The Last Minute

71

The Last Minute Bar, Manhattan

I closed the file. Then I deleted it.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said to her.

‘I know you are,’ Mila said.

‘Remind me never to anger you.’

‘I have better control of my temper now, Sam. Yoga has worked wonders for me.’

‘Zviman is Nine Suns. That’s why you fight them.’

‘Yes.’

‘And Jimmy brought you into the Round Table, same as you brought me.’

She nodded. ‘Ivan was my first teacher; Jimmy my second. You’ll meet Jimmy one day. You and he will either like each other or kill each other.’ She got up, walked to the window. ‘You can understand my feelings on what you’re going through with your son.’

I stared at her back. ‘That you cannot save them.’

‘An innocent caught up in this world, the odds are not good. And for a while, I thought you were lost to us, Sam. I meant what I said. They can control you forever with Daniel. They tried to control me with Nelly and you see what it got her. Dead. I was going to save her, I had saved her, and I got her killed.’

‘You were alone. We have each other.’

‘I was stupid.’

‘But you had to try, Mila, same as I do. I can no more walk away from Daniel than you could from Nelly.’

‘You misunderstand me.’ She turned back to me, arms crossed. ‘The man that shot Nelly? He wasn’t even a guard at the house. He worked at one of Zviman’s other brothels in Tel Aviv, heard about the shootings at Lucky Strike, came over to see if Zviman was okay. He sees a girl with a gun and he shoots her dead. He was what you call the anomaly that cannot be planned for. But such things always exist, they always come up. The unpredictable is what kills you. If I had been with her instead of stealing his money… if we had just left the moment I had her… she would be alive. But no. I couldn’t just save her. I had to ruin Zviman. Rescue and revenge, no. You cannot do both.’ She swallowed. ‘You want to get Daniel and bring down Nine Suns. You cannot do both.’

‘If I don’t they’ll never let me be. I am going to do both.’

She gave a long sigh. ‘And I thought I could still be your teacher. You know what? They are going to catch me one day. As long as the million is hanging over my head, it will happen, Sam.’ She sounded resigned.

‘Not on my watch.’

‘I might as well help you if you will listen to me.’

‘How?’

‘Zviman had a Nine Suns tattoo on him, although when I saw it I did not know what it is. He is part of it. We must draw in Zviman so he sees Jack is dead. We must convince him Jack is dead without killing Jack.’

‘What about the notebook?’

‘I find it fascinating that you never mentioned this red notebook when we first talked about the ransom.’

‘I didn’t know about it.’

‘But it makes no sense that you kill Jack but leave damaging evidence behind. What if he hid it, then you never knew it was there. You think they would ask you to bring it to them after you kill Jack?’

‘They didn’t ask.’

‘No,’ Mila said, ‘they didn’t ask you.’

I glanced at the bedroom door. ‘Leonie.’

‘Perhaps. Maybe they told her to handle the notebook, same as telling you to handle the kill. Because no way could they trust you with that notebook.’

‘She should have told me.’

‘It is only a theory.’

The bedroom door opened. Leonie stood there. ‘I have an idea on how to find Jack Ming,’ she said.

‘All right,’ I said. ‘We need to talk.’

‘Then it’s her turn to go.’

‘I know I do not have a kidnapped child,’ Mila said, ‘but maybe you let me into your super secret club.’

‘Don’t you dare make a joke.’

‘I wouldn’t. I am helping you. It is decided.’

‘No, it’s not.’

‘Yeah, it is.’ I stood.

‘We’re supposed to work together,’ Leonie said. ‘Just us.’

‘I am curious as to your objection,’ I said. ‘If she helps us kill Jack Ming, what do you care?’

‘Is that what she’s going to help us do? I thought she wanted to bring Nine Suns down.’

‘The lives of your children trump my sense of revenge,’ Mila said.

‘Yes. We’re sticking to the letter of what was demanded of us.’ I glanced at Mila; she didn’t look at me.

Leonie and she stared at each other, taking the measure. ‘I am not comfortable with this, but, Sam, if you can control her and make her useful to us, that is fine with me.’

‘Warmest greeting ever,’ Mila said. ‘I tingle.’

‘Two guns are better than one, Leonie,’ I said.

She looked at us both and then she surrendered. ‘All right. Thank you, Mila. If we get Taylor and Daniel back I will be eternally grateful.’

‘You said you had an idea on finding Jack?’ I said.

‘His phone number is the first step,’ she said. ‘If I can get that I can get his call log. I can start on that right now. Maybe I can find a way to see if any new numbers are calling anyone he knows, via his Facebook network or any of his family or other contacts.’

‘All right.’ I got up, somewhat painfully.

‘Where are you going?’ Mila said.

‘I’m going to see if I can use an old friend.’

‘Everyone can use a friend,’ Leonie said.

‘I mean literally use him, God forgive me.’

I walked downstairs, and I noticed the older, elegant, spare man in the corner drinking a pint. I noticed everyone but everyone else at a table was in a group. He was the only one flying solo. Someone who might want to observe the bar but garner less attention would not sit at the bar. You are kind of front and center sitting at the bar; everyone can see you and you craning your neck around to watch the rest of the room is noticeable. This may sound paranoid but this is how my mind works, especially with the thought that August might be watching the bar to see if I turned up here. I didn’t like the look of him. He watched me, but in the mirrored back of the bar.

When I left The Last Minute, I waited at the next corner for him to exit. Five minutes. Ten minutes. He didn’t. He wasn’t tailing me.

I called Bertrand. ‘The guy in the corner drinking his beer.’

‘Yes.’

‘Anything odd about him?’

‘No.’

‘Have you seen him before?’

‘No, never. He has ordered one Harp and he drinks it slowly. He’s not stirred from his table since you left.’

Well, then if… Mila. ‘Did Mila get here before or after he did?’

‘Before.’

‘We need to be very cautious of anyone alone watching for Mila or for me.’

‘Go do what you need to do,’ Bertrand said. ‘Mila and I can handle any trouble that arises.’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘are you sure?’

‘Did she tell you about when we had the bathroom soundproofed?’

‘Uh, sort of. All right. I’ll be back soon.’

I walked into the night.