“You good?”

“Perfect,” Jake said.

The man nodded and left and they returned their attention to the monitors.

The big man passed on the message in a whisper and returned to his station in the doorway.

“Good,” Todora said, pointing to Napoli, “give him that stuff.”

Todora motioned to the waitress to remove Graham’s plate. Napoli brought the folder Casey had prepared out from his wheelchair and pushed it across the table with a pen.

“You need to sign these,” Napoli said.

Graham blinked and his mouth fell open. He opened the file and looked at the documents.

“What are you talking about?” Graham asked, holding up one of the papers. “What’s this?”

“We know all about it,” Todora said. “And we figured before the whole game turns to shit, you’d want to make sure we got our money back.”

“These are my homes,” Graham said, beginning to whine. “I can fix this. We’re fine.”

Todora flipped the fork over in his hand and slammed it into the table so that it stuck. His face turned purple and his hand trembled without releasing the fork.

“You shut the fuck up and sign those fucking things and think how lucky you are that you got to pay us back before this whole thing turns to shit,” Todora said through clenched teeth.

Graham started signing. When he finished, Todora nodded to the big man in the doorway. The big man crossed the room, gripped Graham’s upper arm, and raised him up out of his seat, propelling him toward the door.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Graham said, pleading. “This can all still work out. I’ve got it handled.”

“You and that TV shit?” Todora said across the room as his man dragged Graham from their presence. “Good you like it. ’Cause you’re gonna be getting a lot of face time.”

The sound of Graham faded and the three men in the monitor returned to their meals as if nothing had happened.

“Wow,” Casey said, standing up and pointing at the computer, thinking of all the crude comments about her. “You’re going to edit that stuff, right?”

“Of course,” Jake said, touching her shoulder. “Trust me, I’m not going to embarrass you with his crap.”

“I still helped set that sick bastard free.”

“He’ll turn up.”

68

GRAHAM SIGNALED for Ralph to hurry his ass up and the Lexus crunched some broken glass as it shuddered to a halt in front of him on the street.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Graham said, throwing himself into the front seat and crouching down behind the dash.

“Everything okay?” Ralph asked, his own head swiveling from side to side now as he squealed away from the curb. With his right hand he felt for the gun under his arm.

“No, it’s not,” Graham said, looking back over the seat through the rear glass for signs of their being followed. “We’re fucked. Haven’t you heard?”

Ralph accelerated, checking his mirrors and slowing only to check the traffic before running the red lights. They reached the on-ramp and he floored it. The engine whined and Graham almost fell into Ralph’s lap as he swerved out into the stream of traffic between two tractor trailers. Ralph surged through the traffic as if someone was hot on their tail, never slowing except when his radar detector signaled a speed trap up ahead.

“Okay, Ralph,” Graham said as they raced along. “Get me out of here. Just get me out.”

Ralph cast him a look.

“If they’re going to have someone kill me, how do they do it?” Graham started and then paused. “How would they do it?”

“You mean right now? Today? Or sometime later?” Ralph asked, checking the mirror and blowing through a gap between two cars.

“I don’t think they put these things off.”

Ralph shrugged. “They didn’t get you coming out.”

“I’m thinking to avoid the mess in front of their own place.”

“I haven’t seen anyone on us,” Ralph said, checking behind them again. “You sure about this?”

“I know people, Ralph,” Graham said. “They are going to kill me if I let them, if you let them. So?”

Ralph nodded and said, “They’ll wait someplace they know you’ll go.”

“My Rochester office,” Graham said. “The house in Mendan.”

“Right, so you don’t go there.”

“But you have to.”

Ralph nodded his head.

“There’s a safe in the master bedroom closet,” Graham said. “I’ve got some cash. There’re a couple suitcases on a shelf in there. Put some clothes in one and take all the money. There’s a black felt bag of diamonds, too. Make sure you get that.”

Ralph nodded without comment and they rode in silence for a few minutes.

“I’ll take you to my hotel room,” Ralph said. “It’ll take a little longer, but they won’t think to look for you. It’s not exactly five stars, but you’ll be safe there while I get everything. I’ll have the pilots file a flight plan to Philly then do an equipment landing in Ithaca so no one can waylay us at the Rochester airport. We can drive down to Ithaca and meet them without giving anyone a heads-up that that’s where we’ll be getting on. We can change the flight plan from there to-”

“London,” Graham said. “You’ll get us new passports and we can travel by train to Zurich.”

Ralph raised his eyebrows. “We coming back?”

“When it’s safe,” Graham said. “I’ll defer to you on that.”

Ralph made a face. “Maybe not for a long time.”

“You need anything?” Graham asked.

Ralph patted his prosthetic leg with one hand and patted the gun under his arm with the other. “Got everything I need here and here.”

“Good,” Graham said.

Ralph reached up under the cuff of the pants on the fake leg and slipped something free from the hardware. “Take this. It’s a thirty-eight, easy to use. Just cock it with your thumb and pull the trigger. Nothing to it.”

Graham took the black gun and turned it over in his hand with a snort. “I’m not going to need this.”

Ralph glanced at him and nodded before turning his attention back to the road. “I hope that’s true.”

69

GRAHAM SPENT the next several hours holed up in Ralph’s room, burning up the phone and computer lines, moving as much money as he could get his hands on to an offshore bank in the Cayman Islands. Later, he could move it from there to Switzerland, leaving not a single trace for anyone. He’d rather not have had this kind of wrench thrown into his plans, but his heart raced with the excitement of tricking people like Todora and Napoli, knowing his life hung in the balance but also that he was so much smarter than them. He imagined it was the feeling tightrope walkers had when they danced across a wire spanning two buildings, unafraid because of the level of their skill but excited by the flirt with death.

The room phone beside the bed rang and Graham stared at it.

He fondled the.38 in the front pocket of his jacket. With his free hand he picked up his cell and dialed Ralph.

“Anything doing?” he asked.

“I was just going to call you,” Ralph said. “I’m about five minutes out.”

“You’ve got everything?”

“Everything.”

“Meet you in front,” Graham said.

The hotel phone kept ringing.

Ralph stayed silent for a moment, then he said, “Well, you just wait till you see me pull in. You can see the entrance from my window. Probably overkill, but let’s keep it safe until Zurich.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Graham said.

Ralph hung up.

Graham used the bathroom and when he came out, he pulled aside the curtain to watch the entrance. The sun was down and except for a slice of deep orange to the south, the sky had gone purple like a bad bruise. Graham felt a wave of relief when the Lexus came into view, slowed, and pulled up to the front of the hotel. He let the curtain drop, but a flash of something caught his eye and he pulled it back again.