"You might want to leave out a few details when you tell them what happened," Callighan muttered, as he continued to walk.
Ryan stirred against his back.
"That girlfriend of yours, especially. She seemed to have a great faith in you." He stepped carefully around an uneven patch of ground. "And you did come for her in the end. You must be looking forward to seeing her."
Ryan understood what he was doing.
Callighan had been keeping him talking whenever his answers grew slower, giving him something to follow besides the pain and the effort of remaining awake. It was the same thing he had done in the basement, though Ryan had not always recognized it then.
He was grateful enough to answer.
"She's not my girlfriend."
Callighan glanced sideways.
"She isn't?"
"No."
"You came all this way for her and ended up in a basement. You can see how I might have misunderstood."
Ryan shifted his head, trying to find a position that did not pull at his neck.
