Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child [50]
“What impact? What did your mother do with this guy called John?”
Svetlana Hoth stared on into space, uncomprehending. Lila Hoth sat down again. She said, “My mother has never spoken in detail about it. Certainly it can’t have been espionage. My mother was not a traitor. I say that not as a loyal daughter, but as a realist. She is still alive. Therefore she was never suspected. And her American friend was not a traitor, either. Liaising with foreign traitors was a KGB function, not army. And personally I doubt that her interest was romantic. It was more likely aid of some sort, personal help, either financial or political. Possibly covert. Those were bad times for the Soviet Union. But possibly it was romantic. All she has ever said is that the man was very kind to her. She plays her cards close to her chest.”
“Ask her again, now.”
“I have asked her many times, as you can imagine. She’s reluctant to say.”
“But you think Sansom isn’t actually involved?”
“No, not at all. That was a joke that got out of hand. That’s all. Unless, of course, it really is a million-to-one thing. Which would be extraordinary, don’t you think? To joke about something and have it turn out to be true?”
I said nothing.
Lila Hoth said, “Now may I ask you a question? Did Susan Mark give you the information intended for my mother?”
Svetlana Hoth smiled and nodded again. I began to suspect she recognized the words my mother. Like a dog that wags its tail when it hears its name. I said, “Why would you think Susan Mark gave me information?”
“Because the people I hired here told me you told them that she had. Computerized, on a USB memory stick. They gave me that message, and transmitted your photograph, and resigned their commission. I’m not sure why. I was paying them very well.”
I moved in my chair and stuck my hand in my pocket. Scrabbled down past the disassembled phone and found the Radio Shack stick. I felt the soft pink neoprene sleeve against my fingernails. I pulled it out and held it up and watched Lila Hoth’s eyes very carefully.
She looked at the stick the way a cat looks at a bird.
She asked, “Is that really it?”
Theresa Lee moved in her chair and looked at me. Like she was asking, Are you going to say it, or am I? Lila Hoth caught the glance and asked, “What?”
I said, “The whole thing looked very different to me, I’m afraid. Susan Mark was terrified on the train. She was in big trouble. She didn’t look like a person coming to town to meet a friend for dinner and a show.”
Lila Hoth said, “I told you at the beginning, I can’t explain that.”
I put the memory stick back in my pocket. Said, “Susan didn’t bring an overnight bag.”
“I can’t explain it.”
“And she dumped her car and approached by subway. Which is weird. If you were prepared to book a room for her, I’m sure you would have sprung for valet parking.”
“Sprung?”
“Paid for.”
“Of course.”
“And she was carrying a loaded gun.”
“She lived in Virginia. I heard it’s compulsory there.”
“It’s legal there,” I said. “Not compulsory.”
“I can’t explain it. I’m sorry.”
“And her son is missing. Last seen leaving a bar, with a woman of your age and roughly your description.”
“Missing?”
“Disappeared.”
“A woman of my description?”
“A total babe.”
“What does that mean?”
“A good-looking young woman.”
“What bar?”
“Somewhere in LA.”
“Los Angeles?”
“In California.”
“I haven’t been to Los Angeles. Never in my life. I have only been in New York.”
I said nothing.
She said, “Look around you. I have been here in New York three days on a tourist visa and I occupy three rooms in a commercial hotel. I have no crew, as you call it. I have never been to California.”
I said nothing.
She said, “Looks are subjective. And I’m not the only woman my age. There are six billion people in the world. Trending young, for sure. Half of them are fifteen or younger. Which means there are still three billion people sixteen or older. Following the curve, perhaps twelve percent of them are in their middle twenties.