Epilogue

EPILOGUE

S alt dried on his skin as he sat on the deck at his favorite café overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with a mug of black coffee in one hand and his laptop open to a blank Word document.

A cool shadow fell across his shoulder, blocking out the sun's glare. "He found her."

Absently, he tapped the spacebar with his thumb. Thought about writing a grocery list instead. Groceries were easier than whodunits. Groceries didn't require revisions. "You doubted him?"

Sea air blew pin-sized holes into the swarming darkness, causing it to recoil, which was the whole reason this quaint coastal town appealed to him. Well. That and author photos taken against a beachy backdrop fit his pseudonymous aesthetic.

As light pierced the tattered black outline, the darkness shrank back. "What does he remember?"

"Hmm." He made a vague gesture the waitress mistook as a request for a refill. "Not much."

"And her?"

"Even less."

"Good." A briny gust finished diffusing the ominous cloud. "You understand what's at stake."

"I'm not likely to forget. Not when you keep dropping in to remind me." He drained his mug in one long draw before the waitress reached him. "Only the end of the world as we know it."