“Playing a double game,” Sykes said. “That’s how it goes sometimes.”

“We invited him—you invited him—to be at the bank?”

“We wanted to see if he recognized Stavro, if he knew anything about him,” Frank said.

“So your plan was not to give him a chance to kill Stavro?”

“Correct. Getting myself stabbed wasn’t part of the plan either. Error of judgment. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

“That’s how it goes? People died! You almost died. He could have killed Catherine.”

“But he didn’t. Thanks to you. Her knight in shining armor. You have a nice night with her afterward? Was she grateful?”

Rafe didn’t know. She had gone home, alone. He saw no need to mention that.

“By the way,” Sykes said, “we do like to talk to these people. You didn’t have to kill him three times.”

“Sorry,” said Rafe. “I was kind of caught up in the moment.”

Which, he realized, was exactly true.

“What happened to Stavro?”

“We’re looking for him,” said Frank. “So are the Swiss. Apparently, he broke some banking regulations.”

The door opened and a young doctor came in. She had a medical chart open on a tablet and said, “I need a minute alone with my patient.”

Rafe and Sykes headed to the door. “Dead-Eye,” Frank called after them. Rafe turned. “Did I forget to say thank you?”

In the corridor, a young patient was moving slowly with a walker. Two nurses hurried past Rafe and Sykes.

“We could get you trained,” she said, “so if this ever happens again you would actually know what you were doing.”

“What else is there to know? I mean, besides point and pull the trigger?”

Sykes thought for a moment. “Actually, I guess that is the gist of it.”

“Also,” Rafe said, “it helps not to get stabbed first.”

“We’ll add that to the training manual. Anyway, odds are you won’t be doing this kind of thing again.”

Rafe nodded.

“You’ll be going back to the boring stuff. Money laundering.”

Rafe nodded.

“How are you coming with that Pleski situation?”

Now Rafe thought for a moment. “It turns out,” he said, “that’s off the table. The bank closed Pleski’s account. He’s out of business.”

“He is?”

Rafe nodded.

“Nothing to be done there?”

“Nope.”

“Just like that? In the middle of your case? The bank shut him down?” Sykes looked at him appraisingly. “How come?”

“Beats me,” Rafe shrugged. “I guess the bank got suspicious. He was kind of blatant.”

Sykes was still looking at him.

“That’s how it goes sometimes,” he said.

Au Revoir

AU REVOIR