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leaning back in his chair and smoking one of his foul Italian cigarettes.
    'Do you need a doctor?' Karim asked. 'I can get you one, someone discreet.'
    'No. I know how to treat this.'
    'Do you always wear a bulletproof vest when visiting the home of a grieving family?'
    'My lifestyle demands that I live in a constant state of paranoia, Ali. I have to be prepared for any eventuality.'
    'What about the husband?'
    'I saw no signs of him, but I found two cars in the garage.'
    'And the woman who shot you?'
    'Just a glimpse,' Fletcher said. 'She's Caucasian, late fifties to early sixties. Black hair pulled back across the scalp. I suspect she's had a facelift.'
    'Would you recognize her if you saw her again?'
    Fletcher, recalling the woman's distinctive-looking smile, said, 'Absolutely.'
    On the other end of the line Fletcher heard the flick of a lighter. A pause as Karim drew on the cigarette, and then he said, 'The police will go through Theresa Herrera's phone records and see my number. Forgiveme for asking this, but did you leave behind any evidence?'
    'No. I wore gloves the entire time.'
    'Witnesses?'
    'I don't believe so.'
    'Still, you need to do something about your car. Someone might have seen it.'
    'I plan on switching it when I reach Chicago.'
    'I hope you're not planning on driving there right now. I was watching the Weather Channel in preparation for tomorrow morning's flight. The storm has changed; Colorado is about to get slammed with at least two feet. Best to play it safe and wait it out. You can't afford to get stuck, or in an accident.'
    Karim was right. Visibility was poor; Fletcher could barely see the highway.
    'It goes without saying that I'd like your assistance on this, Malcolm. That being said, I've put you in an odd and uncomfortable situation. If you need to disappear, I understand.'
    Fletcher thought about the shell casing in the evidence bag and said, 'I need a portable mass spectrometer - a new model, and preferably one manufactured in the UK.' British companies were always on the cutting edge of forensics.
    'I'll get you one,' Karim said. 'When will you be arriving in Chicago?'
    'Let's meet Monday morning, at six.'
    'Six it is. Give me the address.'
    Fletcher gave it to him.
    'If you're going to be late, please call me,' Karim said. 'A dark-skinned man like myself loitering on the streets and holding a big, bulky suitcase - well, we don't need anyone conducting racial-profiling and summoning the police about a possible terror threat, now do we?'
    'Paulson won't be driving you?' Boyd Paulson was Karim's personal bodyguard. Born in Dublin, raised in London, the pugnacious former boxer had been attached to Karim since the beginning of time - and rarely let Karim out of his sight, as Karim had been the target of many death threats over the years.
    'Boyd is on holiday,' Karim said. 'If you need anything else - anything at all - call me.'
    'I will.'
    'Malcolm ... There's nothing you could have done to save her.'
    'I'll see you Monday,' Fletcher said, and hung up.

10
    When Lisa Alcione turned nineteen, she ran off to Los Angeles with the man she'd later marry, swearing to her parents she'd never return to Morrison, Colorado. She was forced to return once, to attend her mother's funeral. Her husband, Tony, had not joined her. Business obligations.
    He's up to no good , her father had told her. A pig dressed up in a suit is still a pig, Lisa .
    And now here she was, thirty-five and newly divorced, back in Morrison, back to working the front counter of her father's 'family-friendly' motel, with its quick and easy access to the ski slopes. Maybe the family-friendly thing was true thirty years ago, but now the place catered to budget travellers and cost-conscious adulterers from Denver who paid for rooms in cash and registered under false names.
    Standing behind the front counter, she watched her father clearing away the snow in his rickety Ford pickup. She'd been here only two months, and there didn't seem to be