Chapter 18: Material Disclosure

The clinic printer announced its death by printing CONFIDENTIAL across three sheets and swallowing the fourth. The ghost regarded it from between two filing cabinets. "It has understood the assignment." "It does this when frightened," Jo said. "Of what?" "Work." Callum put his hard case on the only clear corner of Jo's desk. The office had room for the desk, two dented cabinets, the printer, and whichever person agreed not to breathe. Takeout cartons occupied the visitor's chair. Buyout files covered the floor in disciplined stacks. He had brought two drives. Jo opened the first. Client names had become numbers. Photographs had been cropped. Occupant interviews were gone. She read one line aloud. "Client Fourteen hired you to remove Object B from Property Seven." "Object B was cemetery marble." "Should I file suit against the number fourteen?" The ghost leaned over Jo's shoulder, Callum's coat wrapped around her narrow frame.…