would hae rejoiced for such a son-in-law, regardless of the politics.” She walked over to Els, took her by the shoulders, and shook her gently. “Ye cannae heal yir heart by hanging about all peely-wally. Ye’ve got to get on wi’ yir own life.” When her plane lifted off from Aberdeen, Els knew she would never again arrive home with the joyous anticipation that had filled her last two years. On the flight from London to JFK, she opened her briefcase and sifted through the papers and printouts, all urgent a week ago, that she’d ignored during her whole time in Scotland. She stared out the window and wished it were possible just to keep flying westward, reeling back time zone by zone, until the entire week had been erased, the assassin’s hand never raised. When she looked down at her work again, two hours had passed. She’d chosen career and ambition over love, and now they were all that remained.
part three
CHAPTER 10
Nevis, West Indies
November 1999
While Hargrave Teal shuffled documents with stubby pink fingers, Els felt as much as saw the olive-green waves crash into the seawall and throw spray clear across the road to the car park that separated his restored colonial building from the Charlestown harbor. All the boats were gone. She wondered where Iguana might hide from a hurricane.
“Sign here, and again over here,” Teal said. “There’s the ticket.” He straightened his stack of executed documents and glanced at the yellowed sky.
Tony Hallowell paced near the windows. “Don’t drag this out, Gravy.”
“We can’t afford an error, now can we?” Teal said, winking at Els.
She scrawled her signature on the citizenship application and passed it back to him.
“As we agreed, everything on the property conveys with the sale,” Teal said. “With one exception.”
Els looked at Tony.
“My client believes,” said Teal, “that certain highly personal items pertaining to her may have been in Mr. Griggs’s possession, and she requests that you return them.”
“I thought she’d never been here,” Els said.
“Quite right.”
“What sort of personal items?”
“She declined to supply a list, but said you’d know if you found them.”
“When I’m not allowed to know her name.”
“I grant, it’s a bit unusual.” Teal fingered his gold cufflink. “It’s the only remaining issue.”
“She sounds as crackers as Jack. Must run in the family.”
“In point of fact, no beneficiary of Mr. Griggs’s estate is of any relation to him.”
“There’s more than one?” she asked.
Teal pressed his lips together, as if he’d said too much. A gust of wind slammed the building.
“Very well, then,” she said, “I’ll keep a really sharp eye out, and you’ll be the first to know, Mr. Teal, if I stumble across anything matching this precise description.”
“Just so,” Teal said, and placed the final document in front of her. “I’ll inform my client that she can rely on your discretion in this matter.”
Els gave him her deal smile. “You do that.”
She tasted salt spray mixed with the rain as she and Tony hurried across the car park, dodging potholes brimming with water.
Safe inside the car, she wiped the condensation off the inside of her window and said, “I want to go to my house.”
“It’s not yours, officially, until all your clearances come through,” Tony said.
“Who’s to care if I just nip in for another look about?”
“We’ve got a major hurricane bearing down on us, in case you haven’t noticed.” He steered around a tangle of seaweed on the harbor road. Spume crashing over the seawall splattered the car. “Goddamn Gravy,” he said, “just paying us back for pressuring him. You couldn’t rush that man if you set fire to his tie.”
Pinney’s Hotel hugged the corner at the edge of town, and between its pink buildings Els caught a glimpse of the beach, now submerged, with waves reaching the thicket beyond. “Stringing it out, the bastard,” she said. “Since it was on my nickel.” In the crowded TDC home center car park, two men wrestled a sheet of plywood into a pickup truck.
“You could’ve had that relic for at least a hundred thousand less,” Tony said. He switched on the defroster and ducked his head to peer through the widening clear spot on the windscreen.
“I underestimated you, Tony,” she said. “Imagine, letting you wring that much out of me.”
“You let your heart do the bidding,” he said. “Cardinal mistake numero uno.”
“My heart must be out of practice,” she said. “Been out of commission for a year.”
He slowed at the swale near the golf course, now running with muddy water. “You still