‘Yes. You want to know what Leeson is planning, and now I’m here, I need to know. Because he wants Kooi for a specific reason, for a specific skill Kooi has or a specific role he can fulfil. I need to know what that is before Leeson gives me my orders. Finding out what’s in the barn might help me get the answer we’re both after.’
‘It might also get you killed.’
‘So might crossing the road.’
‘Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?’
Victor didn’t.
Muir said, ‘How are we doing for time?’
‘I can give you another few minutes. Then I’ll have to get back to the farmhouse. If someone knows I’m gone I can justify my absence as a middle-of-the-night run because I couldn’t sleep, but the longer I’m out the harder sell that will be.’
‘Okay. Let’s go back to what happened in Rome. So, we don’t know what he’s done, but Leeson has angered a Georgian mob enough for them to send a six-man crew over to Italy to kill him. This mob is based in Odessa and some of its members are former Russian intelligence. And you killed the whole hit team?’
‘Leeson got one.’
‘No possible way one of the corpses could be alive in a hospital bed?’
‘I didn’t shoot to wound.’
‘I’ll liaise with the Italians and get hold of the crime scene intel. With a bit of luck Leeson’s prints will be recoverable from his tumbler or knife and fork.’
‘There’s a shotgun he used. A good set of prints should be recoverable.’
‘Great.’
‘You understand I couldn’t leave his gun behind?’
‘Hey, I know. That would have been perfect, but we know that one reason Kooi was hired is because he – you – are calm and careful. Leaving his sidearm behind is something only an absolute amateur would have done. Even if Leeson himself didn’t consider it, one of your teammates could have done. Your cover is precarious enough as it is without doing anything to make it more so.’
He was glad she could see the same angles he could, and what she didn’t understand about the business she learned fast. He wouldn’t have taken the job had he not felt she could.
She said, ‘But even if we can get a set of Leeson’s prints, it only helps us if he’s on someone’s files. Which seems unlikely considering how careful he is the rest of the time.’
‘Perhaps he’s so careful because he’s on someone’s file.’
‘We’ve got a good relationship with Italian intelligence. Once the lab geeks have finished with the crime scene I’m sure I’ll get the results quickly. But it’s going to take them a while to sift through all the evidence with a crime this spectacular.’
‘Spectacular?’
‘Complex, then.’
‘How soon can you get here?’ Victor asked.
‘This time tomorrow.’
‘Then you need to call your Rome station and get someone to the parking garage.’
‘Why? The Italians aren’t going to let us near it just yet.’
‘Then he’s going to have to be creative because he needs to go to the third floor. There’s a beige Alfa Romeo in the northeast corner.’ He gave Muir the licence number. ‘He needs to jimmy the door and hot wire it, so he has to be good at field craft. Then he needs to drive it away and take it somewhere quiet. Are you making a note of this?’
‘Yes, yes. What is going on here? What’s special about this car?’
‘There’s one of the six Georgians in the trunk.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘He’s young and only the team’s driver, but he’s been travelling and lodging with the others so I figured he might know something about Leeson, or he’ll be able to point to someone who does. But I didn’t have time to interrogate him myself, so I did the next best thing.’
‘What? Wait. You told me all six were dead.’
‘No I didn’t. You asked if I was responsible for all the deaths and I said Leeson killed one of the Georgians.’
‘Oh man, so you’re telling me you knocked out one of these mobsters and hid him in the trunk of a car smack bang in the middle of a major crime scene?’
‘I didn’t knock him out. I tied him up and gagged him. I told him I’d let him out again in twelve hours.’
‘He won’t still be there,’ Muir said, the volume of her voice a good six decibels louder than it had been previously. ‘One of the cops at the scene will have heard him by now.’