Ellie stood at the door and looked down the deserted street. The Embassy’s HKR team would not respond to her distress call if she issued one. Scott was still watching her, but there was nothing he could do for her, now that Solomon’s imprimatur had been revoked. She didn’t care. She was certain she had Ameena’s killer. She just wanted to look him in the eye.
It was almost midnight but she was sure he would meet her. Her message to the journalist’s confidential source had been clear.
Narada. I know it was you. I want to know why. Meet me at the usual place. I’m alone.
She tried the door but it was locked. She slashed away the police tape, took out her P&N set and opened the lock on the brothel door. The staff had disappeared into the labyrinth of streets after the shooting.
She followed the corridor to the atrium and looked up to where Manisha had been killed. Moonlight drifted down like a muslin canopy over a bed.
Everything was still.
She climbed the stairs to the first floor and pushed the door open. The familiar fragrance washed over her. He was waiting. She wasn’t surprised but it was still painful to see him there. Betrayal hurt.
‘How did you get in?’ she asked.
‘The back door. I never use the front. Too conspicuous.’
‘Of course, you wouldn’t want to be seen entering an establishment like this,’ she replied.
‘How did you know?’ Tenby asked. He was sitting on the leather chair by the window, his body tense. He shifted the gun from one hand to the other and then back again, as though unsure of which hand he should use to pull the trigger. ‘I’m sorry, Ellie, but I need to do this. Lie down on the floor. You’re better trained than me.’
She complied. The wooden floor smelled of resin.
Tenby stood over her, gun in one hand as the other checked her body for weapons and surveillance.
‘Get up. Slowly.’ He backed away, gun still trained on her. ‘Where’s Arjuna?’
‘In the ER, Colombo General. His nose is a mess. I didn’t tell him anything. Let’s keep this between us for now.’
‘Why would you do that?’ he asked.
‘Because I’m first and foremost a US agent, even though Solomon doubts that. And I want to know for sure. I want to know why.’ It was the truth.
‘I want to know how. How did you know it was me?’ His voice shook as much as his hands. He probably hadn’t held a gun since his early retirement from active duty.
‘I didn’t at first. Not for a long time. I was looking in the direction you pointed me. I was looking at the Sri Lankans, the Chinese, even Shirani’s husband. I was looking everywhere but right in front of me.’
‘And then?’
‘Little things, I suppose. This room has a particular smell. The incense Manisha burned here to give the room its orthodox feel. It’s all over you. It’s similar to something my dad’s neighbour uses.’ It had taken her a while to work out why it was so familiar. She lowered her hands gradually and continued. ‘The hairshirt on the door. You’ve always been a bit of a self-flagellator and you kept scratching your neck and chest.’
‘That could have been anything. I could have eczema.’ He scratched nervously.
‘You could. Absolutely. But then Arjuna told me Solomon’s EA had sent him to pick Solomon up instead of me, and I eventually remembered that Solomon’s EA is also yours now that you’ve been promoted to First Secretary.’
Tenby nodded. ‘One of the many perks of the job.’
‘No doubt. And then in the market, at Pettah, I was followed by the man on the motorcycle and the CID guys from the van, and my protection detail was nowhere to be seen. Someone had called off the team. Someone with authority—another perk of the job, you can command without question.’
‘Could have been Solomon, he hates you.’
‘He hates paperwork more, and it’s not personal for him.’ She shrugged. ‘Then when we were taken to the CID building, and you didn’t come for us—’
‘We could have been late,’ Tenby pointed out.
‘I know the scramble protocols, Tenby, at least in Colombo. I worked here long enough. You delayed Special Ops because you wanted to know what I knew. You let them torture Arjuna …’ She paused to regain control of her voice. ‘Then there was this.’ She pulled Ameena’s ring out of her pocket. ‘Manisha’s final words led me to the confessional. This was in there.’
‘That sicko took it. An execution trophy,’ Tenby shuddered. ‘He gave it to me, as if I wanted it. I left it in the confessional the day before Manisha died.’
‘You thought it would incriminate her?’
‘Yes, but it seems it didn’t work,’ he replied. ‘So, protocol breaches, ecclesiastical clues and a ring were my undoing.’
‘That, and at the Cricket Club, Dilshan Perera used a phrase that’s more American than English or Sri Lankan. He said everyone wanted a seat at the table.’
‘A culturally out-of-place idiom led you to me?’
‘No, but it made me suspicious. You’ve been too keen to concede too much on every aid discussion. You’re much better at your job than that. It made me think about who wanted a seat at the table and who had already taken the best ones. The US is on the outside here.’
‘India’s on the outside too,’ he argued.
‘Yes, but they aren’t well-resourced or well-connected enough for this kind of hit. For example, tampering with the CCTV footage—not many people can do that.’
He nodded. ‘Dilshan took care of that.’
She exhaled, relieved it wasn’t Scott.
‘Why didn’t you suspect Dilshan?’ he asked. ‘The Sri Lankans had the most to gain by her death.’
‘I didn’t rule him out. Ameena was shot, and before her body was cold, a warrant was issued by an old friend of Dilshan’s to confiscate all of her papers. He was looking for Ameena’s final article—and I think you convinced him I could find it. That’s why, when Redmond asked for forty-eight hours more in Sri Lanka, Dilshan agreed, when all he really wanted to do was put a bullet in my brain.’
‘Crude but true,’ Tenby nodded.
Tenby and Dilshan had used her. It didn’t matter whether her diplomatic immunity was revoked or not. What mattered was that she found the article for them.
‘Dilshan was looking for something, but you were hiding something, isn’t that right, Tenner?’ she said, provoking him.
‘I told you to stop fucking calling me that.’ The gun waved in front of her.
‘I think you were Ameena’s source. You were Narada, the mythological troublemaker. I think you met her here regularly and told her the secrets you’d found out about the Chinese and the Sri Lankans, from the safety of this confessional box.’
‘Yes.’
‘You were trying to do the right thing, trying to reveal the truth,’ Ellie said. ‘But then she worked out something else about you, didn’t she? She worked out who you are and that you’re a paedophile. You really did pay that kid ten dollars. It wasn’t an accident. What’s the going rate now, Tenner?’
‘She should have stayed out of it. It was so easy. All she had to do was take the information we were giving her. It was good intel, with plenty of primary correspondence to back it up. Take it and publish it, keep the Chinese busy, that was the deal.’
‘What did she threaten you with?’ Ellie asked softly. ‘Was she going to expose you?’
He nodded.
‘Ameena used the words “palm sugar” in her notebook to describe the perks that were given to sweeten deals. The Chinese gave arms to the Sri Lankans and the Sri Lankans sweetened the deal with preferences on infrastructure contracts.’
‘That’s got nothing to do with me.’
‘No, but I think you agreed to kill Ameena for the Sri Lankan government to sweeten a deal with them. I just don’t understand the deal. Explain it to me. I’d like to know why.’
‘For that proverbial seat at the table, of course. The Chinese were taking everything they wanted. We tried to undermine them by leaking intel through Ameena. It worked for a while. The Sri Lankans were getting nervous, even the Chinese. She had another big piece planned, one she’d kept secret from everyone. The story, the evidence, it was all off-site. She knew she was in trouble.’
‘She just didn’t know from where.’
‘No, I guess not. She should have published that piece,’ he said.
‘But instead?’
‘She started looking into me and others … like me. Foreign officials who were using some of Manisha’s less acceptable services. Everyone does it in Sri Lanka. There’s a whole tourist trade aimed at …’
‘Paedophiles?’
‘I’m not a paedophile,’ Tenby said. ‘I’m not, Ellie. You don’t know how hard I’ve tried. How hard I’ve prayed …’
The sick fuck. All the praying and confessing wouldn’t change that.
‘How’s that working out for you?’
He flinched. ‘I’m not a paedophile,’ he repeated.
‘Diplomatic paedophiles—that’s a big story, more interesting to the West than genocide. One that can’t be ignored.’
‘That’s exactly what she should have done. She should have ignored it. You’re just like her, Ellie. You never know when to stop. Too curious, too outraged by injustice, too good at your job. You need to just stop.’
‘So, you stopped her?’
‘Yes, I stopped her! I told Dilshan that we had intel she was planning another exposé about them. I suggested that we could assist him with the Ameena problem, in exchange for …’
‘A seat at the table,’ Ellie finished softly.
‘Yes.’
‘And Solomon?’ she asked.
‘He’s the one who asked me to leak the information to Ameena in the first place. He wanted China exposed. He doesn’t know about my … about me.’
‘And the hit? Did he know about the hit, Tenby?’ She tried not to raise her voice.
‘No. That was between Dilshan and me. I retained someone we’ve used in the past. A freelancer, ex-CID. I retained him privately.’
‘Without Solomon’s knowledge?’ she asked again.
‘Don’t sound so surprised, Ellie. The First Secretary of the US Embassy has his own budget and little black book of dirty contacts.’ He shifted the gun again and then held it with both hands.
‘And Manisha? Was that you?’
‘Yes. It’s a shame, I liked her. But loose ends, you know how it is.’
Ellie glared.
‘Don’t look at me like that. You’ve got your share of sins and secrets. Shirani and the kid should be on your conscience, not mine.’
‘They are.’ She backed towards the door, raising her arms again. ‘Don’t shoot me, Tenby. At least not in this room.’
‘Stop moving, Ellie!’ Tenby shouted. ‘Stop or I will shoot you!’
She wanted him to shoot.
‘Sure,’ she turned and walked out the door. He ran after her, the moonlight enveloping them both in its milky shroud.
‘Dammit, Ellie. Don’t mess with me. I came here to kill you.’
‘Then do it,’ she said, looking up.
Too late, Tenby followed her gaze. Arjuna waited with a sniper rifle on the roof.
A shot rang out, but not from the direction she expected. Tenby’s face exploded in a hibiscus bloom of blood splatter. His lifeless body sank to its knees. There was a second shot from the same direction. Arjuna cried out and dropped his rifle.
‘No!’ she shouted.
A third shot from the same direction. Tenby’s torso jerked forward. It was a gratuitous bullet, sent to show that the sniper could have killed her, but didn’t.
She spotted the shooter. He grabbed his rifle and folded it efficiently. He saluted her one last time and ran down to the motorcycle she knew was waiting below.