“Nothing. I had a dream about you.” Bruce’s voice was thin, phlegmy. “You were standing in a field. All alone. There were birds circling. You looked tired, Ray. Really tired.”
Then he saw her. A figure standing fifty meters down the beach, facing the waves. Long dark hair, white dress. He’d seen her before — in a motel room after a hit gone wrong, in the rearview mirror after a midnight burial, in the corner of his eye during every moment of stillness he’d ever had.
He thought about Carlo’s little girl. About Bruce’s dream. About the detective on the TV who kept talking to a ghost.
His phone buzzed. A text from his brother, Bruce: “You awake?” Mr Inbetween S02E08 See You In Your Dreams 1080...
He buzzed Chloe’s apartment.
Ray didn’t deny it. He’d taken Chloe to a diner last week. She’d noticed the bruise on his knuckles, the way he scanned every room for exits. She’d asked if he was a bouncer. He said yes. She laughed and said, “You’ve got sad eyes for a bouncer.”
His phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number: “New job. Warehouse in Botany. 8 p.m. Don’t be late.” “Nothing
“Yeah. I promise.”
Ray rubbed his face. His hand smelled faintly of gun oil and the cheap soap from Carlo’s bathroom.
“Yeah?” Her voice was groggy, soft.
“I know,” Ray said. “But I’m here.”
Ray didn’t answer for a moment. He looked at the TV screen, where a detective was staring into a mirror, whispering a dead partner’s name.
“Then why are you still here?”