'So I guess what it comes down to is I don't really want to go. I'd be a fifth wheel, wouldn't I? I have this picture in my mind of you and Mick rocketing around the countryside and teaching the Irish how to raise hell.'
'That's some picture.'
'But what I mean is it'd be a sort of boy's night out, wouldn't it, and who needs a girl along? Seriously, I don't particularly want to go, and I know you're restless and I think it would do you a world of good.
You've never been anywhere inEurope ?'
'Never.'
'How long has Mick been gone? A month?'
'Just about.'
'I think you should go.'
'Maybe,' I said. 'I'll think about it.'
SHE wasn't there.
Nowhere in the house. Kenan went compulsively from room to room, knowing it was senseless, knowing she couldn't have gotten past the alarm system without either setting it off or disarming it. When he ran out of rooms he went back to the kitchen, where Peter was making coffee.
He said, 'Petey, this really sucks.'
'I know it, babe.'
'You're making coffee? I don't think I want any. Bother you if I have a drink?'
'Bother me if I have a drink. Not if you do.'
'I just thought— never mind. I don't even want one.'
'That's where we differ, babe.'
'Yeah, I guess.' He spun around. 'Why the fuck are they jerking me around like this, Petey? They say she's gonna be in the car and then she's not. They say she'll be here and she isn't. What the fuck's going on?'
'Maybe they got stuck in traffic.'
'Man, what happens now? We fucking sit here and wait? I don't even know what we're waiting for.
They got the money and we got what? Fucked is what we got. I don't know who they are or where they are. I don't know zip, and—
Petey, what do we do?'
'I don't know.'
'I think she's dead,' he said.
Peter was silent.
'Because why wouldn't they, the fucks? She could identify them.
Safer to kill her than to give her back.
Kill her, bury her, and that's the end of it. Case closed. That's what I would do, I was them.'
'No you wouldn't.'
'I said if I was them. I'm not, I wouldn't kidnap some woman in the first place, innocent gentle lady who never did anybody any harm, never had an unkind thought—'
'Easy, babe.'
They would fall silent and then the conversation would begin again, because what else was there to do?
After half an hour of this the phone rang and Kenan jumped for it.
'Mr. Khoury.'
'Where is she?'
'My apologies. There was a slight change in plans.'
'Where is she?'
'Just around the corner from you, oh, uh,Seventy-ninth Street , I believe it's the south side of the street, three or four houses from the corner—'
'What?'
'There's a car parked illegally at a fire hydrant. A gray Ford Tempo. Your wife is in it.'
'She's in the car?'
'In the trunk.'
'You put her in the trunk?'
'There's plenty of air. But it's cold out tonight so you'll want to get her out of there as soon as possible.'
'Is there a key? How do I—'
'The lock's broken. You won't need a key.'
