Page 120 of Two Kinds of Stranger

Two minutes ago, Gabriel Lake had left the pizza place on the ground floor, carrying two large pie boxes and two one-gallon bottles of water. He’d turned the corner, used his key and entered the building on the south side.

Logan was waiting to see if any of the other windows became illuminated.

He guessed that they would not.

He guessed, from the two large pizzas and the two bottles of water, that Lake was visiting someone who was home already.

Someone who already had a light on.

He watched the lit windows carefully, mindful to allow his peripheral vision to pick up any other lights suddenly being turned on in the building.

But no other lights came on.

Instead, he saw what he had been looking for.

The blinds parted on the third window along, on the third floor on the south side.

And Gabriel Lake checked the street below.

This was a safe house.

To keep Joe Novak hidden.

As if to wash away any nagging doubts Logan may have had, the woman investigator, Bloch, pulled up outside the building, parking next to Lake’s old Pontiac. She got out, retrieved a man’s gray suit from the back seat, still in the plastic from the dry-cleaners, and entered the building.

Joe Novak would need a suit for his court appearance.

Logan dropped his coffee in the trash and felt that strange sensation again.

He scanned the street. The prickles of tension crept up the small of his back.

That feeling again that he was being watched.

He told himself he was paranoid. It was the first time he had played the game having so much to lose. It was just fear. He told himself he should welcome this feeling. It would help keep him sharp.

Logan walked a few blocks before disappearing into the subway, heading home.

He ate dinner with Grace that night, although he onlymanaged a few mouthfuls out of politeness. Logan was too tense to eat. He smiled and told her the pasta was delicious, but somehow he knew she wasn’t buying the false praise.

While they cleared the plates away together, she finally relented.

‘What’s wrong?’

She asked it flat out in that way which neutralized any thought of a lie in response.

‘Things are very difficult at work. I need to clear up some problems tonight, or I won’t sleep.’

‘Are you sure that’s all it is?’ she asked, grabbing him round the waist. ‘Are you sure you’re not getting tired of me?’

He cupped her face in his hands, kissed her, felt her cool lips against his, then said, ‘I am doing everything for you, now. For us. So we can be together more.’

‘I love you,’ she said, and her hands slipped inside his sweater, her fingers clasping his back.

If she had done this when they’d first met, Logan would have recoiled. Now, he didn’t mind. Not even when he felt her fingers tracing the scars on his back when she held him in the night.

‘I love you more than I have ever loved anyone,’ said Logan, from the heart.

‘I’ll be here when you get back,’ said Grace.