Page 91 of His Wall

I reached into my bag and handed him his phone. He took it. He powered it on. The screen lit and the apps loaded.

"I'll call you tonight."

"On the secure line."

"On whatever line you want. I just want to hear your voice."

He leaned in and kissed my forehead. He got in the car. The door closed. The car pulled away from the curb and turned at the end of the block and was gone.

I was still standing there when Torres came out.

He had his jacket on, his bag over his shoulder and his keys in his hand. He stopped at the bottom of the safehouse steps. He saw my face.

He crossed to my car. He leaned against the front fender beside me. He did not say anything for a second.

"You don't look like a woman who believes the all-clear, Cal."

"I don't."

"Tell me."

"The passport flag is wrong, Rafael. Conrad has spent twelve years moving money through correspondent banks in three countries without leaving a single document a forensic team could subpoena. He doesn't get scanned at a private airfield in the middle of his own operation. He doesn't make that kind of mistake."

I turned my keys in my hand.

"It's a decoy. He's still here."

Torres looked at the sidewalk.

He turned his head and looked at me.

"Then go with your gut. Call Harlow. Tell her what you think."

"My gut put you in a parking garage for eleven minutes, Rafael."

"Your gut trusted a witness who turned out to be a professional liar. That is not a gut failure. That is a bad break, and you have been punishing yourself for three years because you will not see the difference."

I did not answer.

He was looking at me — patient and even with no anger anywhere in it.

"You trust this man."

"Yes."

"Then trust it."

"And if I'm wrong again."

"Then you are wrong. But at least you were honest."

I looked at the sidewalk between our feet. A flyer for a missing cat had been taped to the lamppost behind him. The cat in the photograph had been missing for two weeks.

"Rafael."

"I know."

"This is goodbye. Not just the assignment. Us. Whatever you came up here hoping was still open between us."