Page 60 of Two Kinds of Stranger (Eddie Flynn #9)

Logan

Ten after five in Manhattan. Rush hour. Logan stood at a crowded bus stop on First Avenue, sipping a coffee and staring diagonally across the street, at the five-story redbrick apartment building on the corner of First and East Fifth Street.

Only two sides of the building had windows, the east and the south sides, and from his position at the bus stop he had a view of both.

The other sides of the building buttressed the rest of the block.

The east face had a pizza shop on the ground floor and an old dressmaker’s store – Logan saw the mannequins and dressmaker’s dolls in the window.

On the south side of the building was the entrance to the apartments on the upper floors and a wrought-iron fire escape that went down as far as the second floor.

Logan watched the windows in the building. Only a few lights were on. Two on the third floor on the east side. One on the fourth floor on the south side. The rest of the building was in darkness.

Two minutes ago, Gabriel Lake had left the pizza place on the ground floor, carrying two large pie boxes and two one-gallon bottles of water. He’d turned the corner, used his key and entered the building on the south side.

Logan was waiting to see if any of the other windows became illuminated.

He guessed that they would not.

He guessed, from the two large pizzas and the two bottles of water, that Lake was visiting someone who was home already.

Someone who already had a light on.

He watched the lit windows carefully, mindful to allow his peripheral vision to pick up any other lights suddenly being turned on in the building.

But no other lights came on.

Instead, he saw what he had been looking for.

The blinds parted on the third window along, on the third floor on the south side.

And Gabriel Lake checked the street below.

This was a safe house.

To keep Joe Novak hidden.

As if to wash away any nagging doubts Logan may have had, the woman investigator, Bloch, pulled up outside the building, parking next to Lake’s old Pontiac. She got out, retrieved a man’s gray suit from the back seat, still in the plastic from the dry-cleaners, and entered the building.

Joe Novak would need a suit for his court appearance.

Logan dropped his coffee in the trash and felt that strange sensation again.

He scanned the street. The prickles of tension crept up the small of his back.

That feeling again that he was being watched.

He told himself he was paranoid. It was the first time he had played the game having so much to lose. It was just fear. He told himself he should welcome this feeling. It would help keep him sharp.

Logan walked a few blocks before disappearing into the subway, heading home.

He ate dinner with Grace that night, although he only managed a few mouthfuls out of politeness. Logan was too tense to eat. He smiled and told her the pasta was delicious, but somehow he knew she wasn’t buying the false praise.

While they cleared the plates away together, she finally relented.

‘What’s wrong?’

She asked it flat out in that way which neutralized any thought of a lie in response.

‘Things are very difficult at work. I need to clear up some problems tonight, or I won’t sleep.’

‘Are you sure that’s all it is?’ she asked, grabbing him round the waist. ‘Are you sure you’re not getting tired of me?’

He cupped her face in his hands, kissed her, felt her cool lips against his, then said, ‘I am doing everything for you, now. For us. So we can be together more.’

‘I love you,’ she said, and her hands slipped inside his sweater, her fingers clasping his back.

If she had done this when they’d first met, Logan would have recoiled. Now, he didn’t mind. Not even when he felt her fingers tracing the scars on his back when she held him in the night.

‘I love you more than I have ever loved anyone,’ said Logan, from the heart.

‘I’ll be here when you get back,’ said Grace.

For a second, he thought of Bloch and Lake. Both were formidable.

‘If things don’t go as well as I’d planned tonight, I might want to go away for a while. I need a break. I need to leave the city. Would you come with me?’

‘For how long?’

‘I don’t know. A few months? A year?’

‘A year? I can’t, I have college and work . . . ’

‘But you can defer college for a year. And I’ll take care of you. We could go anywhere in the world. Anywhere you want.’

‘Anywhere?’

‘I have a lot of money. We could go to Europe, Asia, the Caribbean . . . ’

‘The Caribbean? Wait, wait, this is not real. This is not real life . . . ’

‘It is real. We could get a boat, spend a year cruising the islands. I don’t want to leave New York, but some of the people I’ve had to deal with lately . . . I didn’t know it at the time, but they might be dangerous. I may have to leave, and I want you to come with me.’

She took a step back to study him. To read his expression. Her eyes searched his face. Looking for some hint of insincerity.

‘I love you and all, it’s . . . It’s just a lot to take in. Things have been great between us, but we haven’t known each other that long and this is all so sudden . . . ’

‘You’re scared, aren’t you? You’re frightened that this is not real.

I promise you, what we have is . . . You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.

I want you with me. And I want to make sure you’re taken care of.

If something happens to me tonight, these are my account numbers, and the passwords. ’

He took a slip of paper from the notepad in the kitchen, and wrote down the details for his three accounts.

‘There’s twelve million dollars there. I have more, but if something happens to me I want you to have it. I want you to know that this is real. Hold out your hand.’

She held out her palm. Logan folded the note and placed it in her hand.

‘What kind of trouble are you in?’

‘I’m not in any trouble at the moment. The people I’ve worked for have gotten in bed with some criminal types. Bad people. I can’t tell you anything about it. All I can say is I want out. And I want out clean.’

‘Don’t go tonight,’ said Grace.

‘I have to. I’ll be back before morning. But, just in case, maybe pack a bag.’

She took hold of him, and they kissed long and passionately.

As Logan left his apartment building and stepped back into the cold, dark streets of Manhattan, he thought about the task ahead.

One target.

One location.

Two armed hostiles. Lake and Bloch.

His odds of taking out Joe Novak were not good.

He had no choice. He couldn’t risk Elly being acquitted.

That would mean the police would start looking for the man with the suitcase.

Part of what he told Grace was the truth – whatever happened tonight, he needed a clean break.

Something had to happen to make sure no one came looking for him.

He thought of lying on a beach beside Grace. The warm ocean lapping at their feet. A blazing Caribbean sun overhead. Their boat anchored in the jetty nearby. Total freedom, from the cops, from Flynn, from his crimes and, most importantly, freedom from his dark nature.

He knew going into that building was fraught with danger.

If things went wrong, he needed a back-up plan.

Logan took out his cell phone and made a call.

While he waited for the call to be answered, he had an idea. An insurance policy. Something that would protect Grace.

If he failed to kill Novak tonight, it would be better for Grace if he died trying.