"Diana doesn't know my real name," she explained. "They all called me Gelsey. They think it's my first name, not my last."
Well, that was something; she might be troubled but she was smart. She left him alone to make his call. He could hear her in the loft, moving around.
Aaron snapped up the receiver on the first ring.
"Jesus, Frank!" he said. "I thought you were going to keep in touch."
"Sorry. I got involved."
"Is she anything like what we thought?" "No," Janek said. "Not at all."
"Well, it's good you called. A detective named Ortiz phoned from Cuba.
He was sorry you weren't here, said it's hard to put through a call.
He'll try again at five. Said it's important you two talk. Urgent, too.
He underlined that."
Luis… wonder what he wants?
Janek put down the phone and went back to the loft. Gelsey was standing at the wall, squinting at her unfinished drawing of the monster.
"Something's come up," he said. "I've got to go back to the city. I want you to come with me. You can stay with Sue Burke until we wrap this up."
She shook her head. "This is where I live, where I work."
"It's not safe. If Kane shows-" She peered at him. "Forget it. I'm not leaving." He could see she meant it. "What if Sue comes here and stays with you-would that be all right?" She shrugged. "I guess she can sleep on the couch."
"She'll be on duty. She won't need a place to sleep." Janek returned to the bedroom, told Aaron to dispatch Sue to Newark right away. Back in the loft he told Gelsey she'd be alone for about an hour. He described Sue, warned her not to let anyone else in.
She studied him. "You really care, don't you?" "Yeah, I care," he said.
"Why's that so hard to deal with?"
"I think Dr. Z cared, too."
"I'm sure he did," Janek said.
Gelsey stood on her roof watching him leave. Just before he got into his car, he stopped and glanced back.
"Thank you," he shouted.
"For what?"
"Hospitality. Showing me the maze."
"Oh, that!" Gelsey wanted to say something, but couldn't bring herself to mouth the words. Go ahead, she told herself Ask him. Ask!
"When am I going to see you again?" she called.
She liked his face when he smiled. "Tomorrow," he promised. "Soon enough?"
She gazed at him, then retreated back into her house.
Driving toward the city, Janek saw Manhattan magnificently displayed, its towers sharply etched against the storm clouds. Approaching the Holland Tunnel, he asked himself how he could broach to her his suspicion about her Minotaur.
That conversation, he thought, will hurt. She won't want to listen.
She'll cover her ears.
But he knew that if he was right, it would be vital that she hear. Help her rid herself of the Minotaur, he thought, and she just may have a chance.
Betray a Aaron, in an orange and purple Hawaiian shirt, stared at him. Ray, at his desk, leaned forward, waiting for him to speak. What's she like, they wanted to know-the strange mirror-girl" they had been tracking for so many days?
Janek had great faith in his people; he rarely held anything back. But now he hesitated. Gelsey had confided in him; he would not feel right if he abused her trust.
He diverted their attention by describing the maze. They listened, mesmerized. When he was finished, Ray said it sounded like something from outer space. Aaron had another thought:
"You like her, don't you, Frank?"
"Yeah, I do. It's like she's this troubled kid, she's gone wrong and now I need to save her from herself. There's so much talent there. So much intelligence. It makes me sick to think of what she's done."
He was pleased that neither of them raised their eyebrows or suggested there was a lascivious motive behind his concern.
Sue phoned in to say that she'd arrived and that she and Gelsey were getting along. Then, just at five, Luis's call came through. Janek took it in his office. Although it had been only three weeks since he'd departed Cuba, he felt he was talking to an old friend.
They exchanged pleasantries, then Luis's voice turned grave:
"Please listen, Frank. I am calling from a friend's house, someone high up in our government. What I have to say must be said in a special way.
There is a chance we will be cut off. If I cannot speak as openly as I like, you will understand."
"I hear you, Luis. Go ahead."
"Before we met, you had some trouble here."
"I haven't forgotten," Janek said.
"Just this week there were important changes in that agency. People who were in charge are no longer in charge, and others, including some of my friends, now have the upper hand."
"Go on."
"These friends, people I have known for years, tell me that my role assisting you did not come about by accident. It was, they tell me now, prearranged. Do you understand what I am saying?"
Janek sat still. "I'm not sure."
"it would seem that all the things that happened-between you and personnel of that agency, between you and me, between the two of us and the lady-were planned out in advance. It was Fonseca's operation. What I am saying, Frank, is that he knew you were coming even before you arrived. Arresting you had nothing to do with papers found in your luggage."
Janek felt something throb along his rib cage. When he brought his hand to his forehead, he felt sweat.
"Still there?"
"I'm here, Luis. Go on."
"Using me that way was classic technique. Bad cop/ good cop. Except I did not know I was playing a part." Luis sounded concerned. "Please believe me, Frank. If I had participated in this, I would not be telling you now."
"I know that. What about Tania? Was she playing a part, too? Was she tampered with?"
Luis paused. "Remember your last night here? We discussed whether she might have told a big lie. I cannot be sure, but now I believe that she did."
Shit!
"It is what they call ' cinema,' Frank. The agency specializes in such dramas. I told you your interrogator was an actress. Now it turns out they were all actors. And the place they took you to was not a real installation. It was built for such things, like a stage set.
Do you understand?"
I understand, all right! Why didn't I spot it? How could I have been so dumb?
"Listen, Luis… " He heard panic in his voice. "Who was behind it? Do you know?"
"Fonseca was what they call ' director." Perhaps this will be of some comfort to you: He is now in prison, accused of drug trafficking. He will soon be tried for that and for peligrosidad. It is possible he will be executed. The only thing I have been able to discover is that several months ago he was in New York on a covert mission working on a drug investigation in collaboration with U.S. authorities. So, my thought is that the cinema he spun around you was in exchange for assistance he received from someone up there." Luis paused. "I am only guessing, Frank. Now they are signaling me to get off. I will call again if I find out more. Believe me, I did not look forward to telling you this.
Believe also that what I have told you is true."
"Thank you, Luis. You are a brave man."
"Perhaps not so brave, Frank. But you are my friend. I hope next time we will have a happier conversation."
After Janek put down the phone he sat in his chair absolutely still. He knew there was no possibility that Luis had lied; if he had knowingly participated in the cinema, he would not have called to confess it.
Which meant, Janek realized, that he had been set up by someone in his own department. It was as if, he decided, he'd been stumbling around in a maze as devious, confusing and illusionistic as the one Gelsey's father had built. The charade was so baroque, it was worthy of Dakin.