The Old Man(33)

“Of course not.”

“Neither did I. You might have noticed that they brought guns with silencers and shot at me. And I swear to you that if you are in that apartment when the follow-up team comes looking for their two shooters, you will die. They can’t leave people behind who know about any of this. The two men in the apartment were Libyans. The one outside is American special ops, working for military intelligence.”

She said, “How can you do this to me? I was in love with you. I don’t know what the truth is, but I know this is a collection of lies. It’s crazy.”

He patted his pockets. “I took their passports.” He took out two bright green folders with gold Arabic writing and a gold heraldic eagle. He held one open in front of her face and opened the car door so the light would come on. Then he held up the other passport for a few seconds, and shut the door. “They were expecting to get on a plane and leave the country right after killing me.”

She was silent, not willing to concede anything.

“Our time is up,” he said. “I’ll let you off, and then you’ll never see me again. I’m very sorry that I answered your ad for the apartment. It wasn’t fair to you. You’re a good person who didn’t deserve to run into me. Now I’ve got to get moving.”

“You’re leaving me here?” she said. “How would you like to be a woman taped up and dropped off in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar part of Chicago?”

“If you’ll promise not to call the cops or tell them anything about where I went, I’ll leave you somewhere safer.”

“Just get us both out of here now.”

He drove to the front of the nearby garage, got out, unlocked the door, and opened it. He went inside, drove the new BMW that was inside into the alley, and then replaced it with the old Toyota. He let the dogs out and ordered them into the backseat of the BMW. Then he lifted Zoe out of the Toyota.

She said, “If I promise to go quietly will you please get rid of the tape?”

“No.” He carried her to the BMW, put her in the passenger seat, and strapped her in. He went to the garage, closed it, and locked the door on the Toyota. Then he got into the BMW, restarted it, and drove.

After about fifteen minutes he turned down another nearly deserted commercial street that was lined with warehouses and parking lots. He took out his pocketknife and cut the tape on Zoe’s legs and then leaned across to free her from the seat belt so he could cut the tape on her wrists. He put the car in gear again and drove on. “I’m doing this to be kind. Don’t make me sorry.”

In a moment they were heading southwest on Interstate 55, away from the city. Zoe began the business of pulling the tape off her long hair. “This is really painful. I’m pulling out handfuls of hair.”

He said, “You didn’t give me any choice. It will be light in about two hours. I’ll let you off outside the city with plenty of money so you can take a cab or something. Just don’t go right back to the apartment. There will be people watching it, maybe waiting inside. If there’s a cleanup crew, you’ll be one of the things they’ll want to get rid of.”

Zoe finished taking the tape out of her hair and began pulling the tape from the ankles of her jeans. Her face was close to the dashboard. “Nice car,” she said. “I guess you planned for this night a while ago.”

He shrugged. “Once you realize that you can never let them find you, the rest is obvious. I figured this wasn’t the kind of car they’d be looking for if I moved on. My last two cars were older Toyotas.”

“If you’re so smart, how did they find you?”

“I don’t really know how they found me in Vermont. Probably I made a mistake. I know they searched the Chicago area for five months before a young operator spotted me.”

“The young guy lying by the garage?”

“Yes. I think he figured out that I would try to hide in a neighborhood where there were lots of people who looked like me. He’s smart.”

“Was smart.”

“Huh?”

“You killed him.”

“No I didn’t. He’s the reason I had the duct tape. I wrapped his wrists and ankles. He’s tied to a tree by the garage.”

“You killed two and left the third behind?”

“The first two shot at me. With him, I had a choice. His people will find him and he’ll be okay.”

He drove on in silence for a few minutes, and then noticed that Zoe was staring at him with a strange look on her face, as though she were trying to see through his skull. He turned to look at her. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you off soon. There should be something along this route.”

“It’s still dark.”

“The longer you stay with me, the longer your ride back will be.”

“I’m certainly not going back to that apartment. But if I don’t come home, they’ll start looking for me, won’t they?”

“I’m not sure. The two Libyan assassins are dead. I don’t know who is making the next decision, or even where in the world he is. You could go straight to a police station as soon as you get to Chicago and report the shooting. They’ll examine the crime scene and ask you a lot of questions.”

“The police? Why would you want them involved?”