The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers #1)(88)

“Are we still playing tag?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, we are.”

“Do we have to?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Why are you afraid so?”

“Because they’re still playing.” She nodded toward the police officers.

Eddie paused. “I don’t ever want to play this kind of game again.”

“I don’t, either.” She smiled at him as they made their way out of the building with the flow of Mets navy blue and orange. They moved down the sidewalk toward a line of cabs, where a man with dreadlocks, wearing a bright-orange vest, was coordinating who got into which cab.

Skylar turned to Eddie and asked, “Would you be okay taking cab ride number twenty-nine?”

Eddie studied the line of cabs, along with their license-plate numbers. “Twenty-nine is a prime number. I like prime numbers, because they can’t be divided by anything but themselves. Do you like prime numbers?”

“Love them.” She answered playfully, knowing what his reaction would be.

He made his BUZZER sound.

“Will you take cab ride number twenty-nine because it’s a prime number?”

“No, I will because you asked.” He smiled at her briefly.

The man in the vest pointed them toward the cab at the front of the line. Skylar moved toward it, opening the door for Eddie to get in, only to discover that he had moved to the cab behind it. “He wants us to ride in this one, Eddie.”

“I don’t want to ride in that one.” He pointed to the cab behind it in line. “I want to ride in this one.”

“Do you mind telling me why?”

“No, I don’t mind.”

Skylar waited for an explanation as the man in the vest told her they needed to get a move on or lose their turn. It took her another moment to realize she needed to ask Eddie, “Why?”

He pointed to the license plate of the first cab. “All the numbers are even.”

“What’s wrong with even numbers?”

“Other than the number two, even numbers cannot be primes. Twenty-nine is a prime number. It is odd.”

Two of the cabbies farther back in line started to HONK impatiently. Eddie covered his ears in pain. “Tell them to stop honking their horns. It hurts my ears.”

Skylar pleaded, “They will stop honking if you get in the cab. Eddie, please.” To her surprise, he climbed in the door she was holding open for him. Skylar joined him in the back of the cab, which smelled like stale, cheap beer.

Eddie cringed. “This cab smells like that place for guys with no place better to go, except there are no peanut shells on the floor.”

The driver was apologetic, saying that somebody had spilled beer on the floor earlier that night, and he hadn’t had time to clean it up.

Skylar asked Eddie, “Would you like to go directly to your old house, or would you rather get something to eat first?”

Eddie answered without hesitation. “I would like to go directly to my old house. I have only been hungry for a few hours, but I have been waiting to hear my mother’s voice my whole life.”

Skylar gave the driver the address, and he headed for it. She kept a close eye on Eddie, who wouldn’t stop fidgeting. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up too much.”

“How will I know if my hopes are up too much?”

“You need to consider all the possibilities.”

“What are all the possibilities?”

“Well, for example, one possibility is that your father no longer lives there.”

Eddie nodded. “I understand that my father may no longer live there. But the echoes of when he and my mother did live there will still be there.”

“If someone else now lives there, they may not be comfortable allowing us inside, particularly at one in the morning.”

“Why wouldn’t they be comfortable?”

“Would you be comfortable letting a perfect stranger snoop around your room at Harmony House?”

“We are not going to snoop around my old house, Skylar.”

“I know that. But whoever may live there now might not. And we can’t explain exactly what we’re going to do there, either, so as far as any new resident might be concerned, we’ll be snooping around.”

“Why can’t we explain exactly what we are doing there?”

“This is another thing you’re just going to have to trust me on.” She smiled ever so slightly.

Eddie briefly thought about the growing list of things Skylar had asked him to trust her on. “Yes, I understand that if someone else now lives there, they may not be comfortable allowing us inside.”

Skylar nodded reassuringly. “But don’t worry. If that’s the case, I’m sure I can find a way to convince them.”

Eddie smiled and nodded, because he knew the statement was true. “I’m sure you can convince them, too. Look how many things you have convinced me to do that no one has ever been able to convince me of before.”

She nodded. “That’s because you trust me.”

“How do you know I trust you?”

“Through your actions.”

“My actions communicate that I trust you?”

She nodded. “Actions speak louder than words.”