She cut me off, “Don’t say it. Let’s not lie. If it wasn’t what everyone wanted, you would have been mad at me. ‘You stupid little bitch,’ ” she said in a voice that mimicked an angry parent or teacher or probation officer, “ ‘What are you crazy, giving him LSD? And taking it with him so there was no one straight enough to say don’t drive so fast, you lunatic!’ ” Then returned to her normal voice. “The widow and her friend, they should have been all upset. At least crying. But no, their eyes were drier than a dry martini. They were almost smiling. I bet after we left they were high-fiving. I think it was what everyone wanted.” I started to say something, but she waved me off. “That was what the whole thing with Owen was about. He wanted to be paid for Mick’s death. He was sure you killed him.”

“But I didn’t. And I wasn’t going to.”

She shook her head. “I’ve killed two people. Put any wrapper you want on it, it’s still what it is. That’s changed everything.”

—

I called Elizabeth.

I told her that if we were going to get mother and child away from father and thugs, we would do it by helicopter, hopefully connecting to a direct flight out of Zurich.

Elizabeth said, “No, no, no.”

“No?”

“We’re not going to fly her commercial. We have to show Kaylee that we care. We’ll get a private jet.”

“That would make things more flexible.” Simpler and easier. Life is grand when money doesn’t matter. I had to keep reminding myself.

“She has to know how valued she is. That we love her. That we will treat her better than he does, so she wants to be in our hands. We’ll make sure it’s a good one. A big one.”

“Can you arrange it to have both on standby? The helicopter and the jet.”

“Zurich?”

“A private jet making a direct flight…then Innsbruck is probably better. It’s closer. No border to cross. You might want to have lawyers standing by.”

“Criminal?”

“No. Divorce. Custody. Guys in really good suits and arrogant, establishment attitudes, like they’re representing established money, deeper than the deep state.”

She said, “Make sure you have a list of Kaylee’s favorite foods. And the boy’s, too.”

“What?”

“So they’ll be on the jet. Oh, and find out the boy’s favorite toys and videos and such.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“How are you going to do it?”

“Get the lists?”

“No. The whole thing. The…what are you going to do with the husband?”

“He’ll be fine. He’ll be able to fly back to Moscow. Buy some new toys. Grown-up toys.”