The parking garage was quiet.
That was one piece of good luck.
Hain exited the elevator and started looking for the Lexus. He found it quickly, its hood longer than the cars either side of it, the front end nosing out, like an animal breaking from cover. He checked around him again, making sure that no one else was on this level, then hurried down the angle of the ramp. As he walked, he started going over the back story he’d already invented for the man called Stewart Laurence Hain. His time as Nick Tillman was done. That ID was finished. It had been finished the second Axel called him and told him what had happened. Tillman, however careful he’d been, was a trail that could eventually lead back to this moment. Hain wasn’t. Hain was brand new, an alias that was a complete dead end.
The front seat of the Lexus came into view.
Axel was on the driver’s side, his hands on the wheel, shirt unbuttoned at the top and black tie removed. Their eyes met through the windshield.
Under Hain’s gaze, Axel shrivelled.
Hain picked up the pace, his attention switching to the rest of the garage, searching for signs of people exiting the elevator, arriving, on phones, smoking in corners. He was still in the clear. When he got within sight of the Lexus, Axel buzzed down the window, but Hain didn’t wait: he yanked the driver’s side door open.
‘Get out,’ he hissed.
‘Thanks for coming –’
‘Get the fuck out.’
Axel did exactly as he was asked.
‘Button up your shirt and put on your tie.’
As Axel followed his instructions, Hain took yet another look around the garage. ‘Did anyone see you down here?’
Axel shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Positive.’
Hain glanced inside the Lexus.
‘What am I going to do?’ Axel asked.
‘Lower your voice.’
‘What am I going to do?’ he repeated, a whisper this time.
‘You’re not going to do anything.’
Axel frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
Hain ripped his eyes away from the Lexus, then turned to Axel, his face burning with rage. He wanted to break this prick in half, choke him, beat him. Instead, he took a breath, and said, ‘I mean, you’re not going to do anything. You’re going to go upstairs and act like nothing ever happened.’
They stared at each other.
Hain frowned. ‘What? That’s a stretch for you?’
‘No, I just …’
‘You just what?’
‘I just don’t know what to say to everyone.’
Hain gave Axel a long, withering look. ‘Are you shitting me?’
‘No, I –’
‘You’re the biggest fucking liar I ever met in my life. You lie to people all the time. It’s what you do. It’s who you are. So think of this as just another piece of ass and I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with something credible.’
‘Okay,’ Axel muttered again, belittled.
‘People need to believe everything is normal. You need to go up there and be Axel, or Daniel, or whatever the fuck you’re calling yourself tonight.’
‘I know.’
‘So look normal.’
Axel straightened his clothes. His hair.
‘If you’re not convincing,’ Hain said, ‘you screw us both.’
Axel didn’t respond.
Hain took a step closer. ‘You understand?’
Axel nodded.
Hain grabbed hold of his neck. ‘You don’t look like you’re listening to me.’ He was speaking through his teeth, spitting the words into Axel’s face. ‘I’m not going down for this, you hear me?’
Axel tried to nod again but couldn’t move his head.
‘You hear me?’
‘I hear you,’ he wheezed.
Hain held him there for a moment, against the car, digging his nails into Axel’s throat. And then, finally, he released his grip and stepped away.
He looked inside the Lexus again.
Louise Mason’s dead eyes stared back.