His face looked longer and leaner than it had been in that picture, almost ascetic, giving him a monkish cast. His hair was receding at the temples, though the rest of it was dense. Perpetual frown lines furrowed his tall forehead. His eyes were set deep and the color of walnut and seemed captured in a permanent squint, as if he was staring into the sun. They were intense eyes, the eyes of a man who had seen and done things. Between the eyes began the slope of a Roman nose and beneath that was a mouth that seemed incongruously full. The chin was neither big nor small, neither protruding nor sunken. Chin and cheeks were dusted with black stubble. He had not shaved that morning.

He was five nine and had a wiry build. Lean muscle bunched under the skin of his outstretched, bag-wielding arms, and a vein stood out in each of his biceps. He looked fit, but not as formidable as I had expected him to be. All told, he was not a handsome man. Mira's admiration for him did not stem from his looks.

He stared at me for a long moment, not moving. "Looking for someone?" he said finally, in a soft, velvety voice.

"Michael Shamir. That's you, isn't it?"

"That's right."

"My name is Adam Lapid. I got your name and address from Mira Roth."

His eyebrows rose a fraction. "Mira Roth? Is that a fact?"

"Yes. She gave me a note to give to you."

I fished the note Mira had given me out of my pocket and held it out to him. He climbed the rest of the way, set down the two bags, and plucked the note from my hand. He read it with seeming care. I watched his face while he did so. Not much of a reaction, a slight deepening of those frown lines, an upward flick of the eyes to assess my face. On their way back to the note, his eyes paused for a fraction of a second on the number tattooed on my forearm, but did not give away his thoughts. When he was done reading, he folded the note and did not return it.

"Better come in, then," he said.

While he unlocked the door, I reached down and grabbed one of the grocery bags. He muttered a low thank you, hoisted the other bag, pushed open the door, and led the way inside.