The Cold Kiss by John Rector Page B

were tears on her cheek and she wiped them away with the back of her hand. “That money belongs to someone, and they’ll come after it until they find it. For all we know they’re right behind us.”
    That reminded me of the diner and Syl asking if anyone had come in while he was in the bathroom. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, and I still didn’t.
    I wouldn’t let myself.
    “We can’t keep it, Nate, we just can’t, okay?”
    She was crying, and I let her go on until she’d calmed down enough for me to get close, then I took her hands and said, “All we’re doing is talking. There’s nothing we can do about any of this tonight, so we have some time to think everything through.”
    “There’s nothing to think through,” she said. “This isn’t worth getting killed over.”
    I smiled. “Two million dollars?”
    Sara pushed past me, but I wrapped my arm around her waist, stopping her.
    “Don’t joke about this, Nate.”
    I told her I was sorry, over and over, and when she believed I was telling the truth she leaned into me and put her head against my chest.
    We stood like that for a while then I said, “What if there isn’t anyone out there?”
    “Nate—”
    “Just think about it,” I said. “What if there’s no one coming?”
    “There is, I know there is.”
    “But what if there’s not? What if we end up handing all this money over to the cops for no reason?”
    She looked at me like she was about to argue. Instead, she said, “There’s no way to know for sure. We just have to assume.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if we turn the money in and we’re wrong, at least we’re still alive.”
    “And we lose the money.”
    “It’s better than getting killed. If we keep the money we’ll always be looking over our shoulders.” She paused. “I don’t want to live like that.”
    “Then help me think of a way to keep it that’s safe,” I said. “There has to be one.”
    Sara shook her head. “Once we tell the police about Syl, they’ll have our names on record. If someone’s looking for the money, all they’ll have to do is read the report. We were the last ones to see him alive. It won’t be hard to figure out what we did.”
    She was right. Once the police knew, it would be easy to track us down. Still, I wasn’t ready to give in.
    I went over all the options I could think of, but none of them felt right. After a while, I got up and walked into the bathroom and dropped my cigarette in the toilet. I watched it circle the bowl for a long time.
    When I came back, I thought I had the answer.
    Sara was standing at the window and staring out into the darkness. I came up behind her and put my hands on her shoulders.
    “I think I have an idea,” I said.
    I felt her shoulders tense. “Nate,” she said. “Please, don’t—”
    “Hear me out.”
    She let the curtain close then she turned and looked at me. She wasn’t smiling. “I know it’s a lot of money, but we can’t keep it. We need to let it go and move on.”
    “Will you listen?”
    Sara paused. She looked at me for a moment then sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
    I moved one of the chairs over, then sat down and said, “Let’s go over our options.”
    “Nate, come on.”
    I ignored her.
    “You think someone is out there looking for this money, and if we keep it we’ll be in danger, right?”
    “This is pointless.”
    “Let me finish.”
    Sara looked away.
    “We also can’t keep the money because once the police are involved, we’ll be listed in their report and easy to track down.”
    Sara shook her head. “Just tell me your idea.”
    I hesitated, then said, “What if we don’t tell anyone at all?”

12
    When I opened the passenger door, a plate of snow slid off the side of the car and crumpled on the ground by my feet. Inside, the overhead light came on, yellow and bright. I reached in and shut it off then stepped back and looked around to see if anyone was watching.
    The wind had died and now the