Читать книгу The Good Liar - Laura Caldwell, Leslie S. Klinger - Страница 19

Anguilla, West Indies

L iza sat on her balcony at Cap Juluca resort. Below her, the white sand was combed smooth and the morning sun glittered like diamonds on the aqua of the Caribbean Sea. She turned her attention to the table in front of her. Like many vacationers at the resort, Liza’s table bore coffee, rolls and the mini version of the New York Times. But Liza was not a vacationer, and so she pushed away the rolls, took a sip of her black coffee and opened up the complete version of the Times on her BlackBerry.

It was hard to focus on the articles. Normally, when she was on a job like this, focus was never a problem. But now Aleksei was gone, and she hadn’t been able to find out a damn thing about the crash. The Trust, which knew all about her and Aleksei and also knew that she might be distracted by his death, had sent her on this mission to Anguilla. She’d been grateful, but now she was finding that she was the distraction.

Normally, Liza would conduct surveillance and collect intel, and if an elimination was necessary, and only then, would she design the job based on what she’d found. In this situation, she hadn’t performed the legwork, she’d just been asked to take care of the end result. The piecemeal approach was the way the Trust seemed to work these days, which made Liza uncomfortable. She liked to know everything about a project and a target. Today’s mission was a simple one, at least for her, but seemingly simple jobs could turn into chaos if the operative wasn’t completely attentive and alert.

So Liza tried to put aside thoughts of Aleksei and questions about his death. Later, she told herself. Later. Yet she found it impossible not to remember.