Chapter Nine

He wanted to see her. He was so happy she had called. He said he had feared that she would not. His voice was breathy and deep. Each time he spoke her name she closed her eyes and held her breath. She knew It was right that she had called. She had made the right choice.

But then he said it was a bad time. He had a case, he said. As soon as the patient was stable, he would be called to operate. It could be minutes. It could be two days.

A voice in Havana's head told her she should end the call there, wrap it up, say goodbye. No daughter of Emilio Victoria could fall for such an unlikely story. But Havana stayed on the line.

He said he was in his apartment half a block from the hospital. He couldn't ask her to come and wait with him. “It's too much to ask,” he said, “but....”

And she said she would. She hung up. She made a point of not thinking while she changed her clothes, grabbed her bag, and went down to hail a cab.

She told the driver where to take her. The address was reassuring to her. It was a good neighborhood. It was half a block from the hospital, just as he'd said. She sat back in her seat. She inhaled and exhaled. Inhaled and exhaled. But gradually a new worry came over her. She began to feel that the cab was being followed.

Her father had taught her how to spot a tail. "It's never the car directly behind," he'd said. That and, "Look for the lane changer." There were certain kinds of cars, too. Cars that were unobtrusive, like the gray sedan that made the same left the cab made at the corner of Wilson and Lawrence. Then a Cadillac made the turn, too.

I must be nervous, Havana thought. I think every car in Chicago is following me.

Even so, she changed her destination with the driver. She told him to pull up to one of the side entrances at Water Tower Place. When she left the cab, she raced through the mall to the taxi stand on the opposite side. She gave her new driver Dave Sharlet's address.

As the cab pulled up in front of his building, she had already tallied the fare plus the tip in her mind. She handed the driver the exact amount she owed. Thank you. No change. Putting her wallet back in her purse, she double checked that she had everything she might need. Yes. She had condoms. And she had a gun.