"It was awful, what she showed me," Kim said, clutching my arm.
"they had Shadow naked and tied up. They'd grabbed her the night before; when she'd phoned me she'd been in their hands. The tape showed her writhing and terrified. It wasn't acting-I knew her too well to be fooled." :'Was the Masked Man there?" 'You couldn't see him. The camera was focused on Shadow. But you could see these hands moving in and out of the frame, doing all these awful things. I thought they were his. I felt they were, on account of the look in Shadow's eyes."
"What kind of look?"
"Total terror. The look of someone who knows she's going to die."
"Jesus!"
"After about a minute, Mrs. Z turned it off. 'She's halfway now to going the way of Sonya,' she told me. 'She'll go the whole way unless you do what I say.' "I was to sign the extortion papers and then retrieve the photographs.
If I didn't come back in a couple of hours, Shadow… well, she didn't have to spell it out.
"There was no choice. I signed, then left the building. My legs were trembling. I don't think I'd ever been so scared.
"My plan was to go to Rakoubian and make him give me all his negatives.
If he refused I'd threaten to turn him over to Mrs. Z.
"There was a taxi waiting up the block. It started toward me, then something told me I shouldn't get in, that it was too convenient to find it sitting there in that deserted area that time of night.
"I ran across the street. That's when I noticed two men, one on each end of the block. They'd been waiting in the shadows. When I ran, they started running too. I darted down a side street, then through an alley, and then into that disco, Lil's, on Desbrosses, near where you and I met. No trouble getting in. they knew me there. I ran straight through the place, then out the fire door in back.
"I knew then I couldn't return to Mrs. Z's, no matter the threat to Shadow. Whatever I did, they'd kill us both. They'd have to, to shut us up."
"Why didn't you go to the cops?"
"You kidding, Geoffrey? I was up to my ears in it. I'd withheld evidence on a murder and I was party to a blackmail scheme. And even if I did go, I was sure I'd still get killed. That's how scared I was."
"So you came to me?"
She nodded.
"There wasn't anyone else. I caught a cab coming out of the Holland Tunnel, rode it down to Park Row, then ran down Nassau to your corner and phoned." She took hold of my arm again, squeezed it, then brought my hands to her lips.
"Thank God, you were home. You Saved my life. And you were so damn nice. When you saw I didn't want to talk, you didn't insist. And then I did what I always do when I'm overwhelmed-closed my eyes and went to sleep."
"The next morning you decided to run?"
"Yes. But I couldn't tell you then. Now you see why, don't you, Geoffrey? Don't you?"
"Yeah," I said.
"I guess I do."
I knew most of the rest of it, how she left my place, went back to hers, picked up her bags and said good-bye to Jess. Then she taxied to the airport and called Rakoubian while waiting for her plane.
She told him what had happened, that Shadow had probably been killed, and that she was getting out of it now, was going away.
He tried to persuade her to take another crack at Mrs. Z, or at least wait to see if Shadow reappeared. She hung up on him, boarded her flight, flew to Miami, then took a bus to Key West. In just two days she found an apartment and a job. She wanted to bury herself; she thought she had until I showed up that afternoon.
"Funny," she said, "now that I think of it, Adam should have sounded a lot more frightened than he did. Now, of course, I know the reason: he thought he was safe; he'd set you up to take the rap for him."
We found my car, and when she saw the mess in the back, she shook her head and smiled. She helped me clean out the discarded snack bags, then we drove to the Spanish Moss, where we fell asleep in each other's arms.
I think it was around three in the morning when I woke up and saw her sitting across the room. She was in the chair staring out the window, sobbing almost silently.
"Hey, what's the matter?" I went to her, put my arm around her, tried to wipe away her tears.
" Scared," she said.
"Why? It's over now."
"It's what you said about Key West."
"What did I say?"
"That it's like a box canyon, one way in and one way out. "
"That was just talk," I said.
"I think you're safe here, very safe."
She shook her head.
"If you found me, they'll find me, and they kill people, don't forget. I think they're still looking for me and they still want to kill me and now I don't know where to go."
"they won't find you, I promise," I said. Then I tried to coax her back to bed.
"they will find me! Of course they will. You did! So why not them?"
"they won't," I said.
"they can't. You see, I really missed you. And I had a clue."
"What clue, Geoffrey? What are you talking about?"
She looked so frantic then, so sad and desperate, that I thought it only fair to tell her what I'd done. I went through it alclass="underline" the unexplained number on my telephone bill, my research at the library, my trip to Cleveland, finding Grace, tracking her to the topless joint. Then our date, the massage, and how, the following morning, I'd broken into her house and found the return Key West address on the envelope.
Kim nodded at me through it all. She smiled at my surprise when I first saw Grace topless, and giggled as I recounted my misadventures with Heidi the dog. When I was finally finished, she shook her head.
"Did you know I was that girl?"
"Which girl?"
"The one Grace fell in love with," she said wistfully. was a waitress in that bar in Shaker Heights…" I looked at her. There was still something that knotted My stomach: the ever-loving tone in her letter to Grace.
"Are you still in love?" I asked.
Kim laughed.
"Me and Grace?" When I nodded, she turned serious.
"I think maybe she's still a little in love with me. And certainly I feel something for her, though I wouldn't exactly call it love."
"What would you call it?"
"I care for her. She launched me. Loaned me the money so I could go to New York, even though that meant I'd be leaving her forever. I feel about her the way you probably feel about your friend in New Mexico-that she's my closest friend, a sister almost. Did you read my letter to- her?"
"It wasn't in the envelope," I lied.
We woke early, kissed, made love, showered, ate breakfast, then drove to Smathers Beach. There was hardly anyone on that southern crescent of the island, just a few joggers running along Roosevelt Boulevard and a couple of purveyors of soft drinks and tacos positioning themselves for the mobs that would descend later on.
I parked behind a van with a map painted on its side showing its owners were in the midst of a five-year drive around the world. Then we walked out onto the sand, actually ground coral, and strode along the water's edge.
"Oh, Geoffrey, Geoffrey…" She spun around on her heel.
"How the hell am I going to get myself out of this?"
I took off my shirt. Though it was only eight o'clock, the sun felt wonderful on my back.
"Seems to me there aren't too many choices," I said.
"I'll call Scotto, tell him what happened, and turn over the photographs."
She stopped whirling.
"What are I you talking about?"
"I think that's the best solution.'
"What photographs?"
"The ones of Darling." She looked stunned.
"You've got Rakoubian's photographs?"
"I took them from him. I thought I told you that."
"Where are they, Geoffrey?" Her voice was urgent.
"In my suitcase back at the motel."
"Jesus!" she said.
"I can't believe this! You've got the pictures. Oh my God!"