Chapter 12. A Page Torn from the Gate Book

Josie's POV

My father's truck was gone by eight. By nine, Corran found me at the pot sink and told me something that made my hands go cold.

"Your father signed in at the north gate at a quarter to seven," he said, low, with his back to the line cooks. "Name, plates, pack. That's the rule for every visitor."

"So?"

"So the gate book goes to the Guard office every night. And since Tuesday, ma'am, the Guard office belongs to Lord Marsh." He looked at me with his steady, plain face. "The chancellor reads those books himself. He likes to know who comes and goes."

Hugh Marsh would open that book tonight and see Walt Morrow's name. The morning after I'd started asking the kitchen about Kincaids. The morning after his nose had told him the king stopped drinking his tonic.