“I don’t believe you,” Zurine said, but there was the faintest tremor in her hand when she took another sip of her drink and the lie tasted bad in Hallie’s mouth. “If Findo really was killing off his contacts, I’d have heard about it.”
“The man who was killed was in Minamaan,” Hallie said. “The news might not have got here yet.”
Zurine’s colour faded and she leant forward slightly. “Who was killed?” Her voice was low, thick with emotion, as if the answer really mattered.
“Manju Nayak.”
Zurine’s head dropped and she pressed her glass to her forehead, murmuring a few words too low for Hallie to catch. When she looked up, there were bright, fat tears on her face. “Manju was my cousin on my mother’s side. We spent a lot of time together as children. He’s really dead?”
“He really is. I’m sorry,” Hallie softened her voice.
“He didn’t just work for Findo, though. Manju is - was - a broker with a lot of clients,” Zurine said.
“That may be true, but from everything I’ve seen and learned, the most likely connection, the most likely thing that got himkilled, was his tie to Findo Trask,” Hallie said. She knew that analysis wouldn’t stand up to detailed outside scrutiny, and she couldn’t prove anything that would satisfy the legal system or the courts, but she felt that it was right. Felt it all the way to her bones. The attackers had killed Kasmo and Oreste, but in the room of three people, the first and only lethal shot had been for Manju.
“Did he suffer?” Zurine asked.
“No. He was happy, content, one moment and then dead the next,” Hallie said. It was far more blunt than she would have been with most people. But Zurine wasn’t most people. Even though her hands were still trembling, the forger wiped the tears from her face and straightened in her seat.
“And you believe that Findo was involved in Manju’s death.”
It wasn’t a question, so Hallie didn’t answer, letting Zurine sit for a moment, staring into middle distance, another tear falling. After a long pause, Zurine got up again, moving to the storage cabinet. She removed two small objects and came back, sitting on the edge of the sofa, her back straight, face set in a determined expression.
“I have a proposition for you,” Zurine said, her voice cool and hard.
“I’m listening.” Hallie tried not to give anything away on her face, but that little spark of hope lit up again.
“I have a lot of contacts. In this city and elsewhere. Give me until morning. No more, no less. I will see what I can run down about Findo’s whereabouts and how you might find him.”
“And what do you want in return?” Hallie asked.
“Two things. One, I want your assurance that if you make a connection between Findo Trask and Manju’s death, you will do whatever you can to see that he’s punished. A lifetime behind bars would be torture for him, so that will do if you can’t arrange his death. And, two, you will not try to find me again beforetomorrow morning. I will contact you on this phone.” Zurine held one of the objects she’d collected out towards Hallie.
Hallie took it, finding that the small, plastic item was a cheap phone, the kind that allowed text messaging and phone calls but nothing else. There would be no tracking such a phone. Glancing across, she saw that Zurine was holding a twin to the one she’d given to Hallie.
“Yes. These phones are paired. I will call you or text you from this phone tomorrow with what I have found.” Zurine lifted her chin and met Hallie’s eyes. “Do we have a deal?”
Hallie held the phone in front of her. She didn’t bother asking if the phones were registered. Zurine would only laugh. Possession of an unregistered phone was a criminal offence in low city. Doubtless it was a minor one compared to the other crimes Zurine had committed, but Hallie had managed to stay on the right side of the law until now. All the same, she knew that the bargain Zurine was offering was a fair one. More than fair. And she had no doubt at all that, by tomorrow morning, Zurine would have found a way out of the city with a new identity that would make her difficult, if not impossible, to trace.
“Do you think I am lying to you?” Zurine asked, a hint of temper in her voice.
“No,” Hallie answered without hesitation. “We have a deal.”
“Good. You will leave now, get back to wherever it was you were going. You’re welcome to bring the investigators back here,” Zurine added, the ghost of a smile on her mouth. “I will be gone moments after you.”
“I have no doubt.” Hallie got to her feet, Zurine moving with her. “This may seem an odd thing to say, but I think that under other circumstances, we could have been friends.”
The smile became full-blown, the forger’s dark eyes gleaming with humour and warmth. “It may be odd, but I share that view.I fear we will not meet again, though, Hallie Talbot. Or, if we do, it will be in far less comfortable circumstances.”
“Fare you well, Zurine Halinburn.” Hallie lifted her glass in a toast, drained it, and headed out of the building without a backward glance.
Chapter nineteen
Hallieparkedthecarin an unnumbered slot outside the investigators’ offices and remembered to take her notebooks and tablet out of the glove compartment before getting out and stretching. She had been waved through the checkpoint at the entrance to high city without any hesitation or second looks, and had found that almost more unsettling than anything else that had happened that day. Once into high city, she’d been forced to concentrate on the road and the directions from the car’s navigation system. Now she was at her destination and needed a pause. So she stood for a moment, breathing in the fresh air and distracting herself by wondering just how many people it took to keep the vast expanse of grass looking like velvet. No one she knew had manicured lawns or patches of grass. Gardens in low city were either used as dumping grounds for old equipment or for growing herbs, fruits or vegetables. A few people were lucky enough to have room to keep chickensas well, but Hallie didn’t think chickens let grass survive long enough to grow green and vibrant.
Shaking her head at her tangled thoughts, and wondering if she should have stopped somewhere on the way here for some lunch, always assuming that she could find something as mundane as a takeaway shop in high city, she headed into the building by the main doors, which she hadn’t used before.
The reception area had a high ceiling, open to a glass section of roof several storeys above, giving the impression of space and light. At the far side, tucked under a sloping wall that provided some shade from any sun, there was a deceptively simple reception desk that was at least as long as the car Hallie had just parked. The front of the desk looked as if it had been made of a single stretch of pale wood, the continuous grain gleaming faintly. It reminded Hallie of the sort of understated and extremely expensive elegance she’d seen in Zurine’s shop earlier. The front of the desk alone would have taken a master craftsman to make and would cost more than any person in low city made in a year.
