Читать книгу The Fixer - John Stewart - Страница 10

Chapter 5

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The next morning Ezra got up and made Henry his typical breakfast. They sat in silence while they ate. Henry finally looked up from his paper and stared at Ezra.

Ezra felt his gaze. “What, Henry. Why do you stare at me?”

Henry laid the paper down. “You are a beautiful woman, Ezra.”

Ezra smiled. “Thank you, Henry.”

Henry picked the paper back up and began to read. “Ezra, you cross me, and I will make you disappear.”

Ezra got up and picked up the plates from the table. She put them in the sink and walked out of the kitchen. She went to her workroom where she painted and closed the door. The burner phone was hidden there amongst her painting supplies. She pulled the phone out and texted Agent Bahar.

“Meet today. Same place 3 p.m.”

She turned the phone back off and put it away.

An hour later, Henry opened the door and came in. He came around behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. He looked down at the painting she was working on. It was a self-portrait of Ezra in a garden. In the portrait, she was crying. Whatever Henry was about to say left him as his eyes fell on the painting.

Henry stared at the painting for a long minute. In it, Ezra was in all white, sitting on an iron bench in a garden full of flowers. The color of the garden was brilliant all around an almost black-and-white version of Ezra. She held a handkerchief in her hand to her right eye, wiping away the tears rolling down her cheek.

Henry just stood there behind her. His original intimidating firm grip on her shoulder softened, and one hand went from her shoulder to his chin. Ezra turned and looked up at him. “What do you see?”

Henry pulled his eyes away from the painting and looked at her face. The hand on his chin came down and gently touched the side of her face. “Beautiful, sad.”

He took his hand away and began walking to the door. Ezra started to speak but stopped. There was nothing there for her to say really. She was a prisoner, and her father had put her here. To defy Henry was also defying her father and her family. She would never be able to speak to them again. If she did this, she would be alone in the world.

Henry stopped at the door, partially looking back. “I’m leaving now. I will be back next week. I will leave you money for shopping on the counter.”

Ezra grinned at the guilt behavior. She mumbled out the words “thank you” as he closed the door behind him.

She wasn’t sure if he knew and would have her killed while he was gone or not. She had been very careful meeting with Bahar and made sure no one was following her when she went to the dress shop. It was a frequent store for her, so there was no suspicion really. She would use the excuse today if asked that she was returning a dress that didn’t fit. A very normal thing for her. She didn’t travel with bodyguards or anything like that. Henry did, but she was always expendable to him, and she knew he would never pay a ransom if she were kidnapped.

She walked to the front window and watched as Henry’s car drove out through the gated entrance. She was alone once again. It was peaceful for her when he wasn’t there. No fear of him getting angry at her as he often did. She could dress as she pleased, eat what she wanted to, and do whatever she wanted. When he was there, she walked on eggshells.

She pulled the burner phone out and powered it up. A text came up immediately.

“I’ll be there.”

Ezra turned the phone back off and looked at her watch. Ten thirty in the morning. She had plenty of time before the meeting.

Ezra went all through the house, making sure she was alone. She looked for hidden cameras as she went. She often wondered if Henry watched her from some phone app to keep tabs on her. She got to the office door and found it locked. She never remembered Henry locking the door before. If he didn’t know, he was definitely suspicious. Ezra knew that would not end well for her.

She left the house an hour later and headed for town, where she would shop and eat and then casually be at the dress store at three. She didn’t have anything, but she wanted to know how far the NSA or FBI would go to help her if she did get serious information. Would they hide her in witness relocation, or were they going to just use her and then let Henry kill her in a rage?

She walked in the store and saw Bahar looking at shirts. The two made eye contact, and Ezra went to the counter. She explained the dress didn’t fit and she wanted to swap for another. The clerk was pleasant and told her to just pick another and try it on. Bahar went to the dressing room and went in a stall. Ezra headed back as well with a new dress. As soon as she was in the room, Bahar came under the wall.

They shook hands. “What do you have? Are you in trouble?”

Ezra sat on the bench in the room. “I’m scared. Henry is suspicious, I know it. I want to help all the way, and I want to get away from him. There is no doubt in my mind that he is helping these terrorists, but I can’t prove it. He has a ledger he writes everything in, but it’s in his safe, and I don’t have the combination. He left today, and he even locked his study door. What am I supposed to do?”

Bahar reached out and took Ezra’s hands. “Slow down. If Henry knew, he would have said or done something. Are you sure you were not followed today?”

“Yes. I was careful and have been shopping for a few hours. I stopped and ate lunch. I don’t have a bodyguard or anything. Henry does, but I don’t. He would never pay anyone if I got kidnapped. He would let them kill me.”

Bahar frowned. “I’m sorry, Ezra. If you can get information for us, I can get you into witness protection. Otherwise, I really can’t do much.”

“I’ll testify that I saw the men in the pictures at our home. Won’t that work?”

Bahar shook her head. “I’m sorry. We have nothing to charge your husband with. We can’t find a money trail. We can’t find any criminal activity anywhere. It’s not against the law to know a terrorist. Unfortunately.”

“What if I let you guys into the house and give you permission to search. You don’t need a warrant if I ask you in, right?”

Bahar smiled. “We could come in and look around, but we can’t crack his safe without a warrant. We can’t get a warrant without probable cause. We have nothing but suspicion where your husband is concerned. He made a donation years ago to one of these groups, and when questioned, he told us it was a onetime deal, and he didn’t know who they were. He makes a lot of donations to a lot of groups.”

“But what about the pictures? Doesn’t that prove he’s involved?”

“It raises our suspicion quite a bit, yes. It makes us watch him and question who he is. Still not enough to charge him with anything. It’s a slow process. I’m sorry.”

“If I stay there, he will kill me.”

“Then don’t stay. You are protected here in the US. Restraining orders and things. Divorce him. Did you sign prenups?”

Ezra began to cry. “Yes. I get nothing if I leave. If I do, I can’t even go home. My father will disown me. I would be alone, and he will still kill me.”

“Then wait. Do whatever you have to and pay attention. If you can get some kind of evidence on him, we can help you. If you could get your hands on that ledger, it would be great. But no risking your life for it.”

“Yeah, if I disappear, I’m telling you now he killed me. If I run, I will let you know. If he catches me doing anything, I’m dead.”

A knock came to the door. “Is everything okay in there?”

Bahar put her finger to her lips. “Yes. Be out in a minute.”

She got down and went under the wall. Once on the other side, she leaned against the wall between them. “Hang in there, Ezra.”

Ezra put her hand against the wall and started crying.

Henry got home that next week. He did not have another woman with him as he had said. He asked Ezra for the self-portrait he had seen before his trip. She went to her workroom and got it. The final painting was beautiful. Henry stood there looking at the painting and was amazed at her talent. Two days later he called her into his study.

Ezra entered the room cautiously. This was not a room she was in very often. As she came in, she looked and saw the safe open. Her gaze went to his desk, and there laid the ledger. Her eye went up and met his as he stood behind the desk. He pointed at the wall. Ezra followed his finger to the wall, and there was her painting in a beautiful gold frame centered between the two windows.

Henry held out a black sharpie. “Sign it in the bottom corner.”

Ezra shook her head no. “I don’t want to. It would be…” She paused, not knowing the word in English. “Mutabajih,” she spoke in Arabic.

Henry laughed. “Boastful! You’re damn right it is. That painting is as good as any Da Vinci out there.”

Ezra looked down. “No, it is not.”

He shook the pen at her. “Sign it!”

Ezra took the pen and signed the corner. She looked at the painting for a long moment. She capped the pen and finally turned to face Henry. “Do you know what I call it?”

Henry looked intently at the painting and then to her face. “No.”

She smiled and set the pen on his desk. “Finality,” she said with a sad whisper.

Henry looked back at the painting and came to Ezra, taking her into his arms. “Why do you feel this way?”

She looked at the desk, at the ledger. She nodded her chin toward the book. “Tell me why the FBI came here questioning you? Tell me why you lock that book in the safe for no one to see but you? I fear that my life will end because I know you.”

Henry let her go and stepped back toward the desk. He just stared at her as he slid the book toward her. “Read it.”

Ezra folded her arms across her chest, hugging herself tightly as she shook her head no. Henry turned the book so the writing faced her, and she could read it.

She took a step back and looked at Henry. “I don’t want to know what’s in that book. I am afraid if I do, you will kill me. That is why I painted the picture. My life has no meaning to it. I have accepted my own death as it will surely come.”

Henry picked up the book. “Your NSA buddy Bahar will want to know this information the next time you meet.”

Ezra’s eyes met his with desperate fear in them. She started to step away when he grabbed her arm so tightly she felt his fingertips dig into her skin. “Please, Henry, I don’t want to know anything. I don’t want to die.”

“Too late for that. You made that choice the first time you agreed to meet in secret. Did you not think I was keeping track of what you do when I’m away?”

Ezra desperately searched for an answer she could give that would not end with her dead. “I was afraid, Henry. I have no idea what you’re into or who you meet with. The FBI was here, and the next thing I know, I’m being asked to pick men out of pictures in a dress store. I don’t know how to handle any of this. I’m scared of them and you. I might as well be in the deserts of Egypt. I have a better chance there than here.”

Henry smiled. “I can make that happen for you.”

Ezra pulled her arm away. “Henry, what did you expect. You treat me like a slave. You have never loved me. You and my father made some kind of deal, and I was the offering he gave you. You bring other women to our bed, and you treat me like I don’t matter. You barely talk to me. Tell me why you support these men that want to kill? You are American, why would you want to hurt your own people?”

Henry slapped her so hard she fell to the ground. “I am not American. You watch the way you talk to me, Ezra. You don’t know what this country has done to me. How much they take from me every day. The entire system is corrupt and needs to be destroyed. I support people who agree with me.”

“You support terrorists, Henry.”

“What has this NSA lady asked you to find out? You told her about this ledger? My safe? What else?”

Ezra said nothing. Henry stepped toward her quickly, and Ezra covered her head with both arms, fearing the blow that was coming. “Nothing else. I don’t know anything to tell them, Henry. They won’t leave me alone. They want me to find out information about who you help.”

Henry thought about this for a moment. He walked back behind his desk and slid the ledger back over in front of him. In it were names of men he had given money to. Organizations he was affiliated with and contact info. People he could call and get a ship through the Strait of Hormuz without any trouble. Information on sources and groups that could get him anywhere in the Middle East he wanted to go. There was information in this book that could land him in jail for sure.

Ezra was crying, still sitting on the floor. Henry looked at her as he closed the book. He put it back in the safe and closed it. He knew the NSA would not drop this. He couldn’t kill Ezra now that she had made contact with them. He would be the prime suspect. He had to make this end with information she could deliver that would lead to nowhere. He looked back at Ezra. She had been a good wife to him and put up with everything he had done.

Henry went back around the desk and bent down next to her. He reached out and cupped her face, making her look at him. “I know you’re scared. I’m not going to hurt you. I put you in this position, and I’ll get you out. If you help me stop the NSA from looking, I will give you your freedom.”

Ezra looked into his eyes. “What assurances do I have you won’t just kill me later?”

“None. You can help me and take your chances, or I will kill you and disappear in the Middle East. How do you want this to work?”

Ezra smiled. “I choose to live, so tell me what to do.”

Henry helped her up. “I will go out of town next week. I will give you the combination to the safe. You take the ledger to the NSA lady and let her copy anything she wants. When I get back, I will give you money and a divorce. You can go wherever you want and start a new life. I give you my word if you get them off me, I will leave you alone.”

“Obviously what I give them will not be the real ledger, will it?”

“It will be close enough to make them have suspicion but not enough to get me into trouble. I will break off my ties to the groups that do harm. It is not worth going to jail over.”

“And you will give me enough money to start a new life?”

“Yes. You help me, and I will help you. You are wrong about me. I do love you, Ezra, in my own way. No one ever loved me, and I have trouble loving openly. I have trust issues. You have been a good wife to me. I will let you go live whatever life you want.”

Ezra turned and walked out of the room. That day she moved her things into one of the other bedrooms. She didn’t know if she could trust Henry, but she would take the deal. She knew how to disappear as well. Once she had his money and the money she had hidden away, she would get the NSA to change her name, and she would vanish.

What scared her was that Henry knew that she had met with them, and he knew Bahar’s name. He had friends everywhere, and she knew he was dangerous no matter what he said. He needed her right now, and her life was safe as long as that was the case. She would give the information to the NSA and disappear.

Henry spent the next several days going through the ledger. He put as much information in the fake ledger as he could without incriminating himself with connections directly to any of the terrorist groups. A few that listed were sketchy but nothing that would bring him down. The NSA wouldn’t be getting the ledger in an illegal manner, so the information would just draw attention but nothing else. He would redirect funds as needed going forward, and the original ledger would be destroyed. He could get through this without any real trouble.

When Henry finished it, he called Ezra to his study. She came in, and Henry had the ledger lying on the desk. He watched her as she entered. She looked at the ledger. “Take it to your friends once I leave town. Tell them what I told you and then put it back in the safe. Make up some story about finding the combination in my desk. I will change it when I get back.”

“What about the money. Once I do this, I’m not coming back here. I will tell them I have to leave right then.”

“No money until I know you have delivered this ledger to them.”

Henry pointed at the fireplace, and Ezra turned to see the real ledger burning. She took a small step in that direction and saw Henry’s arm raise. She stopped and looked at him, only to see the gun pointed at her head. She froze in place.

“Take another step towards that fire and you will die right here. Double-cross me in our arrangement and I will have you tortured and killed. Do anything else that puts my freedom in jeopardy, I will have you killed. Do you understand me, Ezra?”

She stepped back toward the desk and picked up the ledger. “Yes, I understand, but when you leave here, you will never see me again. I want to live my life, Henry. Not in fear of you. I will play this part and then go away.”

Henry came around the desk and looked closely into Ezra’s eyes. “You open a bank account with the money you already have hidden. A Swiss account. Text me the account number and I will transfer the money next week when I get back. Can you handle that?”

Ezra again was shocked that he knew about the money. “You have spied on me every day of my life here, haven’t you?”

Henry smiled. “I pay people well to keep me informed. I needed to know what you were doing while I was away.”

Ezra turned and walked out of the office. “I will keep my word, you do the same.”

Henry turned and walked to the fireplace. He pushed the book around with a poker, making sure every page burned. The pages that had burned he stirred so that no page could be read. He had to be certain that nothing in the real ledger would ever fall into the wrong hands. He knew once the feds had the fake ledger, they would come with a search warrant. He needed them to find only one version of the book. He would send Ezra the money and then track it down and find out where she was. Once he knew, he would have her killed and erased from his life.

Ezra woke the next morning to an empty house. Henry left ten thousand dollars on the counter with a phone number. The note said to text the account number to that phone when the ledger was back in the safe. Below that was the combination to the safe. Ezra went to her workroom and got the burner phone. She texted Bahar to meet her immediately, that she had the ledger and they could copy it. She let her know that she had to return it to the safe immediately and that she wanted a new identity with passport and driver’s license.

Ezra stared at the phone, waiting for a reply. Nothing came. She paced around the room for ten minutes. Nothing. She texted again. “Must meet now. Have the ledger now.”

A few more minutes went by, and the phone dinged. “Good to meet now, same place?”

Ezra sighed with relief. “Yes. What about passport and ID?”

She waited. Ding! “Working on it. How long to the meet?”

“One hour.”

Ezra looked around her studio at the paintings and her supplies. She wondered if she should pack them now or do it later. She really didn’t want to even come back to this house, for fear Henry would blow the place up with her in it as soon as he saw her put the ledger back in the safe.

She grabbed her brushes and a few other supplies. She went to her bedroom next. She grabbed a medium-sized suitcase from the closet and began to put the items she wanted in the case. Once that was packed, she went downstairs to Henry’s study. She put the combination in the lock and opened the door to the safe.

The safe was pretty clean compared to normal. Henry had obviously cleaned it out. There was still a good bit of cash in there and a pistol. Some business papers and random other things. Ezra didn’t want to touch anything. The gun was probably a setup anyway. She didn’t want her fingerprints on it. She left the safe open and began to pack her stuff. She went to the kitchen and went to the lower drawer where she had hidden the money. She had it inside a roaster pan she almost never used. When she pulled the pan out, it felt very light.

Ezra snatched the lid off only to find a note from Henry. “Ezra, I took this money to make sure you did the right thing. Protect me and I will give you this back along with what I promised. I am impressed you have put this much away over the years.”

She slammed the lid of the pot and threw it across the kitchen. Screaming as she did it. She went back to the safe and looked at the money on the top shelf. She eased a stack over with a tip of a pen to make sure it wasn’t a trap. Nothing happened, and she picked up one of the stacks. As she took her thumb and fanned the end of the bills, she saw that it was fake. There was a hundred on top of nothing but white paper under the top bill. She threw the stack back in the safe.

Ezra packed her car and headed for the dress shop. She knew in the back of her head that if she didn’t disappear, Henry would kill her for sure. As Ezra turned out of the neighborhood, she rolled the window down and threw her cell phone into the bushes. Once the meeting with Bahar was over, she would get another burner on the way out of town and trash the one she had. She was never coming back to that house. She knew she would never get the money from Henry. Even the new car she was driving would have to go. It was equipped with GPS and could be tracked as well.

Ezra began to cry as she headed into town. Henry was the meanest man she had ever known.