“You don’t have to leave because of this, Joachim,” she said in a gentle tone. She thought he was embarrassed and wanted to do the honorable thing for his employer, but it was so much more than that.
“Yes, I do.” There was no doubt in his voice this time. He had made his mind up as soon as Javier left their mother’s apartment. He was even more sure of it now. All of his instincts told him he was doing the right thing, and she wouldn’t change his mind. “I’m a death sentence for both of you, you and my mother. If even one of his enemies doesn’t believe he’s dead, they’ll come after us, and when they see me, they’ll think they found him, and they’ll go crazy.
“The police are probably not the only ones who didn’t know he had an identical twin. It’s the weak link in the chain of all of this. Without wanting to, I will draw those people to you. They’ll stop at nothing. I’m the red flag that will put you in danger. I have no right to do that to you. I want to get as far away from you as I can get.”
He was doing it out of respect and loyalty to her and because he cared about her. He didn’t want to be a danger to her, or his mother, or to anyone. “For the rest of my life, for those who know what just happened, I will have to explain that I’m not him. But the kind of people he did business with don’t wait for explanations. They believe what they see, act, and think about it later, if they ever do. I don’t think any of us can conceive of how low he sank or imagine the things he did to others. I understand that better now. I saw him. Who knows, if I hadn’t been there, he might have killed our mother so she couldn’t tell anyone she’d seen him. I don’t think even she realizes that. He went there for his own safety, not because he cared about her and wanted to see her. If that was true, he’d have showed up long ago. It was a desperate move to get a few hours out of the line of fire and was probably the only safe place he could go.” The degree of brutality and inhumanity was hard for Olivia to imagine, and she knew that Joachim was trying to do something noble, leaving them, but she didn’t want him to go.
“They’ll forget about it eventually. When he doesn’t show up. They’ll figure out that he really is dead.”
“Possibly not for years. People go underground for a long time in that world. And in the meantime, I’ll be walking around, like a living poster of the man they’re looking for. You never know who’s watching or what they see.” He knew little of his brother’s world, but he could guess, and even in his innocence, he had walked into the middle of it. “My face alone puts you at risk, Olivia. I can’t let that happen.”
“I need you,” she said unhappily. “I can’t finish the chateau without you. It’s a ten-man job, not even a two-man job. I don’t know how we’ve gotten it this far.” With their careful coordination and relentless hard work, they were way ahead of schedule. Even Petrov was impressed, when they emailed him the weekly progress in pictures. He had promised them a big bonus if they finished early, but she wasn’t thinking of that now, only that she didn’t want Joachim to leave. She saw it as a defeat for all of them if he did. She wanted to finish the job with him. Leaving now was giving in to the forces of evil, as she saw it. Javier and the people around him would win if Joachim left. They would rob him of a life and a job. He saw it differently, as the only choice he had to do the right thing. Because he looked so exactly like his brother, he thought there was a good chance that sooner or later he’d be killed, and he didn’t want the people he cared about anywhere near him when that happened.
“The police can protect you,” Olivia insisted. Her face was troubled, she sounded angry, but her eyes were sad.
“I don’t think they can. I’m hoping they’ll protect my mother. But they won’t protect you. And if it goes wrong, it will happen in an instant, with no warning. They’ll see me in a supermarket, in a car, at the movies with you like the other night, and it will be over. I can’t bring that kind of danger close to you. I don’t think I understood that fully in New York, which is why I didn’t quit then. Now I do understand it. I can still lead my life in England the way I did before. Maybe not in London, but on some remote English country estate, they’re not likely to see me. On the streets of Paris, I’m a walking target. They’ll be looking for me here, and in London.” He knew he was going to be having the same conversation with his mother that night. Olivia was trying to convince him otherwise, but he was sure she was wrong this time. The people he was worried about weren’t human, they were animals, and Javier had been too.