Gone Tomorrow

‘Because the people I hired here told me you told them that she had. Computerized, on a USB memory stick. They gave me that message, and transmitted your photograph, and resigned their commission. I’m not sure why. I was paying them very well.’

I moved in my chair and stuck my hand in my pocket.

Scrabbled down past the disassembled phone and found the Radio Shack stick. I felt the soft pink neoprene sleeve against my fingernails. I pulled it out and held it up and watched Lila Hoth’s eyes very carefully.

She looked at the stick the way a cat looks at a bird.

She asked, ‘Is that really it?’

Theresa Lee moved in her chair and looked at me. Like she was asking, Are you going to say it, or am I? Lila Hoth caught the glance and asked, ‘What?’

I said, ‘The whole thing looked very different to me, I’m afraid. Susan Mark was terrified on the train. She was in big trouble. She didn’t look like a person coming to town to meet a friend for di

Lila Hoth said, ‘I told you at the begi

I put the memory stick back in my pocket. Said, ‘Susan didn’t bring an overnight bag.’

‘I can’t explain it.’

‘And she dumped her car and approached by subway. Which is weird. If you were prepared to book a room for her, I’m sure you would have sprung for valet parking.’

‘Sprung?’

‘Paid for.’

‘Of course.’

‘And she was carrying a loaded gun.’

‘She lived in Virginia. I heard it’s compulsory there.’

‘It’s legal there,’ I said. ‘Not compulsory.’

‘I can’t explain it. I’m sorry.’

‘And her son is missing. Last seen leaving a bar, with a woman of your age and roughly your description.’

‘Missing?’

‘Disappeared.’

‘A woman of my description?’

‘A total babe.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘A good-looking young woman.’

‘What bar?’

‘Somewhere in LA.’

‘Los Angeles?’

‘In California.’

‘I haven’t been to Los Angeles. Never in my life. I have only been in New York.’

I said nothing.

She said, ‘Look around you. I have been here in New York three days on a tourist visa and I occupy three rooms in a commercial hotel. I have no crew, as you call it. I have never been to California.’

I said nothing.

She said, ‘Looks are subjective. And I’m not the only woman my age. There are six billion people in the world. Trending young, for sure. Half of them are fifteen or younger. Which means there are still three billion people sixteen or older. Following the curve, perhaps twelve per cent of them are in their middle twenties. That’s three hundred and sixty million people. About half are women. That’s a hundred and eighty million. Even if only one in a hundred of them might be judged good-looking, in a bar in California, then it’s still ten times more likely that John Sansom was my mother’s friend than I had anything to do with Susan Mark’s son.

I nodded. Arithmetically, Lila Hoth was right on the money. She said, ‘And it’s probably true that Peter is away somewhere with a girl, anyway. Yes, I know his name. In fact I know all about him. Susan told me. On the phone. We talked about all our problems. She hated her son. She despised what he is. He is everything she disliked. He is just a shallow fraternity boy with immature altitudes. He rejected her in favour of his father. And do you know why? Because he was obsessed with his ancestry. And Susan was adopted. Did you even know that? Her son thought of her only as a person conceived out of wedlock. He hated her for it. I know more about Susan than anybody. I talked to her many limes. I listened to her. She was a lonely, isolated woman. I was her friend. She was excited to come here and meet me.’

At that point I sensed that Theresa Lee needed to get going and I certainly wanted to be out of there before young Leonid showed up again. So I nodded and shrugged as if I had nothing more to say and no further issues to pursue. Lila Hoth asked if I would give her the stick that Susan Mark had given to me. I didn’t say yes and I didn’t say no. I didn’t answer at all. We just shook hands all around once more, and then we made an exit. The door closed behind us and we walked through the silent corridor and the elevator chimed open. We stepped in and we looked at each other in the mirrored walls and Lee said, ‘Well, what did you think?’

‘I thought she was beautiful,’ I said. ‘One of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.’

‘Apart from that.’

‘Amazing eyes.’

‘Apart from her eyes.’

‘I thought she was lonely too. Lonely and isolated. She was talking about Susan, but she could have been talking about herself.’

‘What about her story?’

‘Do good-looking people automatically get more credibility?’

‘Not from me, pal. And get over it, anyway. Thirty years from now she’ll look just like her mother. Did you believe her?’

‘Did you?’

Lee nodded. ‘I believed her. Because a story like that is ridiculously easy to check. Only a fool would give us so many chances to prove her wrong. Like, does the army really have press officers?’

‘Hundreds of them.’

‘So all we have to do is find the one she spoke to, and ask. We could even track the phone calls from London. I could liaise with Scotland Yard. I’d love to do that. Can you imagine? Docherty interrupts me, I say, butt out, pal, I’m on the phone with Scotland Yard here. It’s every detective’s dream.’

‘NSA will have the calls,’ I said. ‘A foreign number into the DoD? They’re already part of an intelligence analysis somewhere.’

‘And we could track Susan Mark’s calls out of the Pentagon. If they talked as often as Lila claimed, we’d see them easily. International to the UK, they’re probably flagged up separately.’

‘So go for it. Check.’

‘I guess I will,’ she said. ‘And she must know I could. She struck me as an intelligent woman. She knows British Airways and Homeland Security can track her in and out of the country. She knows we can tell if she ever flew to LA. She knows we can just go ahead and ask Jacob Mark whether his sister was adopted. It’s all so easy to confirm. It would be crazy to lie about stuff like that. Plus she came in to the precinct house and involved herself voluntarily. And she just showed me her passport. Which is the exact opposite of suspicious behaviour. Those are big points in her favour.’

I took the cell phone from my pocket and reassembled the battery. I hit the on switch and the screen lit up. It was showing a missed call. Lila Hoth, presumably, from her room, ten minutes ago. I saw Lee looking at the phone and I said, ‘It’s Leonid’s. I took it from him.’

‘He actually found you?’

‘I found him. Which is why I had gotten as far as this hotel.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘Walking home from St. Vincent’s Hospital, probably.’

‘Is this something you really want to be telling to an NYPD detective?’

‘He fainted. I helped. That’s all. Talk to the witnesses.’

‘Whatever, it’s going to put the cat among the pigeons with Lila,’

‘She thinks gun ownership is compulsory in Virginia. She probably thinks mugging is compulsory in New York. She grew up with propaganda.’

We got out of the elevator in the lobby and headed for the street door. Lee asked, ‘But if all of this is so i

‘If the story is true, then an American soldier met with a Red Army political commissar back during the Cold War. The feds want to be absolutely sure it’s i

We got into Lee’s ear. She said, ‘You aren’t agreeing with me all the way, are you?’

I said, ‘If the Hoth family business is i