“I knew when I moved in that she’d come sometime. You even reminded me this morning.”
“I was sort of studying you to see your reaction.”
“Why be afraid?”
She shrugged. “Another person around, and so on. Two of us with high, girly voices to set your teeth on edge.” She paused. “And, it’s kind of an inconvenient time, while we’re sort of getting used to each other.”
“It’s absolutely fine. I’d like to meet her.”
“There’s actually another reason. I was kind of hoping she could stay in your spare room.”
“That’s fine too. I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet anyway. I’ve been thinking of putting in a handball court, or maybe an Argentinian tapas restaurant. Small plates don’t take up much space. But either of those could take months. How long is she staying?”
She said, “Is a week too long?”
“Of course not, unless she’s a terrible person. You said she wasn’t.”
“I’ll swear to it,” she said.
“All right.” He knew he was adding to the danger, agreeing to have another set of eyes scrutinizing him. But he also knew that Zoe would be grateful for his cooperation, and if he got through the visit, her gratitude would make him safer.
Friday came and during the day Zoe was bustling around putting linens on the bed in the spare room and cooking things for her daughter. At about five o’clock he came into the kitchen and slapped her bottom. She spun around in surprise. “What the fuck?” she said.
“You said I shouldn’t do that while she’s here, so I thought you must be expecting it other times. I thought I’d get it out of the way.”
She kissed him and patted his cheek. “Thank you, Peter.” She went back to stirring her sauce.
He said, “I’ll go out to a restaurant tonight, and let you two be together. It’ll also help us look more convincing as just roommates. Let me know when her plane comes in so I can be out of here by then.”
“Seven thirty is my best guess for her to reach here.”
“I’ll feed the dogs and take them out for their walk now.”
The walk took them the next couple of hours, to a few places where they hadn’t been before, so he used the leashes. He felt comfortable walking them tonight. An older man walking a pair of matched mutts was not especially interesting to people. The new route also gave him a chance to add to his familiarity with the area.
Whenever he was out, he was looking for signs that someone was studying him too closely or following him. He was now operating on the theory that the men who had tried to kill him had not been sent by any part of the government. There would have been no reason for government people not to do what they did best—put on bulletproof vests and jackets that said POLICE or FBI or something, arrive in numbers, kick down his door, and arrest him. He was not exactly guilty of stealing the money, but he was close enough to guilty for a legitimate conviction.
No, these had to be people who had something else in mind. Maybe they wanted to kill him for revenge, or to give themselves lots of time to search his house for account numbers and take the missing money. He had seen three of them briefly, but he hadn’t been able to get any of them to speak, so he hadn’t detected an accent. He hadn’t had time to try foreign languages. They’d had no identification, no phones, no tattoos, not even any jewelry. But they had been very professional, and that made him uneasy.
He brought the dogs home and found that the daughter had not yet arrived. He kissed Zoe, assured her that the sauce she’d made for the chicken breasts was excellent, and left.
His car had not been driven for a couple of days, so he took it into the city to the restaurant. All the way, he kept checking for cars that might be following him. He doubled back three times to be sure, and then had the parking attendants take his car so there would be someone watching it while he had dinner.
The restaurant was called Le Meilleur, and it might not have been the best, but the name wasn’t a pathetic boast. It was far better than most. He spent a couple of hours on an excellent meal, a dessert of fruit, and a glass of Armagnac. Then he drove out to the suburbs and stopped at a grocery store for supplies. He wasn’t sure whether he was now allowed to buy groceries for both of them, at least while the daughter was visiting, but he was still responsible for feeding himself and his dogs. The only thing he added that he wouldn’t usually buy was four bottles of good wine.
When he had put his car in the garage, he climbed the back stairs and went inside. As he came in the door, Zoe called out, “Is that a burglar?”