Authors: Victoria Howard
With an impatient curse at his own stupidity, he
waited until she
climbed the stairs
.
He looked at her.
Her face was drawn and pinched,
her lips pressed tight together,
as if she was fighting pain.
Pain he’d caused
.
‘
Grace, I—
’
She straightened her shoulders
and gripped the edge of the towel.
‘
I don’t want to talk about it, Jack.
’
‘
But—
’
She marc
hed passed him into the bedroom. T
he
door slamm
ed
shut behind her.
He
flinched, then
continued downstairs to the kitchen and set about making dinner.
A stack of CDs stood on the counter next to a compact stereo.
It seemed that Daniel preferred opera to pop, but amongst the pile was a solitary jazz album.
He popped into the player and turned up the volume.
The mellow sound of a tenor saxophone filled the air.
He was busy mixing a marinade for the two twelve ounce steaks he’d already tenderized, when Grace joined him twenty minutes later.
She carried the notepad and
Scrabble
tiles from the office.
‘
I thought we’d eat
here
,
’
he said.
‘
Fine, whatever.
’
He slammed his fist down on the counter.
He got enough of the cold shoulder treatment from Rosa without putting up with it from Grace too.
He stormed across the room
and pulled her
chair
round to face him.
‘
Look, Grace.
T
here’s no point denying what happened out there.
I’
ll admit I handled things badly
and I’m sorry if I offended you.
But don’t you see,
we can’t allow it to
get in the way of uncovering the truth
.
’
His blunt words made her wince.
She pushed him away
, her blue eyes cold as ice.
‘
Don’t worry, Jack.
I know this is only a job to you.
I promise i
t
won’t
happen again
.
As soon as this investigation is over, I’ll be out of your life
,
for good!
’
‘
Damn it, Grace, do you have to be so—
’
‘
So
human?
And stupid?
’
‘
That’s not what I was going to say.
I’ve already told you my life is
complicated. L
et’s not make it any more so.
We
have
to
work together.
If you don’t think you can do that, then I’ll ask Mike to replace me with another agent.
Is that what you want
?
’
Grace looked away.
When she finally answered her voice was bleak.
‘
I
…
No.
’
‘
In that case, see if you can make any sense of that notebook
, while I
cook dinner
.
’
He
opened the
microwave
and put two potatoes into bake
, then set about preparing
a
salad
.
He cast a glance over his shoulder at
her
.
She sat slumped over the table with her head in her hands.
Pain, anger, compassion and love all fought for supremacy.
Only
common sense won out.
If he went to her now all he could offer was a night spent in a hot tangle of s
heets, rather than the lifetime of love
he craved.
He closed his eyes, but it didn’t make his agony less.
He’d pushed her away once before and never thought to see her again.
This time he knew he’d lost her
for good
.
He lit the gas grill and slapped the steaks
down on top.
He was an agent.
He was required to be
c
old
and
emotionally unavailable.
That was part of his job.
And he’d always thought the words des
cribed him perfectly.
He flipped the steaks and checked on the potatoes, then
uncorked
the bottle of
red
wine he’
d found in the garage.
He
placed a
glass in front of Grace and tried to ignore the sadness in her eyes.
‘
Having any luck?
’
‘
Some.
The
single
letter
that
precedes each entry,
’
she tapped the page.
‘
W
hat if you write
it
out as
a
number—
‘A’ is one, ‘B’ be is two and so on. D
o you think it could
represent
another bank account?
’
Without thinking,
Jack
rested his hand on her shoulder
while he counted the
letters
.
Nine.
‘
It could be, or it
may be
the number the
ABA
—
the
American Banking Association
,
gives
to financial institutions
over here
.
If it is, then
we
can find out
which bank
it is
, but we’d still need a name
for the account holder
or
the
account number
.
The steaks should be done by now.
I’ll ask
Mike
to check it out
and see i
f you’re right.
’
‘
Have you noticed,
’
Grace said when
they
’d finished eating,
‘
how the consonants are interspersed
in groups of three
through
out
the page.
’
‘
Yeah, what’s your take on that
?
’
‘
I think they represent countries or airports within those countries.
Look here,
’
her finger traced a line across the page.
‘
LHR
is the code for London Heathrow.
And
this one
MAD
,
’
she said, tapping the page
once more
,
‘
is
Madrid
.
I only know
that
because I’ve
seen it on
Catherine
’s suitcases when she’s returned from a trip abroad
.
But I don’t know
w
hat the others are.
’
Jack stared at the page.
Now that Grace had made the connection he saw
the codes for
four other cities
,
Mexico City, Frankfurt, Miami, and
AUA for Aruba.
‘
If Daniel was moving dirty money around Europe and the Americas he could arrange inter-bank transfers, but he’d have to go there to set up the accounts to begin with.
But his
passport only
had
entry
stamps
for
the States
.
’
‘
T
here are no longer frontier controls between
European Union
countries, so your passport isn’t stamped on entry
.
Something else has been bothering me
, too
.
’
‘
Oh, yeah?
’
‘
Pete
Jacobs
called
me
Mrs.
Lattide, yet
neither
Mr
.
Parous nor
Mr
.
Cody at the bank
did
, although
Mr
.
Cody
said he’d met me before
.
So
Jacobs
only knew
Daniel by his other identity
.
’