Cold Manifest

Six months after the night on the square, Cass Rennick answers the phones at a small Antwerp security firm and waits for the judgment in her own case.

Then a shipping clerk brings her a dead colleague's diary. The boarding agent was found in the dock, drunk, the police say. He never drank on a call night. Under six calls in two years he had written the same four words in pencil.

Washington makes her an offer that runs until Thursday.

In the port, a heavy-lift ship must sail on Thursday night's high water. Her chief officer has signed one lie and does not mean to sign another. And the man at her rail belongs to a wet night in Brussels, the night Cass's asset died.