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I MISSED YOU, Janie.”
Waller took her hand.
“I’m sure you had plenty to keep you busy.”
“If I may inquire, where did you go today?”
Reggie drew a shallow breath and said, “I went to Les Baux-de-Provence to look at the Goya exhibit.”
His smile disappeared. “That is most unfortunate. As I explained, I was hoping to take you there myself.”
“I’m sorry,” she said curtly.
“And you went alone?”
“Evan—”
“I see. I’m sure you two had a wonderful time,” he said with a trace of bitterness.
“Look, I’m sorry. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. There are lots of other sites we can visit around here.”
This seemed to bolster his spirits. “You’re right. Would you then join me for dinner tonight? At my home? I would be honored. I have engaged a local chef.”
“I actually already have plans. Bill’s coming over and we’re going to cook at my place.”
“So Bill is coming over. I see. I don’t suppose you could cancel on Bill?”
“No, but I don’t have any plans for tomorrow or the next day.”
“Then let me claim that time right now and also every day after that. We can go to Roussillon in the morning, in fact.”
Reggie pretended to think about this. “I guess that’ll be fine, but let’s take it one day at a time.”
“Excellent.” He bent to kiss her hand.
Reggie turned when she saw the slender man emerge from Kuchin’s villa and start toward them. She noted he walked with a slight limp. He was dressed in blue slacks and a sleeveless yellow sweater over a white shirt.
Kuchin straightened. “Ah, Alan, let me introduce you to this lovely young lady. Alan Rice, Jane Collins.”
They shook hands.
“Alan is my business associate. He works all the time, but I succeeded in convincing him to join me here for at least a brief time.”
She said, “It was a good decision, Alan. There are few places like Provence.”
“So Evan keeps telling me.”
“Well, enjoy your time here.”
“I plan to.”
Later, Reggie was sitting on her bed and staring down at the tile floor. In a few days it would all happen. And during that intervening time she could make no mistakes, had to hit her marks to perfection, and still it might all go wrong. She knew that she had Fedir Kuchin where she wanted him. But she had been doing this long enough to know that not everything was always as it seemed to be. That he was cunning was without doubt, so she could not assume that she had deceived him fully. He was playing the role of the elder suitor quite admirably, but that was all it might be, a role.
She put her face in her hands. It was not easy, the career she had chosen. You literally couldn’t trust anyone. And there was something else on her mind.
The potential for evil lurks in all of us.
Though she’d openly disagreed with Kuchin’s opinion, in fact she could see some truth in it. Indeed, at a certain level what she did could be seen as evil. Judge, jury, executioner. Who was she to make those decisions? What gave her the right? And then there was the reason why she had chosen this life for herself. The image of her dead brother flashed across her mind. Only twelve, so innocent. A tragic loss.
