“You’ve kept your promise? Not to mention it to your contact?”
“Naturally,” said Karasek, bemused now. “He’s not here, anyway. He’s in Moscow until Friday.”
“How do you know that?”
“How do you think I know? I kept my promise, that’s all that matters to you.” He looked at his watch. “I think we’re done for today, but I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.” He stood up, but leaned across the table and said, “Mr. Harrington, we both have promises to keep. If for one moment I think this is a plan to—”
Finn knew he’d get nothing else from him now, so he reverted to type and said, “I’m starting a new life, Mr. Karasek, and hard as it may be for you to believe, I’ve got bigger things to think about than taking you off the street. You’re not important to me.”
Karasek stared at him, full of hatred, and Finn had no doubt that if it weren’t for the promise of Katerina at the end of all this, he’d have pulled his gun by now.
“You should be careful with that mouth of yours—one day you get killed for it.”
Finn stood up. “This time tomorrow, I’ll bring you the paperwork.”
He left, stepping out into sunshine and a clear sky, deceptive because it was forecast to turn wet and cold by the end of the week. His phone didn’t have a signal in the club, but it started to ring almost as soon as he was on the street. It was Sofi.
“I’ve been trying to call you.”
“I didn’t have a signal—is everything okay?”
“Somebody broke into my mom and dad’s house this morning.”
He stopped and turned, a natural movement but one that allowed him to check behind him and take anyone following by surprise. There were quite a few people on the street, none of them suspicious.
“Were they hurt?”
“No, they’d gone out.”
“Was anything taken?”
“A little money, a few small things, nothing important. But I’m going out there. I’ll spend the night.”
“Do you want me to come?” Even as he said it, he knew he couldn’t go.
Sofi produced a sharp little laugh and said, “Isn’t that what caused the problem in the first place?”
“You don’t know that. It could have been anyone.”
“What were they looking for, Finn?”
It was pointless to argue it further, so he said, “I can’t say, but whatever it is, they know it’s not there now. What time will you be back tomorrow?”
“Probably in the morning. I’ll go straight to work.”
“Okay. I’m sorry if this was connected to me. A few more days and it’ll be done with.”
“I hope so.” She ended the call, and only then did he appreciate quite how angry she was—no affectionate signing off, not even a cursory goodbye.
She’d never ended a call like that before, but then, they’d never argued as far as he could remember, not properly. It made him realize all the more that he needed out of this job, because they were good together, but they needed the space and time and freedom to be with each other fully.
He took a circuitous route home, stopping on the way for a coffee, behaving oddly enough that anyone following from a distance would have been forced to close in. He still couldn’t see anyone, so it appeared that for the time being at least, Karasek had called his people off.
He cooked for himself, and realized it was another first. Although he’d been away plenty of times since Sofi had moved in, she’d never spent a night away when he was there. It wasn’t a particularly big apartment, but he walked around it after washing the dishes, looking into each of the rooms, and it felt like he was rattling around inside it now.
He’d just gone back into the kitchen, ready to pour himself another glass of wine, when there was a knock at the door. He checked the spy hole and let her in.
“I was just about to have a glass of wine—would you like one?”
“Are you on your own?”
He smiled. “Louisa—enough.”
She backed down, smiling herself as she said, “I’d love a glass, thank you, and I was sorry to hear about the break-in. It’s not worth us getting involved, not now that Karasek knows the girl isn’t there.”
She followed him as far as the kitchen door and watched as he poured two glasses of wine, then stood back for him to lead the way into the living room. Once they were sitting, she raised the glass to him and took a sip.
Finn said, “Was it enough?”
“Not sure. He didn’t mention Ed by name, of course. But it’s persuasive nonetheless. Don’t try to get any more out of him tomorrow, though—I thought I detected a hint of suspicion in his voice today.”
Finn sipped at his wine, then put the glass on the table and said, “He’s spoken to Ed since he went to Moscow.”
She nodded, following suit with her own wine glass.