“Okay.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Rafael.”
She fished in her purse and handed him four twenties.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.” He shook his head.
“No, no, I’m insisting.”
“Well, gracias.” He reluctantly pocketed the cash.
“Nada. If he’s not there just leave the package with the doorman.”
Gabriela and Daniel headed to the stairwell again. She caught his eye, in which she detected a gaze of wry humor. “Frank’s only sort of a boyfriend. Really.”
“Hey,” he offered, “how can I be jealous of somebody you’re calling ‘the complication’? If you’d said ‘stud’ or ‘lover boy,’ well, that’d be a different story.”
She flung her arms around him and kissed his neck. They fled down the stairs, exiting into the alley behind the building.
Chapter 16
Escape
4:50 P.M., SATURDAY
40 MINUTES EARLIER
“I never thought we’d find it,” Gabriela said breathlessly. “The October List.”
They were on Third Avenue, walking fast away from the office building.
Daniel Reardon said, “I didn’t get a look at it. What could you tell?”
“I just glanced at the first page. Names and places and numbers. Maybe accounts, maybe dollar amounts. I don’t know what they mean. And I didn’t recognize anybody.”
They continued in silence for a few minutes before he said, “In the list, did you see anything about ‘October’?”
“No.”
“I wonder what it means. An anagram, a name?”
“Maybe,” Gabriela suggested, “it means something’s going to happen next month. Something really bad.” She sighed, as if feeling all the more guilty about not turning the list in.
“How long?” she asked. “Until Joseph’s deadline?”
A pause, and Daniel said, “About an hour and ten minutes.”
“No! It’s that late?” Gabriela tugged her jacket closer. The wind was brisk and filled with autumn chill. “There’s no way we can find the money in time! We don’t have any leads.”
Daniel agreed. “I don’t see how.”
“We have the list, though!”
He hesitated then said, “That’s not what he wanted by six. He wanted the money.”
“But it’s the most important thing to him. Didn’t you get that impression? If he’s reasonable, he’ll take it and let Sarah go.”
“I’m sorry, Gabriela, but I don’t think he is a very reasonable man.”
She stared at him and there was hysteria in her voice. “But it’s all I’ve got!”
“Still,” he persisted, “we’ve got to try to find his money. Or at least a place where it might be, so we can tell him we’re getting close. That could be enough — if we can give him something specific — to buy more time.”
Her shoulders slumped and she nodded back at the building. “If there’s nothing in the office, then I don’t know where else we could find any clues to—” She abruptly stopped speaking.
“What?”
Frowning, Gabriela said, “Last night, when I met you?”
He smiled. “I remember.”
“I’d left work early for that meeting about negotiating the warehouse lease in Bankers’ Square? The rush job? I had some files with me.”
“Right. I was thinking you were quite the workaholic. What’s in them?”
“Open items for the accountant. Some business, but some personal of Charles’s. If I find something in them, we can at least tell Joseph we’ve got a lead.”
“Then let’s get to your place. Fast. We don’t have much time.”
They hurried toward the uptown street, to catch a cab.
Daniel was lifting his arm to flag one down when a voice from behind them barked, “Hold it right there.”
They stopped, exchanged surprised glances, then turned around.
Gabriela blinked and looked at the two detectives with unbridled anger. She whispered to Daniel, “No, we can’t wait! We have to get to my place now!”
She turned to the cops. “Detective Kepler and...” She looked toward the other one, smaller, his complexion grayish.
“Surani.”
Kepler gestured the cab to keep going.
“No!” Gabriela barked.
The driver hesitated and then, responding to the detective’s angry glare, sped off to pick up another fare.
Surani asked, “Have you heard from your boss?”
“No. I don’t know anything more about where he’s gone. I would’ve called you if I found out anything.”
“Would you?” Kepler asked. “You weren’t too busy?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice was flint.
“Hanging out in your apartment, watching TV?” the detective shot back. “Who knows what you’ve been up to?”
She asked, “How did you find me here? You’ve been following me?”
“We were at Prescott Investments. Someone fitting your description was spotted walking away from the place. We thought we’d take a stroll around this beautiful neighborhood. And see if you happened to be here. After committing a felony.”
The more relaxed of the two, Surani, said, “There was a report that somebody maybe broke into the Prescott office just now.”
“What?” she asked, frowning.
Kepler regarded her closely — and cynically. “Was it you?”
“I—”
“Don’t lie.”
“No,” Daniel said firmly.
Gabriela turned to look at Daniel, who was easing forward to the officer. “Gabriela wanted some personal items. But we saw there was a police seal, so we left.”
“Yeah?” Kepler asked.
“That’s right,” Gabriela said, looking around, as if Joseph was nearby, coolly observing this conversation.
Oh, and by the way, somebody’ll be watching you. Every minute...
“Look, we have to go. I don’t have time for this.”
Kepler continued, paying no attention to her protest, “There was an officer in front of the building. Why didn’t he see you go into the lobby?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriela said stiffly. “If he was supposed to be guarding the place, ask him.”
Kepler snapped, “What the hell were you looking for?”
“Some personal things. You heard that. A checkbook, some bank statements of mine. Nothing you’d be interested in. Nothing having to do with Charles.”
“And you didn’t break the crime scene seal?”
“Of course not.”
“It’s a crime, you know,” Surani said.
“I assumed so. That’s why we left.”
Kepler said ominously, “I’ve got an officer going through the place now. Just to see if anything’s missing.”
Daniel said, “This’s been a tough time for her. Couldn’t you just give her a break?”
Kepler seemed to be practicing his skills at ignoring people. He looked Daniel up and down with what appeared to be contempt, then moved away, pulled out his cell phone and made and received several calls.
Surani stood nearby, less hostile, but at attention as if to grab them if they tried to escape.
She glanced at her watch. Daniel too looked down at it. “The time,” she whispered. “The deadline...” Her jaw was trembling. “We have to get those files in my apartment!”
The deadline was forty-five minutes away.
“We really have to go!”
Kepler disconnected. “Glad we ran into you,” he said, not sounding particularly glad at all. He nodded to his phone. “The FBI’s just found out something else. Those clients I was telling you about earlier today? A number of them are in the financial services area — the U.S., Europe and the Far East. Brazil, too. A lot of stock and bond traders. But at least one was a known arms dealer, specializing in explosives and chemical weapons. He’s the only one we’ve been able to identify. Gunther. Probably that European guy you mentioned, in St. Thomas. Thanks for that by the way. Don’t know the first name. From Frankfurt originally. We think he has a safe house somewhere on the Upper East Side. That name ring any bells?”