He told Prosser that Asa had heard too much and might go to police.
Prosser solved problems by turning people into pressure points.
Asa became one.
Marin stared at the ledger until the numbers blurred.
“Galt knew what happened to him?”
Rune’s silence answered before his voice did.
“He knew Prosser took an interest in him.”
The pain in Marin’s chest changed shape.
For fourteen months, Galt had watched her tape Asa’s missing-person photograph beside the register.
He had watched her make calls during breaks.
He had seen her cry once in the stockroom when another lead went nowhere.
And every week, he had looked her in the face and said some version of the same thing.
Keep your chin up, kid.
Family takes care of family.
Marin pushed herself away from the table.
Her ribs protested immediately.
Rune stood but did not touch her.
“I need to go there.”
“No.”
She glared at him.
“My brother—”
“May be at a property controlled by the same man who sent armed thieves into your diner.” Rune’s voice stayed calm.
“You can barely walk across this room.”
“I am not staying here while somebody else looks for him.”
Rune studied her for a moment.
Then he took out his phone.
“You’re not staying uninformed.”
He made one call.
The change was immediate.
The quiet man who had sat outside her bedroom door disappeared behind something colder and more precise.
“East Yard,” he said.
“No noise unless they make it necessary.
Find Asa Solis.
Alive if he’s there.
Call me the second you see him.”
He hung up.
Marin gripped the table.
“How long have you known Prosser?”
“Too long.”
“Is he afraid of you?”
Rune looked toward the rain-dark window.
“He understands consequences.”
Marin almost laughed, but her ribs made that impossible.
“Apparently Galt didn’t.”
Rune’s mouth tightened.
“He will.”
They waited twenty-three minutes.
Marin counted every one of them by the second hand on the wall clock.
At minute nine, Rune brought her water.
At minute fourteen, she asked him why he had known her name when he found her.
He hesitated.
“I’d seen you before.”
“Where?”
“At the diner.”
“You ate there?”
“Once.”
