Her face went rigid. “No. Of course not. But . . . well . . . maybe they weren’t coming to kill you.”

He expelled a breath. “Why else would men with guns sneak into our apartment?”

Alisha turned her face away. It was only a momentary dipping of her chin, but Rickard caught it. It was a sign of deception. He recalled the smell of the lead assassin’s cologne and how he was sure that it had lingered in his apartment on his return home. Maybe he’d been scoping the terrain a little closer than was expected.

“You knew him, didn’t you, Alisha? The one with the gray hair?”

Alisha shook her head with just a little more exaggeration than was necessary.

“He was in my home,” Rickard said. “You must have let him in.”

“I didn’t . . .” Her voice was a child’s whimper.

“What lies did he tell you?”

“He didn’t . . . I mean . . . he wasn’t there.”

Rickard was still holding her wrists. Not in a supportive manner now.

“Luke,” Alisha said. “You’re hurting me.”

He squeezed harder. “He came to my apartment, Alisha. He spoke to you. What did he say?”

“N . . . othing.” Alisha tried to pull her wrists free, but Rickard wouldn’t let her go. “I haven’t ever seen him before, Luke. I promise.”

Staring at her, Rickard thought back. There were a few details about the entire episode that he did not like. Below his private floor, he didn’t have sole right to the elevator, so it wasn’t unusual to find another person on board, but the manner in which the man had reacted when the doors opened and he found Rickard standing there was a little over the top. He hadn’t expected Rickard to return home so soon. He’d been in mid-conversation on his mobile phone: someone warning him that Rickard was back in town. Where are you, Rickard? Had the man been talking with his employer, or was he having a final conversation with someone much closer to home?

Then there was the fact that the man had gained access to his private floor without causing damage. Rickard had first thought that he had entered via the fire-escape door, which made sense as he’d need a key to manage the elevator. The trouble was, although the fire escape gave easy access from the hall outside his apartment, to gain egress he would need to have punched in a code that only he and Alisha knew. There were ways around electronic locks, but Rickard had checked the dead man and found no devices.