Even

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Even Page 34

by Andrew Grant


  Julianne straightened up and looked me straight in the face.

  “You know what I’m going to ask you,” I said.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Where is she?” I said. “Lesley.”

  “How would I know?” she said.

  “Because you work for her.”

  “I don’t. I’m a journalist.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, you do work for Lesley.”

  “Who told you? They’re lying.”

  “I don’t think so. It’s a good source. Your hair.”

  “What the hell has my hair got to do with it?”

  “It smells of coconut. You just washed it.”

  “So?”

  “It smelled the same in Lesley’s cage. When we first met. You told me you’d been in there for three days. No hair smells that fresh after three days. You were a plant. I should have realized at the time.”

  “That’s ridiculous. I got too close. I was kidnapped.”

  “It’s all right. I know what you were doing. It all makes sense, now. Gently pumping me for information, when we talked. Getting us caught, when we escaped. Testing my nerve, at the hotel. What were you planning for tonight? To serve me up as dessert?”

  She didn’t react.

  “Drop the pretense, Julianne. Drop it now. And tell me where she is.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “OK,” I said. “Take a minute. Think carefully. There’s something you have to understand. Lesley killed my friend. For no good reason. She did it just to get back at me. That means there is nothing—nothing—I will not do to find her.”

  “I can’t tell you,” she said. “You know what she’ll do to me.”

  I thought of Tanya’s face, the last time I’d seen her. Her hair, loose, fanned out against the stainless steel. The porcelain wedge under her neck, like a pillow. And the lines of crude blue stitches the pathologist had left when he’d roughly sewn her back together.

  I do, I thought. And it wouldn’t be enough.

  “Is she in the city?” I said. “Tell me that much.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Tell me where, and she’ll be dead by midnight. I guarantee.”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Otherwise I might start thinking, who could have told Lesley about Tanya and me?” I said. “Who knew I was meeting someone from the consulate for dinner that night?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “I might start thinking, do I really need you?” I said. “You just texted someone. I could wait for them. Let them take me to her.”

  Still she kept silent.

  “So let me make this as simple as possible,” I said, raising the gun. “Tell me where Lesley is. Or I’ll shoot you in the head.”

  She gave me an address in the Bronx.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Now, let me check one last thing. Just then, did I say, ‘Or I’ll shoot you?’ ”

  “Yes, you did,” she said. “Why?”

  “I’m sorry about that. I should have said, ‘And . . . ’”

  I pulled the trigger, twice, then checked my watch. It was eleven minutes before 9:00 P.M. Over three hours to midnight. It wasn’t far to the Bronx. Plenty of time to keep the other promise I’d made.

  Table of Contents

  COVER

  TITLE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

 

 

 


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