Page 55 of Absent Mercy
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Colm O’Raffertywaited outside the restaurant, his hood up so that any cameras wouldn’t spothim. He watched as Amber burst through the doors, looking upset and frazzled, along way from the triumphant self she’d been when she’d been solving puzzles atthe competition.
Colm let her go.It wasn’t her he was interested in tonight.
Every great gamebetween two players had something in common: the first few moves defined theshape of the thing. In chess, each player had as many as twenty possible firstmoves. Back and forth they went, and within just a few moves, the generalpattern of the opening was established.
It took longer insome other games, but even so, beginnings were important. Colm had beenthinking about the way to make the perfect first move in the game he hadplanned with Amber for some time now.
He had herdiary/workbook with him. He’d made copies of so many of the designs within,worked his way through so many of the puzzles there. Colm thought by now thathe understood the way Amber Young thought very well. He knew how she reacted,how she reasoned.
He knew what wasimportant to her.
Colm waited forthe handsome journalist, Joseph Conolly, to step out of the restaurant, fallinginto step behind him, keeping a safe distance for now. Colm had half expectedhim and Amber Young to leave the restaurant together, so that he would have hadto follow the pair of them, waiting for his moment.
Now, he stalkedJoseph, watching, trying to understand what Amber saw in him. He was good-looking,of course, and he was a successful journalist, which suggested that he musthave some degree of intelligence. Yet, compared to Amber, compared to Colm, hewas nothing, foolish, stupid.
A complication.
At the same time,however, he might prove to be useful.
Colm kept pacewith the journalist, making sure that he did nothing to draw attention tohimself as he did so. Not that it was difficult to keep from being spotted. JosephConolly didn’t look around, didn’t show the least interest in the streetsaround him. If anything, he seemed distracted, possibly even upset. Colm consideredall of the possible reasons for that, and the potential implications for hisplan. It took him only a second or two to decide that it made no difference.Everything would still work, exactly the way that he’d originally planned it.
The journalist’sapartment building was just ahead. Colm followed, timing his approach so thathe could slip through the doors before they closed completely, keeping his headdown so that cameras wouldn’t spot his face easily.
The thing aboutthe first moves in any game was that they had to have impact. They had to forcethe opponent into responding exactly the way one wanted.
It was time forColm to make his move.