“The Russians were coming back,” Leo said. “I didn’t want them to kill you. I didn’t have time to explain. I used the choke hold to knock you out. I told them you didn’t see anything. We left you in the bedroom. That was the last time I saw you. You were supposed to come to in a few minutes.”

They were really going to do this. They were going to have a conversation while Archie was completely naked. The soap on Archie’s chest traveled down the inside of his legs in foamy clumps. He stepped back under the shower stream to rinse it off.

“What do you mean, you told them I didn’t see anything?” Archie called through the water. “What didn’t I see exactly?” He eyed Leo through the water and steam. Leo had changed out of his bloody shirt, but otherwise appeared still to be wearing his clothes from the night before. His tux pants were wrinkled. His shirtsleeves were rolled up. The collar of the new shirt was open and the pits were slightly stained. He hadn’t slept. He seemed agitated.

“The guy that was bleeding in the bathtub,” Leo said.

The walls of the granite shower stall were starting to sweat. Archie inhaled the heat. The pills made his head feel heavy, like his brain was marbled with fat, and he had to fight for clarity. “Go on,” Archie said. He’d washed the soap off and was hell-bent on getting a towel. He moved out from under the shower stream, but Leo was still blocking the towel rack. Archie had to reach around him to get to it, his bare flesh grazing Leo’s body. Still, Leo didn’t move. Archie pulled the towel into the shower with him and started to dry off.

“One of the Russians,” Leo continued. “They think he was informing to the FSB. He walked in on something he wasn’t supposed to see. They brought him to me. Jack doesn’t trust me, Archie. He was about to walk into a meeting. I had to prove I could handle it.”

Archie wrapped the towel around his waist, relieved to finally have some coverage. “What happened to him?” he asked.

“I shot him,” Leo said matter-of-factly.

The words sank in. Now the towel seemed trivial. Archie sat down on the granite bench. Water flowed around his feet. “He’s dead,” Archie said.

“He was dead the moment they suspected him,” Leo insisted. “If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have.” He looked at Archie pleadingly through the thin wall of steam that divided them. His eyes were red. A slick film of mucus lined one nostril. Leo wiped at it with his hand.

None of this made sense. “Where’s the body?” Archie asked.