I’m sorry.
She pulled away, wrapping her arms tight around herself. Where were you?
Salazar and I went to chase down a lead in the desert.
Who is Salazar, she asked. She hadn’t meant for her voice to be shrill, but it was.
The detective who brought the twins into my institute.
What twins?
The ones you didn’t want to talk about, remember, he said.
Right, she said. Of course.
The doorman says the police were here. Did they bother you, he asked, unconsciously straightening the Kentridge painting, looking things over, trying to tell if anything was missing, wondering if it was too soon to go through his effects.
No, she said. Nobody came here.
Do you need anything, he asked. Something to drink, to eat, or something for pain?
Asia shook her head.
Can you tell me about your attack? Do you know who it was?
She nodded. Yes, she said.
He sat next to her on the couch, noting that the Bible where he’d hidden the hard drive with his research was open, the disk gone. This is not the time, he said to himself, forcing his attention back to the moment, to Asia. He took her hands in his, and something about this moment, about his absence in her time of need, reminded him of Jan and of the whitewashed room in Vlakplaas. He pushed the memory down, but not before he saw a spray of crimson pattern the white walls.
Who was it, a regular?
A new client, relatively new, she said.
As she spoke she saw in his eyes how difficult this conversation was for him, and something inside her took pleasure at that. At the knowledge that even beyond himself, beyond any control he could have, he loved her. And in that moment she knew she couldn’t drag the moment out. There was no kindness in protecting him, or herself for that matter, from the terrible truth of it.
It was your friend Eskia.
Sunil, who had been stroking her hair, felt himself stiffen, his hand unconsciously gripping her hair.
Ow, she said, so softly it was barely a sound.
I’m sorry, he said, letting go. Eskia, you said?
Eskia.
He needed to sit down. No, wait, he was sitting down. He didn’t know Eskia was in town. What the fuck was going on? Had Eskia broken in here? To harm Sunil or just steal his work?
Why, he asked, not sure what he meant. Did he mean, Why did he hurt you or Why would you sleep with my friend, my rival, my nemesis, even if you are a hooker?
Why what, Sunil?
Why would he try to hurt you, Sunil said, gathering himself, bracing. Why did he do this?
He said he wanted to hurt you the way you hurt him before he kills you.
Kills me?
Yes, he said he was going to kill you.
Sunil got up and walked over to the window.
Why does he want to kill you, Asia asked.
Sunil said nothing, unable to speak for the sheer rage that was burning through him. Why hadn’t he seen this coming? The e-mail with Jan’s ring should have been enough, but he thought the text was from South Africa. It never even occurred to him that it could have originated in the United States. He knew the only way Eskia could have got that ring was by exhuming Jan’s body. And because he had been there, because he had seen what Eugene did to Jan when Sunil couldn’t turn her with the drugs and mind-altering methods he was perfecting, he knew that if he hadn’t found that ring on the remains — a ring that Sunil had slipped into that anonymous hole in the ground as a kindness, as a way to make sure Jan’s spirit could find its way into the underworld — Eskia would never have been able to identify the remains as Jan’s. He wouldn’t ever have found whatever closure he was trying to create. And now this.
Sunil, why does Eskia want to kill you?
Sunil shook his head. Something that happened a long time ago, he said, barely above a whisper.
Something very bad, she asked, realizing even as the words formed that it was a pointless question. She already knew the answer to it.
Yes, he said. Something very bad.
Did you do it?
It’s complicated, he said.
Did you kill someone important to him, she interrupted, impatient.
I didn’t kill her, he said.
She let out her breath.
But I did nothing to stop it either, he said.
Who was she?
Jan, he said.
Someone he loved?
Someone we both loved.
Jan. And when Asia said the name it brought an old and yet familiar ache back to Sunil and he stood there, wide open and weak, the light passing through him, refracting nothing.
Asia got up from the couch and approached him. She stood behind him for a while, barely an inch between them, and yet it was the chasm between worlds. She stepped forward and wrapped herself around him. Her feelings confused, churning, unsure whether to be angry with him or to comfort him, but yet wanting desperately to hold on to him.
Tell me everything, she said, afraid to ask, her breath hot on his back through his shirt.
Are you sure, he asked.
Yes, she said, thinking, No, I don’t want to hear about her, but knowing this exorcism was the only way forward, for her, for Sunil, for both of them. This woman she knew was still alive for Sunil.
And so he told her.
And in the two hours that he spoke, they went from standing by the window to sharing tea in the kitchen and then finally to intertwining their limbs in bed, where they fell into a fitful sleep.
The shrill ring of a cell phone woke Sunil. In the dark bedroom he fumbled around for it. What, he said.
This is Salazar.
What the fuck, Salazar! What time is it?
Just after six. I’m sorry to wake you.
What is it, Sunil asked, glancing over at Asia as he got out of bed and shuffled into the living room. She was still deep asleep as he shut the door behind him.
I need you to come.
Come where?
I’m out by Lake Mead.
Bodies?
Yes. Several bodies, and there’s one we both know.
Who?
I need you to come.
How will I find you?
There’s a car waiting downstairs for you.
Okay. Fuck, Sunil muttered as he hung up and pulled some clothes on.
As promised, there was a police car waiting outside. He paused, thinking how much he hated the uniforms. Thinking how impossible it was to explain the sheer terror of a Casspir rolling into Soweto, bigger than a tank, more invulnerable it seemed, a sheer beast.
Is everything all right, Dr. Singh, the doorman asked as he opened the door.
Why don’t you worry about doing your job so thieves don’t just walk in, Sunil snapped, sliding into the back of the police car. They were already pulling away from the building when Sunil remembered Asia was alone upstairs and in danger from Eskia should he choose to return.
Wait, he said, stop.
And he made the cops wait while he called Salazar. He told him about the break-in and said he would come only if Salazar provided police protection for Asia. He omitted that he knew what she might be in danger from. Salazar made one of the cops from the car stay. The guy didn’t look too happy about it, and Sunil made a mental note to come back with coffee and a snack for him. He texted Asia so that when she woke up to the cop outside, she wouldn’t be startled, and then he was off.
As the car picked up speed, lights and siren going, the sun was coming up over the Luxor, washing the dark pyramid in gold.
Shit, Sunil thought, I need to check in with the twins and Brewster. Not to mention he had to get a visitor’s pass for Fred. One day away from the institute and he was already behind. Whatever Salazar wanted him for had better be fucking incredible, he thought.
He wasn’t aware he had fallen asleep until he felt Salazar shake him awake. The police car had arrived at Lake Mead and, from the looks of it, so had half the Las Vegas Police Department.