A Wild and Lonely Place Read Online Free PDF Page A

acceptable.”
    “No excuses, no explanations,” he replied easily. “It was error on the part of my operatives. Of course they’ll be dismissed.
     Before I left the office I requested replacements, and they’ll be on duty shortly.”
    “What reassurance have I that these replacements will be more efficient than the previous ones?”
    “You have my personal guarantee.”
    “Mmm.” The set of her mouth conveyed how little his guarantee was worth at the moment.
    Renshaw slouched in the chair, seeming unruffled. “You spoke with members of the task force?” he asked.
    “I did. An Inspector Joslyn and an Agent Morland.”
    “Did you tell them about the messages you’ve received?”
    “I did not.”
    “Do you intend to?”
    “No.”
    “Perhaps,” Renshaw said after a moment’s reflection, “it’s time to confide in them.”
    She shook her head. “We have discussed this before, Mr. Renshaw. No one is to know about those messages.”
    “Have you also discussed it with Ambassador Jalil?”
    “The ambassador—my second cousin—is in agreement with me.”
    “Oh?”
    The syllable seemed to hang between them. Hamid cocked her head slightly, watchful.
    Renshaw added, “I spoke with Ambassador Jalil this morning. He’s concerned about withholding evidence and confesses to being
     perplexed as to your insistence on doing so.”
    “My second cousin has been perplexed since his birth.”
    Renshaw raised his eyebrows, waiting. Mrs. Hamid didn’t elaborate.
    I said, “Perhaps if there was some way to bring the messages to the attention of a discreet member of the task force, who
     would hold the information in confidence until she was sure the other members would do the same…”
    “Yes?”
    “As Mr. Renshaw mentioned, he’s enlisted my help because I have a close connection on the force, who can be trusted.”
    She made a chopping motion with her right hand. “In this case, no one can be trusted.”
    Her insistence on privacy bordered on the pathological, I thought. Unless she had something important to hide.…
    “Mrs. Hamid,” I began again, “if you could give me…us some idea of why you feel so strongly about keeping the subject of the
     messages to yourself—”
    “I have gone into that with Mr. Renshaw. We are a conservative country; we do not care for sensational publicity of any sort.
     In addition, our largest oil company is about to negotiate a major contract with your Chevron. Any indication of political
     instability in Azad would jeopardize those negotiations.”
    “
Are
the messages and today’s bombing evidence of political instability? Do you suspect an extremist group of being behind them?”
    “I mentioned political instability as an example of what the public might think.” Hamid transferred her attention to Renshaw.
     “I do not appreciate you bringing in an outsider.”
    He still slouched in the chair, looking as if his mind were on something else, but I knew he’d heard every word, noted every
     nuance. “Ms. McCone is an excellent investigator,” he said.
    “I do not want an investigator. I merely want efficient and effective security.”
    “Well, that you will have.” Abruptly he got to his feet and motioned to me. “ I’ll check on my replacements, and then we’ll
     be on our way.”
    I took my cue from him, said good-bye to the consul general, and followed him to the tiled reception area. When I glanced
     back into the library, I saw she hadn’t moved, except to clasp her hands together on her lap. Even at a distance I could tell
     her knuckles had gone white.
    Renshaw crossed the foyer and spoke with a guard wearing the maroon-and-gray RKI blazer. I started over there, but turned
     when I heard a noise behind me. An enormous rose marble urn stood in the far corner, and above its lip protruded a forehead
     covered by floppy black bangs; a pair of huge dark eyes regarded me solemnly from beneath them.
    How on earth had the child managed to squeeze inside that