Laura left the bait on the line, though if she thought about it hard enough, she could feel Paula’s hot blood dripping down her hand.
She asked, “Have you seen Jasper on the news?”
Nick chuckled. “His grand apology tour. You know, it’s cruel to say, but I’m quite enjoying the fact that he got very, very fat.”
Laura kept her expression neutral.
“I suppose there’s been some kind of family reunion? A replenishment of the bank accounts from the Queller coffers?”
Laura didn’t answer.
“I will tell you, it’s been a pleasure seeing Major Jasper in person every fucking time my parole comes up. He’s so eloquent when he explains how my actions caused him to lose his entire family.”
“He was always good at public speaking.”
“Gets that from Martin, I suppose,” Nick said. “I was very surprised when Jasper went liberal. He could barely tolerate Andrew’s addiction, but when he found out he was a raving queer—” Nick made a slicing motion across his neck. “Oh, dear, is that too close to Penny?”
Laura felt her mouth go dry. Her guard had slipped just enough for him to wound her.
Nick said, “Poor, desperate Andrew. Did you give him a good death? Was it worth your choice, Jinx?”
“We laughed at you,” she told Nick, because she knew that was the easiest way to wound him. “Because of the envelopes. Do you remember those? The ones you said were going to be mailed to all the FBI field offices and all the major newspapers?”
Nick’s jaw tightened.
“Andrew laughed when I mentioned them. For good reason. You were never good with follow-through, and that’s too bad, because if you had kept your word, Jasper would’ve been in prison a long time ago, and you would’ve been on parole picking out furniture with Penny.”
“Furniture?” Nick said.
“I saw your letters with Penny.”
Nick raised an eyebrow.
The warden and the marshals who screened his mail had been clueless because they didn’t know the code.
Laura did.
Nick had made them all memorize the code.
She said, “You were still stringing her along. Telling her that you would be together if only you could find a way to get out of here.”
He shrugged. “Idle chatter. I didn’t think she’d actually do anything. She was always a bit crazy.”
Mike had said that a jury would see it the same way. Even writing in code, Nick was still careful.
It’s only paranoia if you’re wrong.
Laura said, “When it all started to happen, I never once thought it was you.” She had to be careful about Hoodie because Mike would have questions, but she wanted Nick to know, “You never even crossed my mind.”
It was Nick’s turn to look at the room over Laura’s shoulder.
She told him, “I thought it was Jasper, that he had seen me in the diner video, and he was coming after me.” Laura paused, again choosing her words carefully. “When I heard Penny’s voice on the phone at the farmhouse, I was shocked.”
Nick was always good at ignoring what he didn’t like. He leaned his elbows on the table, rested his chin in his hands. “Tell me about the gun, Jinx.”
She hesitated, anxiously shifting gears. “What gun?”
“The revolver Laura Juneau found taped to the back of the toilet and used to murder your father.” He winked at her. “How did it get to Oslo?”
Laura glanced around the room. At the cameras mounted on the walls, the microphones jutting down from the ceiling, the guards standing sentry. She felt her nerves rattle.
Nick said, “We’re just having a conversation, my love. What do you have to worry about? Is someone listening?”
Laura smoothed together her lips. The table next to them had emptied. All she could hear were the constant pops of the ping-pong ball bouncing across the table.
“My darling?” Nick said. “Is our visit over so soon?” He reached out his hands to her. “We’re allowed to touch in here.”
Laura stared at his hands. Like his face, they were almost suspended in time.
“Jane?”
Without thinking, she was reaching across the table, lacing her fingers through his. The connection was instantaneous, a plug sliding into an outlet. Her heart lifted. She wanted to cry as she felt that familiar magnetic energy flowing through her body.
That Nick could so easily unravel her was devastating.
“Tell me.” He leaned across the table. His face was close to hers. The visitation room faded away. She was in the kitchen again reading a magazine. He walked in, wordlessly kissed her, then backed away.
Nick said, “If you keep your voice low, they can’t hear.”
“Can’t hear what?”
“Where did you get the gun, Jane? The one Laura Juneau used to murder your father. That wasn’t from me. I didn’t know about it until I saw her pull it out of the bag.”
Laura shifted her gaze to the piano behind him. She had not played for Andy yet. First her injured hand, then her anxiety, had stopped her.
“Darling,” Nick whispered. “Tell me about the revolver.”
Laura pulled her attention away from the piano. She looked down at their intertwined fingers. Her hands looked old, the creases more pronounced. She had arthritis in her fingers. The scar from Jonah Helsinger’s hunting knife was still red and angry. Nick’s skin felt as soft as it had always been. She remembered what his hands had felt like on her body. The gentle way he had stroked her. The intimate, lingering touches at the curve of her back. He had been the first man who had ever made love to her. He had touched Laura in a way that no one had ever touched her before or since.
“Tell me,” he said.
She had no choice but to give him what he wanted. Very softly, she said, “I bought the gun in Berlin for eighty marks.”
He smiled.
“I—” Laura’s throat tightened around the hoarse whisper. She could almost smell the cigarette smoke from the underground bar that Nick had sent her to. The bikers licking their lips. Jeering at her. Touching her. “I took a flight out of East Berlin because the security was lax. I brought the gun to Oslo. I put it in a paper bag. I taped it to the back of the tank for Laura Juneau to find.”
Nick smiled. “The old girl didn’t hesitate, did she? It was magnificent.”
“Did you send Penny to find Jasper’s papers?” Nick tried to pull away, but she held onto his hands. “You wanted the paperwork from the metal box. You thought you could leverage your parole. You sent Penny to get it.”
Nick’s grin told her he was bored with this game. He slipped his hands from hers. He crossed his arms over his chest.
Still, Laura tried, “Did you know what Penny was doing? Did you know she was going to kidnap my daughter? Try to murder me?” She waited, but Nick said nothing. “Penny killed Edwin. She beat Clara so badly that her cheekbone was broken. Are you okay with that, Nick? Is that what you wanted her to do?”
He turned his head. He brushed imaginary lint off his pants.
Laura felt her stomach drop. She knew the look Nick got on his face when he was finished with someone. Her plan hadn’t worked. The marshals. The earbuds. Andy waiting down the hall. Everything had gone to hell because she had pushed him too hard.
Was it on purpose?
Had Laura sabotaged everything because Nick’s power over her was still too strong?
She stared at the piano, longing, aching, yearning, for a way to make this work.
Nick asked, “Do you still play?”
Laura’s heart flipped inside of her chest, but she kept her gaze on the piano.
“You keep staring at it.” He turned around to look for himself. “Do you still play?”
“I wasn’t allowed.” A nerve twitched in her eyelid as she tried not to give herself away. “Someone might recognize my sound, and then—”
“The gig is up—literally.” He grinned at the pun. “Did you know, my love, that I’ve been taking piano lessons?”
“Really?” Laura imbued the word with sarcasm, but underneath, she could barely breathe.