Chapter 69. The Old Man

JACOB

The camp was ready, and after making sure everything was in order, I decided to talk to the boy before interrogating the old man again.

“It’s good that you try to get some sleep,” I said, sitting on one of the logs that were there. The boy made an effort not to fall asleep in his tent; he was only at the door keeping watch.

“If I fall asleep, he will catch me,” he wrote in his notebook, with his shaky handwriting that was difficult for me to understand.

“Do you believe that?” I asked. “If he tries to escape, he will be dead.”

“He is not afraid of death,” he wrote, looking at me with terror in his eyes. I had never seen such a thing, not even in Mirna.

“But death will be final if he tries to run,” I clarified. “Does your grandfather have any kind of vice?”

That information would be useful to me if he could provide it, as I had noticed several addict-like traits in his personality.

“Alcohol,” he wrote cautiously. I sensed that he h