“Nadia . . .” Jack’s voice softened and I could see him leaning over, trying to get my attention, but I just kept staring at the window.
“Nadia . . .” He reached for me.
I stood up. “You’re right. I hate it. I absolutely hate it, but . . .”
I trailed off and just stood there, frozen again, ensnared in my thoughts, feeling . . . Feeling like shit. Like I was a shitty person doing a shitty thing to someone who really didn’t deserve it.
“No,” Jack said, pushing up. “You’re right. We’ll send him back to New York. He can work from there.”
“That doesn’t solve the problem, Jack. He still thinks we can work things out, when I’m already with someone else—”
“His problem. You told him it’s over. Didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I feel—”
Jack stepped in front of me, hands on my arms. “I know you feel guilty. But you’ve got no reason to. It was over. Completely over. I wasn’t making a move until you were sure of it and I was sure of it.”
I inhaled. “I know. I just . . .”
“Still feel guilty.”
I forced a smile. “I’m good at it.”
“I know.”
His hands slid around my waist. He leaned in and kissed me.
Quinn rapped at the door. I pulled away and answered while Jack headed back to the sofa.
“You know what would make this much easier?” Quinn said as I opened the door. “If you got me my own key card.”
I sidestepped to block the look Jack shot him. Then I took the gift shop bag. “Let me get dressed and we’ll talk.”
I brought Quinn up to date on the night’s attack.
As Jack expected, there was a lot Quinn could do. He took the cell phone first and tried it out.
“Yep, that’s a password. A lot of times these are simpler to crack than you’d think. Once this is cracked, I’ll run Koss’s home number and cell against this phone’s call list. I’ll also run Koss’s number separately and see if he placed a call during or after your meeting. And I’ll see if that fake ID pops anything.”
“Thank you.” I glanced at Jack. “Do we want—?”
My cell phone rang. My personal one. I glanced down at the number.
“It’s Koss,” I said.
Quinn motioned for me to answer but hold it away from my ear. I was sitting on the chair. He moved over, perching on the arm. Jack stayed where he was.
I answered.
“Nadia?” Koss said.
I said it was me, and we exchanged pleasantries. It seemed civil enough, but after having spent some time with the man, I could pick up strain in his voice. Maybe it was getting harder, pretending to be nice to someone you were trying to kill. Or maybe finding those sunglasses had him stressed.
Finally, Koss said, “There’s a reason I’m calling.” He paused. “Are you in any kind of trouble?”
It was hard to answer that straight. It really was. I managed a surprised, “No. Why?”
“Because someone called about you. Last night and again this morning.”
“What?”
“Well, I’m presuming it’s the same person, though the number came up blocked. He called my home office last night. I wasn’t here, and he didn’t leave a message. Another call came this morning, and I answered. It was a man asking how I was acquainted with you. The question threw me. I could only presume it was someone who knew you and perhaps got my number from you. I said simply that you had an interest in an old case of mine and why was he asking. He hung up.”
Was this some trick? Koss lying about a call as an excuse to contact me? It was a very odd excuse.
Quinn mouthed, “Play along.”
“I . . . don’t understand,” I said. “I didn’t give your number to anyone. I didn’t even tell anyone I was going to see you.”
“Then it makes even less sense. I’ll ask again. Are you in any kind of trouble, Nadia?”
“Not that I know of. But I guess . . . I guess I should be careful.”
He agreed that I should. He promised to notify me if he heard from the mysterious caller again, and we signed off.
“That was . . .” I began.
“Weird?” Quinn said. “Oh, yeah.”
“No,” Jack said. “Not weird at all. Guy’s covering his ass. Diverting attention. Setting up a story.”
Quinn looked doubtful, but I had to agree it was the only thing that made sense, though it still seemed strange.
“All right then,” I said. “Back to what I was saying before Koss called. Where are we otherwise? ID’ing the hitman and tracking his middleman?”
“Not sure they’re using one,” Jack said. “Probably going direct. Got lots of contacts.”
“You mean Contrapasso,” Quinn said. “You still think they’re behind this.”
I cut in. “I know you’re impressed by them, Quinn, and you don’t want to think they’d do this. I don’t, either, but it seems clear that I was targeted last night because I met with Sebastian Koss.”
“I completely agree. I’m just not as sure that the logical connections fall where you’re putting them. Would Contrapasso kill a bystander to protect themselves? I have no idea. Would they hire an outside hitman to do it when they have their own? That’s even less clear. If you or I felt we absolutely had to kill a bystander, would we hire someone else to do it? Or would we see that as moral cowardice?” Quinn eased back. “Hell, even you, Jack. Would you hire another pro to clean up your mess?”
I bristled at Quinn’s tone, but Jack only shrugged. “Wouldn’t hire anyone. I wouldn’t trust it’d be done right.”
“I’m not saying it’s impossible,” Quinn said. “I’m going by impressions after a few meetings, which could be wrong. But I think it’s more likely that Koss hired these guys himself. Aldrich was his hit and something made him think you were on to him. He screwed up; he’s protecting his own ass. There’s also a third possibility. That someone else followed you from that meeting with Koss. Someone who was tailing him because both of you are targets after Aldrich’s death.”
“You mean whoever is targeting me is also targeting him? I meet with Koss. The killer switches his focus to me.”
“Right.”
“But if Koss is a target, why’s he still walking around? There would have been plenty of opportunities to kill him since Aldrich. He’s right where he should be—at home. Unlike me.”
“But he’s a public figure who’s particularly popular with law enforcement. And his tough-on-crime rep means he’s bound to have enemies. If he dies, it stirs up a shitload of attention. The hit has to be done with extreme caution.”
I glanced at Jack.
He shrugged. “Possible. Would explain the phone call.”
“Exactly,” Quinn said. “I’m not ruling out Contrapasso or Koss, but let’s start by seeing if this mystery call actually came to Koss. Between Evelyn and me, we should be able to get Koss’s phone records.”
Getting those records wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as it probably should be. Evelyn said she’d handle it and called back an hour later. She spoke to Jack, as she usually did.
The problem with Jack taking the call? It was nearly impossible to eavesdrop. I couldn’t hear Evelyn’s side and from Jack all I got were grunts and single-word answers. He did, however, make notes, which would have been a lot more helpful if his note-taking was any more loquacious than his speech. There were numbers. That’s it.
When he got off the phone, though, he was quick to explain. Koss hadn’t been lying about receiving two calls to his home office, one last night and one this morning, both from the same number. The one at 7:30 last evening had connected just long enough to suggest the answering machine picked up and the caller listened to the message but didn’t leave one. The second call, at 11:45 this morning, lasted nearly two minutes, which confirmed Koss’s story that they had spoken briefly.