“We’re working on it,” Lex promises.
“Thank you so much for your time, Lorelei.”
“Yeah, fuck you for ambushing me.”
She hangs up before we can say anything else, and we remain silent for a moment, staring at the disconnected phone. Holy shit… She gave us more than we bargained for. Becker is a confirmed sick fuck, and there’s proof of it somewhere out there. All we need to do now is put our hands on it.
“I can’t believe your father was friends with that man for years,” I say with disgust.
“Really? Personally, I’m not surprised he’d be friends with such an asshole.”
“That’s not asshole behavior, Lex. That’s monstrous.”
“True… I always thought there was something off about him. Even as a kid, I didn’t like being around that man. The same went for my mother, which is why Becker was rarely allowed at our place. I still came across him a few times—whenever my father took me with him on one of his New York trips.”
I grimace, somehow hating Richard Coleman even more than I did before. At least he cut it off at some point, so I’ll give him credit for that.
Returning to the revelation we just heard, I say, “We need that laptop.”
“My guess is he’s had the NIC removed. That would explain why he got a PC, since it’s simpler to do that. If that’s the case, there’s no way we’ll access it from any network.”
“We need the real thing, then. How the fuck can we pull that off?”
Becker is a private person, and very few people have access to his penthouse. He organizes a few events and parties every year, but it’s notlike we could score an invitation. The man wants Lex dead. So it’s close friends, family, or social gatherings only. No, that isn’t true. About two dozen people spend hours there every single day.
“Maybe we could use someone from the staff,” I suggest.
“I was thinking the same. We have enough information about some maids to find out who they are. With enough money, they might agree to find the safe for us, or at least corroborate what Lorelei told us.”
If we’re right and most of his staff are undocumented, we have to be very careful with how we approach them. They might spook easily and hang up as soon as we talk to them.
“I don’t think we can handle this from here,” I explain. “Lorelei wasn’t willing to cooperate until you blackmailed her, so I think it’ll be hard to convince a maid to risk her job and jeopardize their entire life in the US. We need to meet with one in person.”
“That means we’d have to go to New York.”
“I know. There’s only so much we can do from the other side of the country, and I fear we’ve reached the end of it.”
The silence that follows is charged with unspoken thoughts. It could be dangerous as hell, since we’d basically be walking into the lion’s den. Right into Becker’s territory. I don’t think he’s aware that we know he wants Lex dead. But we can fly to New York City unnoticed, using our fake identities, and keep pretending we’re right here. Iris can switch lights on and off, the groceries can keep being delivered, and Katya can keep coming in twice a week.
If someone’s watching Lex’s apartment, they’d think we’re still right here. That can give us a few weeks before anyone looks for us somewhere else. And by then, we’d be part of the New York landscape, hidden in whatever safe house Lex found for us, undetectable.
He must have followed the same train of thought and reached the same conclusion, because he grumbles, “I fucking hate New York.”
“That’s because you’ve never tried New York withme.”
“You’ve been there before?”
“Never. But I’ve always wanted to go.”
“I never liked it. It stinks, it’s noisy, and the people are so rude.”
“Aw, poor baby… We’ll be locked in like we’re doing now, so it’ll be fine, right?”
“I guess so …”
He’s so fucking adorable when he pouts like this that I grab his face between my hands to bring him closer. “I promise I’ll protect you from the mean New Yorkers.” He stares blankly at me, unamused by my gentle teasing. I kiss the corner of his lips. “I’ll start packing our stuff,” I decide, standing up.
I’m at the door when I turn around to say, “Since we’ll end up stuck indoors most of the time, find us a place with a view, yeah?”
