AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Myron kissed Terese. “I have to head back,” he said.
“And here I got a late checkout at the hotel.”
“Or I can stay a little longer.”
“No, you can’t.”
“No, I can’t.”
“You have to go back to New York and, I don’t know, catch a serial killer or something.”
“Even though you don’t like it.”
Terese put her arms around his neck. “You tilt at windmills, my love. I’ve been the beneficiary of that. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”
“The other being my prowess in the sack?”
“Or your susceptibility to self-delusion.”
“Ouch.”
She kissed him again. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Same.”
“Please be careful.”
“I will.”
Myron got in his car and crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey. To people outside the area, New Jersey is a mystery; to people inside the area, New Jersey is an enigma. In truth, New Jersey is a dense, jigsaw-puzzle, defined-by-being-undefined mass squeezed between two large cities. The top half—northeast New Jersey—is the suburbs of New York. The bottom half—southwestern New Jersey—is the suburbs of Philadelphia. Sure, there are edgy beach towns and proof that despite the industrial, postmodern hideousness or the maze of crumbling factories and dilapidated warehouses, New Jersey still earns the moniker “The Garden State.” It’s all there. But most travelers are passing through and really, what are you going to put on your major interstates—ugly oil refineries or pretty farmland?
Myron hit a number he almost never hit. PT answered on the third ring.
“Are you calling to apologize for that press conference?” PT asked.
“No, not really. Something occurred to me.”
“Like an epiphany?”
“Just like an epiphany.”
“And you’ve deigned to share your epiphany with me?”
“And only you. For now.”
“So tell me what it is.”
“You set this up,” Myron said.
“That’s your epiphany?”
“It is.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Sure,” Myron said. “The FBI realized that a serial killer was at work, but someone—probably the new director you don’t like—wanted to keep it quiet. He knew that it would be a huge brouhaha, what with all the innocent people falsely convicted and serving time in jail.”
