This would be where I would do it, I decided, and went back to join Alena.
"There's only one way in," I said. "Unless he decides to break down the wall, he'll have to go around to the door. He'll have to come out the same way."
"Sounds perfect."
"I'll come back after we return to the house, put the card in the far corner."
She didn't reply, just took my arm again, and we continued to follow Miata around the marsh. By the time we reached the fence at the house, it was dusk, and my watch said it was just before six o'clock. We went back inside the house, upstairs, and Alena took the Sparbuch card from her go-bag, which she was keeping beside her bed. I went to place it, and it was full night when I returned in another twenty minutes, my feet and legs freezing from the cold water and the cold air.
I removed my wet shoes and socks and pants and threw them all in the dryer, then headed upstairs and put on my last pair of jeans. Alena was still in her room, but Natalie had now joined her.
"Where's the PDW?" I asked them.
"In the Audi," Natalie said.
"I need it."
Natalie looked at Alena, and when Alena didn't object, got to her feet, saying, "I'll get it."
"Good."
"He will need a vest," Alena said. "Get him a vest, too."
We waited in silence for her to return. Miata sat by the bed, and Alena scratched him idly behind the ears.
"Why did you name him Miata?" I asked suddenly.
She stroked the back of his neck. "I couldn't think of anything better."
"Yeah, but Miata?"
"He was the last dog. I'd shot him, but he was still alive, and as I was leaving he watched me and that was when I picked him up. I put him in my car, drove away, and when it was safe, I tried to stop the bleeding. I couldn't. It was night, and I went to an emergency animal hospital, and I said that he was my dog and that someone had shot him. They asked me his name, and the first thing I thought of was the name of the car I'd been driving. So I said his name was Miata."
"My parents named me Atticus because they liked the book," I said.
"What book?"
"To Kill a Mockingbird. You don't know it?"
"No."
"You'd like it."
"I'll get a copy."
She stopped stroking Miata and sighed. The dog sighed, too. "Atticus – I never wanted it this way."
I said nothing.
"Don't hesitate," she cautioned me. "When you have him, you must not hesitate. If you hesitate, you will die."
"I won't hesitate."
She seemed to want to say something more, but Natalie returned then, carrying the PDW and a Kevlar vest, and she handed both to me.
"I want you to move her," I told Natalie. "Tell Dan it doesn't have to be anyplace fancy, but it needs to be away from here."
"We've already got a location lined up near Cold Spring," Natalie said.
"I'll call you when I'm done, meet you there."
"If you can," Natalie said.
At ten minutes to nine I turned on the cellular phone and went into the backyard, taking a seat in one of the deck chairs around the covered pool. In the kitchen, Natalie and Dan stood talking at the stove, both of them watching me through the sliding glass doors. I could see the lights on in Alena's room, too, but not her silhouette. The guard's room was dark, and I knew he was in the chair once more, the I.R. goggles in place, scanning the trees. According to Natalie, the guards were all former Russian military, and two of them were even spesnaz, like Dan.
I put my head back against the chair and stared up at the sky, at the faint shapes of high clouds moving quickly in the wind. It was cold and going to get colder, and what few stars I could see flickered as if someone was playing with a galactic dimmer switch.
By my watch, it was two past nine when the phone rang.
"You're late," I said.
"Your watch is fast," Oxford said. "But then again, you are, too. I was going to hit Erika Wyatt this afternoon, but you robbed me of that."
"And more," I agreed. "How's the eye?"
He chuckled in my ear. "No, we're not going to banter. You know what I want, and you know what I'll do to get it. I underestimated you, and that was my mistake, but you pushed it. You know how hard it is to replace a good banker?"
"Junot covered for you as best he could."
"Is that why you killed him? Because he wouldn't give you all of my money?"
The clouds were growing farther apart and more stars were appearing. "He was alive when I left him."
"I'm sure he was," Oxford said. "But he was dead when the cops got there. That's the trouble with blows to the head, they're unpredictable."
"You want your money, I've got it. I'll give it back to you, tonight, but in exchange you let this whole thing go. It's over."
"Of course it's over, you fucking amateur. It was over the second those limp-dicks at the Company pulled my plug. You give me my money and we'll leave it at that. But if you don't, if you fuck with me, if I find that you've ripped me off, I'll kill every fucking person you've ever loved. And you know I can do it."
"The money for our lives."
"That's the deal. I'll honor it if you do. But I want it tonight, I want this over with tonight."
"You and me both," I agreed. "You in Manhattan?"
"I'm in the city, yeah."
"You're going to come out to New Jersey," I said. "Take the GW to Route Four. Four to Seventeen North. Seventeen North to the Allendale exit. Take Allendale Avenue to Franklin Turnpike, make a right, and about half a mile down the road on your right is the entrance to the Allendale Nature Preserve. It's unmarked, there's no sign, but if you watch for it, you'll spot the turn. Get out of your car and walk to the path, and ahead of you, through the brush, you'll see an old house. The card to access the account is in the house."
"I'll need the PIN, too, asshole," Oxford said.
"You'll get the PIN. While you're in the house, I'll leave a piece of paper with the appropriate code on it under your wiper. You arrive at three-thirty, you leave at three thirty-five. If you're late or early, if I see anything I don't like, you get the card but you don't get the code. Understand?"
"You verify my arrival, then you'll leave the code?"
"That's what I'm saying."
"How do I know you won't just cap me when I come back to the car?"
"How do I know you'll honor the agreement?"
"Because I'm a professional, that's why."
"Then that'll be your assurance as well as mine," I said. "Three-thirty, no earlier, and remember, my watch said you were two minutes late in calling."
Then I hung up, switched the phone off, and stared at the stars, wondering if Laurent Junot had been buried alone or by the side of his dead wife and child. I wondered where Scott's funeral would be held, and if I would attend it, if I could attend it.
I wondered what it meant that, despite my best intentions, I had become a murderer.
Chapter 11
Alena wouldn't look at me when I loaded her into Natalie's Audi, didn't say a word at all when I closed the door and watched them pull away from the house, Miata peering at me from the back window as Natalie followed Dan in his Kompressor and the other guards in their minivan. Alena's silence didn't change how I felt. I understood more than ever that there was nothing she could say; I understood more than ever why she was the way she was.
Back in the bedroom I stripped out of my clothes and took a long, hot shower, then used a scissors to cut off most of my mustache and beard. I went through two blades shaving off the rest of the hair, and when I saw myself in the mirror, I looked like someone I had known long ago and then fallen out of touch with, someone from summer camp and childhood.