Everything go okay? It’s all done?

When he’d hung up the phone suddenly like that, why hadn’t she called him back?

Maybe this woman hadn’t called him back because she was told not to call back. Was told that’s the rule. That she has to wait to be called.

Everything go okay? It’s all done?

Meaning the hit.

And while Zack originally assumed it was some female associate or go-between on the phone, now he senses her as someone being careful, nonspecific, because she’s scared.

Meaning, this might be a client.

A client who presumably comes from a safer, mainstream, everyday world—the world Zack left just hours ago—where killing someone is not something you know anything about so you hire someone, and the whole process is terrifying. Whether you feel justified or not—whether you want someone killed because they are abusing you, abusing your children, or have scammed you out of your savings and legal approaches have given you no other recourse, or whether you have less understandable motives—you are now dealing with a world that is dark and frightening and unknown. A subworld you’ve never experienced before so you tiptoe around in it. If you’re a paying client, it probably means one thing: you’re too scared, too lily-livered, too squeaky clean, to do this for yourself.

Leverage, thinks Zack.

Zack takes out the diePhone. Brings up the woman’s phone number again in recent calls. Sends a text:

No, everything did not go ok. It’s not all done.

Need to meet you to
discuss, as soon as possible.

He doesn’t know whether she’s close by or a continent away. Maybe close by, for a cash payment. They wouldn’t risk bank deposits or transfers for something like this, Zack doesn’t think. He hopes to figure out if she’s close by, by how she responds to “as soon as possible.”

She texts back immediately. Waiting by her phone, apparently.

But you said we can never meet in person???

Yes, thinks Zack. A scared client, trying to stay within the rules.

Now we need to. There’s a diner called Mali’s.

Ok, Mali’s. I can be there in fifteen.

Close by. Thank God.

He swapped phones with a professional hit man. His oldest friend is dead. But the universe is finally cutting him a break.

15.

15.

Emily waits for Zack in the park across from her office.

She’s only got an hour. He’s already a few minutes late. Where is he? He shouldn’t have suggested lunch if he couldn’t make it.

Where are you? she texts.

On my way. Sorry. Hey btw, my friend Joey works near you. I told him he could stop by and meet us in the park. Dark-haired guy in a trench coat. Dresses like a typical businessman but he’s nice. Hope that’s ok???