Page 124 of Girl in the Water

Ian said, “So the guy asks me, ‘What do you think about that, Slaney?’”

Ian snorted. “I told him I was thinking about how much trouble I’d get into for punching him in the face.” He paused. “So then the guy says, ‘Oh wonderful.’ I swear, he looked happy. ‘You consider the consequences of your actions. You didn’t act on your impulse. You just considered it. Very well done.’” Ian paused again. “I couldn’t tell if he was really smart or too stupid to live. I checked myself out and came back to DC.”

“I’ve always known you to be a good man,” Daniela told him.

“You probably have some mosquito-borne disease that makes you completely biased and blind to my faults. There’s no end to the weird shit a person can catch in the Amazon.” He rubbed her shoulder with the pad of his thumb.

She smiled against his warm skin. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this safe, or this happy.”

She wiggled up, reversed their positions, maneuvered him so that his head was on her shoulder as she held him. “I want you to feel the same way.” She kissed the top of his head. “Do I make you feel safe?”

“Safe…other things…” His voice grew distracted, his lips brushing against the side of her breast as they moved with the words. “It’s all good. Believe me.”

* * *

Eduardo

Eduardo watched Ian drive the woman to a different apartment, kiss her before he dropped her off.

Not the maid but his lover.

Eduardo smiled. So much better this way. This way, before Ian was killed, he could experience the grief of losing someone he loved.

As Ian pulled away, into traffic, Eduardo parked by the curb in the freed-up space and watched the woman float to the apartment building’s front door. She radiated happiness. Ian Slaney must have done something right this morning.

She looked Brazilian, might even have some Baniwa blood in her—a little familiar, but Eduardo couldn’t think when or where he might have met her.

He was prepared to wait all day, but she came out two hours later.

She’d changed her clothes, carried nothing but a small purse. She paused for a moment in the open door, and an old memory clicked into place in Eduardo’s brain.Finch’s whore.

She looked a little older and a lot more sophisticated, a lot more sure of herself, but she was definitely the girl Eduardo had talked to when he’d first gone to Santana to find Finch. He remembered her now.

Eduardo scrambled to process the implications. Would she recognize him? He was older too. He’d gone gray after Marcos’s death. He didn’t have his goatee anymore. Age had weakened his eyes, so he was now wearing glasses. He’d put on a few pounds, which had changed his face, added the infernal jowls he hated.

The woman was on the move. Eduardo had no time to hesitate. He would just have to risk it.

She walked with a smile and a bounce, looked like a woman in love. All was well in her world. Eduardo counted on that cloud of happiness to dim her instincts.

He started the car and drove ahead, turned into the alleyway between two apartment buildings. He parked the car about three meters in, got out and went around, opened the trunk. When from the corner of his eye he saw the woman pass behind him, he made a production of leaning into the trunk, pulling back, swearing in Portuguese.

She stopped on the sidewalk.

He turned. Flashed her a self-depreciating smile. “Almost pitched headfirst into the trunk. I can’t put weight on this leg. Just had…como se diz…knee replacement.”

She stepped closer. “Let me help,” she said in Portuguese. “Are you from Brazil?”

“São Paulo.” He nodded toward the suitcase in the back and switched to Portuguese too. “Came up to see my brother. Something’s still wrong with this knee.” He tapped his left leg. “My brother knows a surgeon here who’s willing to give it a look.”

She leaned in for his suitcase, looked back over her shoulder with a smile, maybe to tell him that she too was Brazilian. Her mouth froze half-open. Her eyes narrowed for a second, then flashed with recognition. And then she moved, fast, but not as fast as the Taser.

Zwak!

She toppled into the trunk, twitching for just a second or two before she went limp.

He scooped in her legs, then slammed down the lid. The next second, he was behind the wheel. The second after that, they were gone.

“For you, Marcos,” Eduardo said as he drove down the boulevard. “I will avenge you. I am a good brother.”

He had the bait. Now he just had to set the trap.