Page 38 of We Chase Shadows

Korbin is also a professional holding all the cards. He invited her here. Home turf. She should back out, she knows that. Retreat, regroup. Apologize to Korbin tomorrow, tell him she fell asleep watching Rampage 8 and wait for the cavalry. Or she could tell Lee what she has found out? Return in numbers?

Yes, that is what she should do.

She has one advantage here though. Korbin doesn’t know Amy has found out about him and Jakob Eriksson. That Amy is coming ready for battle.

Amy weighs up these two thoughts. She still knows the right thing to do is back away slowly. But when was the last time she had a gun in her hand? When was the last time she felt the cold thrill of fear? It’s been a while, old friend. She feels her heart rate creep up into the high thirties.

Amy knows that what she should do and what she will do are two different things. She knows this is a sentiment that Rosie, at least, will understand.

She puts her phone away and edges closer to the door. She realizes something is wrong with the music. It is the same piece playing on repeat. Even though it’s classical, you can tell.

Amy drops to the floor. When you surprise people, they never aim low. She takes out two tiny mirrors, hinged in the middle, and uses them to see around the corner without being seen.

She can only see a sliver of the scene in the room. Korbin is sitting in a chair directly facing the door. She can see his left leg and arm. Is he waiting for her? There is a glint of steel at the edge of the image. A gun held straight ahead?

A gun? Amy realizes, later than she should, that she has picked up a gun from Korbin’s hallway table. Why would he have left it there if this whole thing is a trap? Is he giving her a fighting chance?

Here goes nothing, Amy thinks. The element of surprise, the low angle and the powerful gun might just give her the edge. She takes in a steadying breath, then has a thought.

Very slowly, and very quietly, she slides her phone from her pocket.

Opening Rosie’s message again, Amy replies:

I love you both.

Should she send the same to Adam? No, that’s overkill. Surely he already knows?

She slides her phone back into her pocket and takes a breath again.

Pushing herself off the ground with her left hand and holding the gun in her right, Amy rolls into the empty doorway, ready to shoot.

But as she gets Korbin in her sights she realizes that the glint of steel is not a gun, it is a knife.

And the knife is sticking out of his chest.

Korbin’s dead eyes stare in shock.

Part Three

SUMMER IN PALM SPRINGS (AND STOCKHOLM)

22

They say there are cities so hot, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. Well, in Palm Springs you can’t fry an egg on the sidewalk, but only because the sidewalk has already melted.

A Palm Springs summer is where the sun comes to work out. Where it does its research and development, turning up the furnace to see exactly what it is capable of. Goes through the gears, tries out new moves. The low-slung bungalows, hidden behind cacti and palms and pastel walls, the diners, the golf courses, everything shimmers like a pan on the boil. You can almost hear it steaming and bubbling.

Tommy Griffin is barking into his phone. ‘Take a jump off a pier, Ken. An’ fill ya pockets with rocks on the way down.’

He sounds very angry. If you were to pass him on the street, you would assume that he was furious with someone. This ‘Ken’ guy he’s talking to, presumably. But, get to know Tommy Griffin a little better, and you’d know that this is just the way he talks. It’s the way he orders his coffee, the way he offers condolences at a funeral, and the way he reads his grandkids a bedtime story. ‘This goddamn cat is too damn proud of this goddamn hat, you ask me.’ His default speech is ‘barely controlled fury’, but he means nothing by it.

Case in point, Ken is his best friend and Tommy is enjoying their conversation very much.

‘You’re the dumbest idiot I ever met,’ says Tommy. ‘I swear to Christ if you were here I’d kick you in the head.’

In fact the only time you really have to worry about Tommy is when he sounds calm. That’s when you know he’s angry.

And you don’t want to make Tommy Griffin angry.