Last Violent Call (Secret Shanghai, #3.5)(15)
Juliette shuddered at the thought. “With a lot of fumbling and false assumptions.”
Roma blew a puff of air at her, dismissing the answer without words. Juliette’s nose scrunched immediately, pretending to look angry.
“No,” Roma said before she could gather a big breath in her lungs and return the favor. “By going to the source. Imagine if we had realized earlier that Paul Dexter had the most to gain out of anyone.”
Juliette understood what he was getting at. “You want to find this Mr. Pyotr fellow, don’t you?”
“Shouldn’t be hard for us. We have contacts in every township from here to Suzhou. My only question is how we ought to begin. He must be located in the vicinity if he is sending Mila letters without postage.”
It was a quarter after midnight. Juliette tapped her chin. “We could probably break into the operating center first and see whether anyone in the area has made international calls to Vladivostok. I imagine there cannot be many, and it could reveal Mr. Pyotr’s identity. Gives us more footing before we go asking about him.”
Roma was already up, grabbing his jacket from the hook. “Brilliant. You’re brilliant. Come on.”
Juliette couldn’t resist the twitch of her lips as she stood slowly, watching Roma grab her jacket too after he had put his own on. Automatically, he held hers out for her so she could slip her arms in more easily, shaking the fabric around when Juliette stayed by the table with a smile.
“Come on, dorogaya,” he prompted.
Juliette hurried over, raising her arms and putting the jacket on. “Let’s go.”
6
The night stretched ominously around them, the late hour falling heavy and thick. Juliette peered over the fence, her shoes squelching in the wet grass.
“All clear?” Roma whispered.
To tell the truth, Juliette couldn’t see much in the dark. There were no streetlights nearby, and the half-moon only vaguely illuminated the small telecommunications center that loomed ahead. Given that there didn’t seem to be any movement in the vicinity and the building sat entirely still, she assumed that the coast was, in fact, clear.
She huffed into her hands, her breath misting visibly in a thick shroud. “It looks empty. Give me your neck.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Juliette was already reaching her freezing cold hands into his collar, tucking her fingers against his bare skin. She hadn’t expected the temperature to plummet this low tonight when she’d left the house without gloves. The operating center for their general area was located in a town situated a half hour’s drive away from Zhouzhuang, in the nearest hub that resembled a city more than the rural countryside. Despite its comparison with their cozy township, the roads were still nowhere near Shanghai’s hustle and bustle, as exemplified by the fact that there wasn’t a single soul around when Roma parked under a streetlight and the two of them snuck along the shadows to get to the operating center on the next street over.
They would surely be back before morning, with plenty of time to do some investigating while Yulun and Mila rested. Juliette didn’t fear for the two’s safety in their house: even if Mila wasn’t sleeping with Juliette’s sharpest knife under the pillow, Roma had pulled out a trip wire over the front and back entranceways, activating the emergency alarm system that he had installed a year ago when an unhappy client had tried targeting their supply. Movement along any of the wires would trigger the flares installed on the rooftop. If that didn’t scare the living daylights out of an intruder, nothing would.
“Is my neck warm enough for your liking?” Roma asked dryly. He barely flinched at the contact of Juliette’s ice-cold hands. It wasn’t as bad as her surprise attacks in the winter, when she would wrap her arms around his middle in the pretense of an embrace, only to plunge her cold hands up his shirt the moment he let his guard down.
“It is quite warm, yes.”
Roma reached up to remove her hands, tucking them together to preserve the warmth she had stolen. “You can have my neck later when we’re not committing crime.”
“Promise?”
“Have I ever broken a promise?” Before Juliette could say a thing, Roma spun her around, walking them forward. “No—don’t answer that. Rhetorical question.”
“I was about to start listing every occurrence.”
“That was the old me. I’m a changed man. No more broken promises or lies.”
Juliette snorted. “Did you not lie to me last week about how much that giant bouquet of flowers cost?”
“That was for your own good, because you loved them.”
“They were ten yuan—” Juliette shut up suddenly, hearing a faint echo to her right. She grabbed Roma, shoving them behind a tree. “Shhh!”
A sudden gust of wind blew hard, the sound drowning out any ruckus they were making. The two of them rounded the tree, then pressed tightly against the trunk to put their bodies out of view. As the leaves overhead shook, Juliette leaned out, tracking the car that was driving by. Its headlights flared along the operating center. The wheels crunched against the road’s rough gravel before fading into the distance.
“What were you shushing me for?” Roma whispered after a few seconds. “You were the one talking.”
“I like telling you to shut up,” Juliette replied.