

“Are you physically incapable of silence?” he demanded, coming toward her. Jo backed up, keeping to the raised walkway.

“You know she won’t tell anyone. But me—but me?” Jo’s words were coming faster, trying to keep up with her heartbeat. “You don’t have anything over me.”

“We can talk about this,” he hissed, still approaching. “Be reasonable.”

Jo glanced over his head; Lina stood in the sunken center, watching wide-eyed.

“Or what?” she asked. Because this wasn’t about kidnapping. And this wasn’t about Lina. Jo was the real liability. She’d backed up onto the raised floor that circled the room. There weren’t any windows she could jump out of this time.

“I can fix this,”Burnhope insisted. “I can offer you—what you want. Just come here. Can you do that? I need to handle something.”

“Did you handle Foley?” she challenged, her back against the trophy wall. He looked ready to lift himself up by his own hair.

“Foleyis why any of this happened! Don’t you see?” He was moving forward again, reaching for her.