He took a swig straight from the bottle, gulp, glug, gulp. Off he went, through the snow, to the edge, leaping in a cannon ball, crack-adoodle-crack, thin ice breaking up, splash! Icy water shooting up. Down he went. Up he bobbed, hauled himself out with the ladder, through the snow, and back in beside me.

Alright. I did it too. Not as dramatically. But I did it. This second was far less violent internally than first. The noise was no longer so great that it was everything. I felt the water and the cold and plunging down and the effort to get back out.

We were both back in the hot tub. He had another slurp and swallow, passed the bottle, and said, “Thirty years they have been looking for you. Thirty years, now I will turn you over.”

“What, like a cat dropping a mouse at the door as a gift?”

“Yes!” he said with great delight and a drunkard’s merry laugh. “I like that. I like you.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Where are you going to go? Naked in the snow? There’s Lev to stop you. Pavel is bringing them now. Five, ten minutes, there will be some men here. Who want to ask you questions.”

“Fuck you, Grigor. You’re not going to kidnap me or torture me or whatever, in the middle of the Lech, the luxury ski resort.”

“Come on,” he said, “Ready for the third?”

Up he goes, heading for the water. It’s time for me to move on. I start getting out of the tub. I’ll go inside, grab some clothes, grab Allison, and get the hell out of there. But Grigor comes bouncing out of his ice pond quicker than he went in. He’s between me and the escape route. He’s smiling. For the wrong reason it turns out. He thinks I’m eager to jump in and says so and how good that is.

OK. In I go. This time it’s practically normal. He’s standing beside the tub waiting. I stroll back. We both get in the hot water together.

I said, “You won’t get away with it.”

“There are no witnesses. Why do you think I sent everyone away? You will disappear.”

“There’s your wife…”

“I’m not worried. She obeys.”

“There’s Allison.”

“I like her. I will keep her.”