‘You know why.’
‘I’ll keep it in the Faraday bag. I promise.’
‘I’m not asking, I’m telling.’
‘I need to get back to my room. I need all my stuff. I’ll go back to the hotel and pack and stay somewhere else tonight.’
‘We don’t know if your room’s compromised. Assume it is.’
‘A pumpkin?’ I say.
‘Yeah, a pumpkin.’
He holds out his hand and I give him my phone.
‘And the other one.’
I look around and then I give him my burner.
‘You got two choices, and you’re lucky you got two. In some ways your interests are lined up with The Man’s interests, otherwise . . .’
‘What are they?’
‘One. Listen close. You leave at two o’clock, that’s what Katie would have said, you understanding me clear?’
‘Two o’clock,’ I repeat.
‘That’s what your sister would have said, you get me? Might have lip-readers watching us right now. We just don’t know. Two a.m., as Katie would have said.’
He means eight o’clock. The opposite side of the clock. Eight p.m.
‘I understand completely.’
‘OK, two o’clock. Leaving by sea. 31st Street usual. You got that?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You understand what I’m saying: like your sister would have told you.’
‘I’ll remember it.’
‘What street?’
‘31st Street usual.’
‘OK, Molly. The Man will take care of the rest, you understand?’
My legs are aching from crouching down for so long. ‘What’s the second option?’
‘You don’t turn up, and then The Man sends a clean-up team to go pay a visit to your parents in Nottinghamshire. You don’t want that, do you, Molly?’
‘I’ll be at 31st. Two o’clock.’
‘You mind you are.’
‘Let my parents know I may be out of touch for a while? That I’m OK? Not to worry?’
‘Sure.’
‘OK, I need to go and pack. Get my stuff. Thank you, Bogart.’
‘Don’t thank me yet. And there’s no packing your stuff, Molly. The room might be compromised. Watched. You leave with the clothes on your back. That’s all you got.’
‘No,’ I say. ‘No, I need to go back, I’ll make sure it’s safe first. I have . . .’ I lower my voice. ‘。 . . nearly forty thousand in the room.’
‘In the safe?’
‘No, not in the safe.’
‘Tell me where it is and I’ll send a guy I know. Give me your key.’
‘Is this some kind of trap?’
‘Yeah, it’s the kind of trap where we save your ass. The key.’
I hand him the key. ‘Some of it’s behind an electrical socket so he’ll need a screwdriver. Some is under the bed – I sliced a piece of carpet and hid it underneath. The rest is in a torch.’
‘Like a flashlight?’
I nod. He looks at me like I’m crazy.
‘What?’ I ask.
‘Nothing. Listen to me: watch your back, don’t go to any of your usual places, don’t even think about visiting the professor over at Columbia or any such shit. Do not seek out Violet and do not visit your sister’s apartment, is that clear?’
‘It is.’
‘I mean it, Molly. You got one shot at out and you’re lucky you even got that.’
‘I’ll lie low. It’s not long.’
‘Don’t get followed, stay away from cameras, stay away from the TV crews and people filming near the marathon route. Stay low-key and meet us in the agreed place. You got it?’
‘I got it.’
Chapter 46
The van drives away slowly.
I need to blend in, to hide, to keep my head down until two o’clock. Which is eight p.m. in the real world. The police might be expecting me at the hostel. No. It’s too obvious. They know I won’t go back there. If DeLuca’s right and they know about my junior suite then I should probably stay well away from the Ritz-Carlton. I have to assume the authorities have connected some of the dots already, and I have to trust DeLuca will collect my cash. My gut says if they can’t gain access to retrieve my money they’ll reimburse me. I have to believe that’s true.
A man passes by me. He’s wearing an aluminium foil poncho and he’s drinking Gatorade. He’s an early finisher, I guess.
The park is full of spectators filming on their phones. I walk over towards the West Drive and the finishing line area is cordoned off, staffed with hundreds of volunteers and dozens of police. My first instinct is to flee but my second instinct is to wait a while. Sometimes your gut needs some time to work things through.