Hostage Zero

Navarro leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms and legs. “I remember when I was in law school a professor told us how fragile one’s ethics can be. He was an absolutist. His favorite expression was, ‘You can’t be just a little bit dirty.’ It made sense in the classroom, but in practice it’s a hard lesson. Rationalization is a tricky thing. You know you’re working for a criminal, but you justify it by telling yourself that even criminals need legal counsel. It’s the way our system of justice is built. I was working just for the legal side of what they do. After a dozen years or so, the blurry line gets fuzzier and fuzzier. Before you know it, you’re seeing the line for exactly what it is, but you look the other way. In the end, you’re in so deep that it doesn’t matter anymore where the line is.”

The teakettle whistled, and he turned to tend to it.

“What sort of things did you end up doing?” Gail asked.

He killed the flame under the kettle and let it sit while he dumped the water from the preheating pot and cups. He wiped them dry with a dish towel and then measured two teaspoons of loose tea from a tin into the dried pot.

Gail had never seen all this pageantry for a cup of tea, and she found herself oddly fascinated.

Navarro poured water from the kettle into the pot and put the lid in place. “Three minutes,” he said. “No more, no less. In America, we tend to oversteep our tea. Where were we?”

“You were about to tell me what sort of services you performed for Sammy Bell and company.”

“Ah. Well, toward the end, I was the handler of cash. The trusted middleman.”

“For what?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“But you knew.”

“I suspected at first; but yes, sooner or later I knew. I handled payments for services rendered. With my fingerprints on the transaction-literally and figuratively-it all became subject to attorney-client privilege, and therefore untraceable.”

“What was the money for?”

He hesitated. “Just about anything you can think of.” He busied himself with a search of the kitchen drawers.

Gail sighed heavily. “Please don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

His head snapped up at that. “It is difficult, Ms. Bonneville. It is extremely difficult, and I’m doing my best not to just shut up and send you on your way.”

Gail looked away, inexplicably embarrassed.

He wasn’t done. “Have you ever done anything you’re ashamed of?”

She felt heat rising in her ears. Lord yes, she thought; but she would never share the details with others.

“If you have, then you know how easy it is to push the awfulness aside.” He closed one drawer and opened another. “I’ve built myself a cozy little life here in exile. I have very nearly reached the point where I can look at myself in the mirror and not feel nauseated.” This time he slammed the drawer in frustration, and went for a third. “So if I am somehow frustrating you by not baring my soul quickly enough, I’m afraid I’ll just have to beg your pardon.”

This time, he slammed the drawer hard enough to shake the floor. “Where the hell is my tea strainer?”

Gail stood to help and saw it right away. “Is that it? There on the counter?” She pointed next to the sink, to a spot in plain sight.

He followed her finger, and his shoulders slumped. “Yes,” he said. “Thank you.” He picked it up and rinsed it in the sink. “As I’m trying to introduce you to the wonders of tea, I can’t very well leave it unstrained, can I?”

His voice cracked at that last part. Gail returned to her seat and just watched while he finished the pomp and circumstance. He carried the cups easily, each balanced on its saucer with a spoon on the side. “Sugar’s on the table,” he said. “Would you like lemon or cream?”

I don’t even want the damn tea, she didn’t say. “No thank you.” She opened the sugar bowl and was not the least surprised to find cubes. She helped herself to two lumps and stirred them in, while Navarro took three. She sipped, and was delightfully surprised. The flavor was like no tea she’d ever had. “This is good,” she said, the surprise evident in her voice.

“Let this be a lesson,” he said. “Life is too short and filled with disappointments to deny yourself the best.” He took a sip of his own and savored it. “Tea bags are a sin.”

Gail laughed. She felt as if she’d stepped through the looking glass, tea party and all. This man savored his brew as Jonathan savored good scotch. She allowed the moment to stretch a little more, and then came back around to business.

“A young boy is awaiting rescue, and people are trying to harm him,” she said. “We have to get back to the subject at hand.”

Navarro bowed slightly from the shoulders. “Please,” he said.

“Tell me about Marilyn Schuler,” Gail said. “How does she fit into all of this?”

Navarro sat taller in his chair and shifted his eyes to a spot over her shoulder. She followed his gaze, but there was nothing there.

“Marilyn was a lovely woman,” Navarro said. “Lovely in every sense of the word.” He looked back to Gail and made his eyebrows dance. “Perhaps too lovely for her own good.”