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“You’re talking about blood.”
Nolan spread his hands, seeming to apologize. “There would have been a lot of it. Ilkovic used a knife.”
Je
“I’m not sure there’s an answer to that question,” Nolan said. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this. You need to move to a safe site where we can protect you.”
“Move?”
“A hotel we’re familiar with. A place where we can control the environment and watch you around the clock.”
“You mean put us in a trap and make us targets,” Coltrane said.
“It wouldn’t be like that at all. Security would be so tight, Ilkovic wouldn’t have a chance of finding where you were.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I,” Coltrane said. “Je
“Then we can guard you where you’re staying now. If you think it’s more comfortable-”
“It’s safer,” Coltrane said. “The reason it’s safer is that nobody knows where it is, including the police. Suppose I told you where we’re staying. What if Ilkovic grabbed you? What if he did to you what he did to Daniel? From what I heard on the tape, I think Ilkovic was right: The only reason Daniel didn’t tell him where I was is that Daniel didn’t know.”
7
AFTER GREAT PAIN, A FORMAL FEELING COMES. Coltrane remembered having read that in an English class when he was in college at USC. A poem by Emily Dickinson. It had impressed itself upon him because it had so perfectly described the emotion with which he most identified: grief. This is the hour of lead – He felt like that now. Having struggled to maintain his survival instincts, to get back to the sanctuary of Packard’s house, he had only enough energy left to make sure that the doors were locked and that he and Je
In shadows, he sank onto one of the sleeping bags in the living room. After a time, he heard Je
8
HE AWOKE AS EXHAUSTED AS WHEN SLEEP HAD FINALLY overtaken him. The faint light of dawn glowed through the windows. Turning onto his side, toward Je
Various explanations occurred to him. Perhaps she had decided to lie down in another room. Then why hadn’t she taken her sleeping bag with her? Perhaps she was showering. Then why didn’t he hear the muted hiss of water?
When he stood, his body ached, grief racking it. The hope that this had all been a nightmare and that Daniel was still alive dwindled the more his troubled consciousness took control. He glanced at his watch. A little after seven. Perhaps she’s getting something to eat in the kitchen, he thought. But when he checked, she wasn’t there. Perhaps she was using the tub instead of the shower. In that case, the water would already have been run; sleeping, he wouldn’t have heard it. But the bathroom on this floor wasn’t occupied.
There was a bathroom on each of the two upper levels, however. He wondered if she had gone up to one of them – to avoid making noise and waking him. Hopeful, he climbed the steps to the next level, failed to find her, continued to the last level, but he didn’t find her there, either. He peered onto the flower-filled terrace. It, too, was deserted.
“Je
About to descend toward the vault, he decided to look into the garage and see if the rented car was still there. But when he raised a hand to press the numbers on the security system’s keypad to deactivate the alarm so that he could open the garage door, his hand froze – because an illuminated message on the keypad’s display screen indicated READY TO ARM. The security system had already been deactivated.
Why? Where had Je
That door was open. He hurried outside, his nostrils tingling from the early morning’s chill. Mist floated over the long, narrow rose-tinted pool. He rushed along it, afraid that he might find her facedown in the water. Oblivious to the glint of dew on flowers and shrubs, he studied the ivy-covered slope at the back and the privacy wall that capped it.
“Je
“What?” She appeared around the far left corner.
His knees became weak with relief.
“Is something else wrong?”
Coltrane shook his head. “I couldn’t find you. I got worried.”
“Sorry.” Je
“You look cold.” Coltrane put an arm around her.
She leaned against him.
“Don’t let Ilkovic do this to you, Je
She shrugged. “Not that it matters – I solved our little mystery.”
Coltrane didn’t know what she meant.
“The different numbers.” She shrugged again.
“Numbers?”
“Twenty-five versus thirty.”
At last, he realized what she was talking about. “When we paced the inside and the outside of the vault?”
“There’s a door around the side. To a utility area.”
Hoping to distract her, Coltrane said, “Show me.”
9
FLANKED BY WELL-TENDED BUSHES, a door was situated in the middle of the narrow side of the house. To the left of the door, a window provided an inside view of the corridor next to the vault. Coltrane understood. Inside, when he had paced down to this window, he had thought that the vault occupied the entire length of the corridor, when in fact a small area with an outside entrance took up part of the space. He opened the door, seeing the shadowy outlines of a water heater and a furnace/air-conditioning unit. “You’re right. Mystery solved.” His voice was flat. “Come on back inside. It’s cold out here.”