“What’s he do for a living?”
She shrugs. “He makes money for a living.”
“Ms. Wilder, you’ll have better luck with me if you’re less sassy.”
“I’m telling you the truth. Alessio Angelini makes money for a living.”
“Yes, but doing what?”
“I have no idea. He speaks to people on the phone a lot.”
The agent opens a folder and pulls out a picture. He pushes it toward her. “Does he speak to this man?”
Lake leans in, looks over the image, and leans back. “Sure.”
“What’s she doing?” Niksha bites out. “We need to intervene.” He moves toward the door, but I stop him.
“Give her a minute.”
“She can’t be trusted.”
“She deceived me. I want to know what she’ll do now.”
“For the record,” the agent says, “you can identify the man in the picture?”
“I can say that Alessio spoke to people on the phone and that one of those people could have been the man in the picture. It could also be you. It could also be the two guards outside.”
She makes me hard.
Koriski grinds his teeth. “Ms. Wilder, I know you know who this man is.” He points at us behind the glass. “He’s an operative working with your ex-boss, and we need you to identify him.”
Lake follows the direction where the detective is pointing, but from her perspective, it’s just mirrored glass. “Alessio is here?”
“Spotted this morning. Along with a CIA operative.”
“CIA? That doesn’t sound foreign.”
“We think he’s a double agent.”
Lake rises and walks to the mirror. “I can’t help you there.” She blows a hot breath onto the mirror and draws a little heart, but quickly wipes it away before sitting back down.
“Did she draw a heart?” I ask Niksha.
“I thought it was a dick.”
Oh. Well, that’s a possibility too.
“I wish I could help your investigation, but I spent most of my time working as a governess, and Mr. Angelini, while in the house, spent his days in his office. He often spoke in foreign languages. Even if I overheard his conversations, I wouldn’t understand them. Can I go home now?”
Niksha says, “Good girl.”
“I’ll rip your tongue out if you call her good girl again.”
“Alessio, she lied to you.”
“She lied about loving me but she’s protecting me and my family.” Lake knows almost everything about the crisis we barely averted. She knows I dealt with dangerous men and with world leaders who weren’t supposed to deal with those men at all.
She also knows what Miro looks like and what he can do. She’s a witness he kept alive for me to do with what I will. I let Lake live.
