Free The Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory

it over, and I’ll sign it tonight.”
    “Tonight,” Rhonda said. She got up from her chair and came around the desk, opened her arms. “Don’t look so worried, honey. You’re doing the right thing. Now give Aunt Rhonda a hug.”
    His father was still sleeping when Rhonda and Everett dropped him off at the house. Pax stood beside the couch for a long time, watching Harlan’s huge chest rise and fall, jowls shuddering with each snore.
    Just below his father’s collarbone a patch of skin glistened in the lamplight. A small white blister, too small for the earlier siphoning, had split.
    It would be a simple thing, Pax thought. Just dip a fingertip in the wet from the blister. He wouldn’t even have to wake the old man.
    Paxton turned out the lamp. He made his way through the dark to the guest bedroom, put Rhonda’s folder under the bed, and lay down. His father snored like a misfiring engine. In the dark, with the door open between them, it sounded as if Harlan were lying beside him.

Chapter 5
    D EKE STOOD OUTSIDE the bathroom door, not listening. After several minutes, he said, “Honey?”
    Donna didn’t answer.
    “Want me to hold the cup?” He made the same joke every time.
    He had to be in Masonville in forty minutes, and he didn’t want to be the last one into the courthouse. The last one to walk past all those cops.
    Finally the sound of the toilet flushing and water running in the sink. Another minute passed.
    “Donna …”
    She opened the door. “Standing there don’t speed things up,” she said, and handed him an orange plastic cup with a white lid. It was uncomfortably warm.
    “Uh, don’t we have a bag or something?”
    She shook her head, pretending exasperation, and led him into the kitchen. She found a plastic bag, tucked the cup into it, and cinched the bag tight. “There you go. Nobody’ll suspect you’re smuggling pee.”
    “On the street they call it Troll Gold.”
    That got her to laugh. “Too bad you can’t sell it,” she said.Then, “They’re probably not going to ask about the money, but if they do—”
    “They’re not going to ask about the money. That’s all done through administration. We’re only a few weeks late. The bank’s supposed to call me soon.”
    They’d already run through the second mortgage on the house. He’d applied for a loan through Alpha Furniture, his business, but the bank hadn’t gotten back to them yet on whether it had been approved.
    “Okay, then. You’ve got your envelope?”
    He patted his front breast pocket. “Right here next to my heart.”
    “If you leave those somewhere—”
    “Have I ever lost them?”
    “You do, don’t bother to come back,” she said.
    “I’ll guard them with my life.” She followed him to the front door. The hall clock showed that it was a little past 8:20—he’d have to haul ass. “Hey, I may stop by and see Paxton afterward if I get done early at the shop.”
    “Okay…”
    He heard the skepticism in her voice and turned. “What?”
    “Are you sure you two were best friends?” Donna said. “You and Jo, that makes sense. But Paxton … I just don’t see it.”
    “He’s different than he was,” Deke said.
    “He’s skittish is what he is. All the time you’re talking to him he’s got one foot out the door.”
    “That’s not like him. Back then …” He shrugged. Before the Changes, Paxton had been sure of himself. Cocky. He had the money, the toys, the big house—what Deke used to think was a big house, anyway. And Deke had been happy just to be hisfriend. “I don’t know. He’s a little lost, maybe. It can’t be easy to come back here.”
    “Maybe he’s in the closet.”
    “What? No.”
    “Why not? Have you asked him?”
    “No.” Then: “I don’t know. I don’t know if Paxton would know himself.” He shook his head. “Listen, I better get going or I’m going to miss the meeting.”
    “Hey,” she said. She turned him around, then bent her head and kissed him hard on