AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I do have one suggestion,” said the attaché. “Don’t go back to your flat. Get a new one. Better yet, get out of the country. As soon as possible.”
“I take it the rules haven’t changed. I’m on my own?”
The attaché glanced uneasily at the police officers, as if not entirely comfortable taking this conversation any further in their presence. “Let me walk you out, Mr. Knight.”
She rose, and Theo followed her out of the interrogation room and into the indistinct clatter and noise of the station house. She spoke as they walked down the hallway and through the lobby.
“I wish I could tell you that we have an armed escort to take you straight to the airport in a bulletproof SUV, and that we’re putting you on a plane tonight. But that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“The official position of the U.S. government is that our law enforcement agencies do not tolerate, let alone reward, extraction kidnappings to facilitate extradition. In matters of international affairs, your participation in the extraction kidnapping of Sergei Kava makes you, in a word, toxic. It requires us to keep our distance.”
“I didn’t participate.”
“That may be the reality. That’s not the perception. And I don’t have to tell you which one matters.”
They stopped at the entrance doors, still in the lobby, just short ofleaving the station. “I’m going now. Please wait a few minutes before you step outside.”
“I got just one favor to ask,” said Theo.
“No,” she said. “I put my career at risk by getting the kidnapping charges dropped. I further put my career at risk just now by sharing intelligence with you about Mironov’s whereabouts. That’s all the favors I can do. Take care of yourself.”
“The favor isn’t for me,” said Theo. “It’s for a teenage girl. A runaway.”
“You’re out of favors.”
She took a half step closer, so close that it made Theo uncomfortable. And then he felt something slipping into his hand.
“Except this one,” she whispered.
Theo took it, then glanced discreetly at her offering. It was a U.S. passport.
“Like I told you,” the attaché said. “Take care of yourself.Ivan.”
The attaché turned and left the station house, hurried down the front steps, and disappeared into the Mercedes waiting at the curb.
Theo checked the passport. Everything about it was authentic, including his photograph. His name was Ivan Walker.
As the Mercedes pulled away, he watched through the glass door, sure of one thing. That was the last he would ever see of Madeline Coffey.
Chapter 37
Jack wondered where he stood. With his wife.
Too much time had passed since his trip to London and the heated phone conversation with Andie. He’d been busy. She’d been busy. But everything they’d said to each other was still just “out there,” with no resolution.
Things had felt less than perfect, even before his trip to London. Worst of all, Jack couldn’t put his finger on what the problem was. With his first marriage, the failings had been obvious. He’d married a pathological liar. This was... a fog. Jack knew that the pressures of their careers and parenting led to a different focus in their marriage, but he never thought that he and Andie would be one of those couples whose love story just peters out. “Date night” and “sex night” weren’t solutions. They were Band-Aids. So, when Andie proposed “dance night,” it caught him off guard.
“Dance night?” asked Jack. He was alone in his office, reviewing documents and preparing his cross-examination of the next witness. Dinner was on its way from Uber Eats.
“Yes,” said Andie. “Tonight is dance night.”
Jack didn’t know quite what to make of it. Was this another Band-Aid, a way of sweeping things under the rug? Or was it her way of waltzing into a much-needed, deeper conversation?
“I know you’re in trial, but it’s one hour, Jack. It’ll be good for you. It’ll be good for us.”
She wasn’t guilting him into it or imposing it on him. It would have taken one colossal jerk to say no.
