It was not a question.
She stared.
“How do you know my name?”
Hammer looked at her.
“Luis talked about you.”
“You rode with him.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Years.”
Rachel felt anger beginning to move beneath confusion.
“You were with him the night he died?”
Hammer looked toward the road.
Then at Mateo.
His answer came slowly.
“I saw him that night.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
The parking lot disappeared.
The bikers.
The diner.
The motorcycles.
Everything.
She heard only one sentence.
I saw him that night.
“You were there?”
“Not at the crash.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Hammer’s jaw tightened.
“I saw him before.”
“When?”
“Couple hours.”
Rachel stared.
“For three years, nobody told me that.”
Hammer said nothing.
“You knew my husband.”
“Yes.”
“You saw him the night he died.”
“Yes.”
“And you never came to my house.”
Hammer’s face carried no defensiveness.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Luis made me promise not to.”
Rachel laughed once.
Sharp.
Disbelieving.
“My husband was dead.”
“I know.”
“And you kept a promise to a dead man instead of speaking to his wife?”
“Yes.”
Dean shifted uncomfortably.
Hammer did not.
Rachel wanted to slap him.
Instead:
“What promise?”
Hammer looked toward Mateo.
The boy still held his key.
Hammer said:
“Not here.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“No.”
“You do not get to tell me not here after three years.”
Hammer absorbed that.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
He walked toward the Harley.
Rachel followed.
Hammer opened the right saddlebag.
He moved aside a rolled jacket.
Tools.
A water bottle.
Then reached deeper.
His hands emerged holding a rectangular metal box.
Old.
Gray.
Dented on one corner.
Rust stained the hinge.
Mateo whispered:
“Mom.”
Rachel looked at him.
His face had changed.
“What?”
“I know that.”
Hammer stopped.
Rachel looked from Mateo to the box.
“You've seen it?”
Mateo nodded.
“Dad had it in the garage.”
Rachel felt colder.
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“Before he died.”
“He showed me.”
“What did he say?”
Mateo stared at the box.
“He said it was for when we moved.”
Rachel’s pulse jumped.
“We weren't moving.”
Mateo looked confused.
“Yes, we were.”
“No.”
“Dad said.”
Rachel looked toward Hammer.
He did not seem surprised.
“What is this?”
Hammer carried the box to an outdoor table near the diner.
The bikers followed at a distance.
Rachel and Mateo came closer.