Dying Breath by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

At four AM she rose from the bed, like a dark snake, with the silver light of the nighttime city touching her breasts and her legs in the shadows. I watched her move to the window and sit, coiled in the chair, and stare out at the night. At six she rose from the chair, a tall, slender Afro silhouette against a red sky, where the sun was burning night from the heavens. I watched her cross to the bathroom, and I heard the hiss of the shower.

I swung out of bed and poked my head around the door. I could see her dark, misted form through the glass of the cubicle, arched under the stream of water. I went to her bedside table and rifled through her purse till I found her driver’s license. Her name was Rachida Ait. I picked up my phone, photographed it, sent the pictures to the brigadier along with a list of four names: Padraig O’Hanlon, Hans Grinder, Ruud van Dreiver and Michelle des Jardins. Then I leaned against the windowsill where I could see the open bathroom door and called him. He answered immediately.

“Yes. Who is this woman, and who are these names?”

“Have your backroom boys got anything for me?”

“I gather you are not alone.”

“I agree.”

“But you can talk right now, I imagine, or you wouldn’t have called.”

“This would be a more productive way to move forward.”

“Me asking and you answering monosyllabically?”

“Yup.”

“Are you under duress or being threatened?”

I smiled. “No, not really.”

“You’re not giving me a lot to go on, Harry. Did you pick up this woman last night?”

“Yes, he came with a recommendation, but I was surprised at how communicative he was.”

“OK, one thing at a time. Recommendation from whom?”

“OK, I see that, sure. You said you were going to talk to some guy for me, remember?”

“In the police?”

“Hell, you’re the editor! First person singular and a preposition. Try that for size.”

“Am…in. Amin?”

“Yup. You’re quick. That’s good.”

“And he recommended this woman?”

“In a manner of speaking. But I’m telling you, Ed, I need more background. Right now I am in a blind alley, the desert location is looking like a dead end and I am on the brink of jacking in the whole project.”

“Are you serious?”

“No, not at all, but get this. This is what I need you to focus on, right?”

“Yes.”

“The guy in the picture…”

“The woman in the photographs you sent me?”

“Precisely, that guy has intimate, personal knowledge of the subject. He did a PhD or something.”

“Are you telling me she lived with Heilong Li?”

“On and off, several times.”

“Who is she?”

“That’s what I’d like to know, Ed.”

“Why do you keep calling me Ed?”

I growled, “Because it’s your job!”

“Oh. I see, yes. I’ll run her through face recognition and a couple of databases, see if she pops up anywhere. What about these names? Who are they?”

The hiss of the water in the bathroom died away. I said quickly, “From the European Union’s External Action Service, allegedly.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Has she been able to provide you with anything else?”

“Like hell.

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