Rome said, “Have you heard Ms. Said say anything since she was brought back to her room?”
“She answered questions the nurse asked her, that’s all.”
Eiserly looked at the scarf around Elizabeth’s neck. “Khaled assured me your wound is minor. He was impressed with both of you.”
Rome said, “Without him, we wouldn’t be here breathing. My rental car is scrap metal, enough bullet holes for a war zone.”
“A pity we don’t have the other two alive, but perhaps Ms. Said will tell us what we need to know. We’ve already identified the older man who was with her as a Yusuf Ibrahim. We were familiar with him, suspected him for some time of plotting to skirt our Syrian sanctions for the benefit of his family’s businesses, but something like this? A surprise. His flat is being searched as we speak. We should know soon who the other man was.”
A nurse walked out of Adara’s room. “You can see her now. I’ve given her more morphine for her pain, but she’s perfectly lucid. You will have only about twenty minutes alone with her before she goes to surgery.”
Eiserly said to Officer Bryer, “If any reporter happens to sneak up here, give him a good cosh if you like.”
“Yes, sir!”
The three of them walked into a room with two beds, one of them empty. In the other lay Adara Said, on her back, her eyes closed, two hospital pillows under her head, her left leg slightly elevated and wrapped in bandages. Elizabeth thoughtshe was beautiful, her thick black hair dry now and curling wildly around her face.
Elizabeth had asked John if she could speak to Adara first and he’d agreed. At his nod, Elizabeth stepped forward. She said quietly, “Ms. Said.”
Adara’s eyes opened slowly, focused on Elizabeth. She gave her a bitter smile. “You’re like a cat, so many lives. I know I shot you, I saw you fall back, but here you are, up and about again, standing over me while I’m here flat on my back.”
Elizabeth lightly touched her neck. “I understand your thigh is fractured.”
Adara’s expression remained impassive, as if she knew she’d run the race and lost. “They told me it’s shattered, actually. They told me they will have to put a long rod through it. I’ll be scarred and walk with a limp, perhaps for the rest of my life.”
“Aren’t you more worried you will spend the rest of your life in an English prison?”
Adara said nothing.
“Why do you want to kill me? I don’t even know you. You even reached out to the United States, didn’t you? To Ammar Aboud, a friend of your family’s. Come, Adara, tell me why.”
“Perhaps before you finally die, I’ll tell you. I would have told you that night in your bedroom, if I’d only had a little more time.”
Elizabeth said, “But you didn’t; you and your partner failed. Now you’re not going to have another chance. Adara, tell me who this ‘he’ is who wants me dead so badly. You can’t possibly think whoever ‘he’ is will come forward, say one word in your defense, do you? He’ll sit back and watch you declared guilty and hauled away to prison. Are you going to let him do that? Who is he, Adara?”
“Such a stupid cow you are.” Adara turned her face away.
Rome stepped up beside Elizabeth. “Would you prefer to talk with Khaled Aziz?”
She slowly turned her face back to them. They saw a flash of rage, then it was gone, extinguished, as if she knew exactly what would happen to her now and she no longer cared. “That scum, that lying traitor? I was stupid, I trusted him too quickly. I hope he dies along with you.”
Eiserly stepped close, studied her face a moment. “If you tell us who you were working with, the crown will be open to reducing your sentence.”
She smiled, actually smiled at him. “You pink-faced English pig, do you think I’d be stupid enough to believe a word out of your mouth? As for you, Lady Elizabeth, you’ve already proved yourself nothing more than a lying whore.” She looked away again, grimaced because she’d moved her leg.
What did that mean? Elizabeth stepped closer to the bed. “Adara, why did you call me a whore?”
Adara’s fists bunched, but she said nothing, kept her eyes closed.
Elizabeth leaned over her. “Does it have to do with Samir Basara?”
Adara opened her eyes, looked toward Rome standing at the end of the bed. “You’re younger than poor Samir, so does she now whore for you? Does she spread her white English legs for you so you’ll protect her? Just as she did for Samir, for the jewelry he gave her, not that she kept it, she sold it. And I know why. Samir didn’t care. He enjoyed using her. He didn’t care a flick if she got buried under tons of rubble at St. Paul’s. Go away.”
Chapter Sixty-Five
St. George’s Hospital
John Eiserly, Rome, and Elizabeth were drinking tea in a small doctor-patient conference room on the third floor of St. George’s Hospital, the door closed to mute the harried voices in the hallway outside. Elizabeth lightly rubbed her fingertips over her neck but dropped her hand when she saw Rome was watching her, worry clear on his face. She shook her head, smiled at him.
