Dead Roots (The Analyst) (33 page)

“Could've fooled me. But that's good. He's bad news.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.”

“How's your friend doing?”

“Who, Artie?”

“No, the Asian one.”

“Oh, Keda? He's fine. Why?”

Evey tapped the end of her cigarette. “Well, after that big fight him and Harold had... I dunno, I thought he might be in some kind of trouble. Harold's not a guy to let go of a grudge easily.”

Tom sipped some water. “Harold and Keda had a fight? When?”

“After that thing at the club,” Evey started, blowing out a big cloud of smoke. “Harold took me back to his penthouse to 'deal' with me.”

“Pig,” Tom spat.

“Yeah. Well, that friend of yours turned up, and they had a big screaming match about something... most of it was in Japanese, so I don't know what it was about. Then it just sort of stopped. I waited a little bit and looked out into the living room, and Keda was still there, but Harold was out cold on the ground and your friend was just taking off out of the place like he was making off with a million dollars.”

Tom stubbed his cigarette out. The gears in his head were turning.

“I woke Harold up and he was just livid. Started screaming about something in Japanese, I figured your friend took off with some of his cash or drugs or whatever. Sounded like he was going to track him down. Good to hear he made it back safe.”

Tom stood up. He fished for his phone.

“Where are you going?”

“Phone call.”

Tom headed to the back of the restaurant. He looked around, making sure nobody was in earshot, and dialed.

The phone rang a few times. Tom tapped his foot impatiently. His heart was racing.

“Hello?” Keda answered.

“Hi, Keda,” Tom said in a theatrically friendly voice.

“Hello, Tom,” Keda answered genially. “How's your break going?”

“Keda, why didn't you tell me you went to Harold's
penthouse
and took Aki
away from him?
”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths

The valiant never taste of death but once.”

William Shakespeare,
Julius Caesar