The Kill Artist

come up anytime you like. Bring your lunch."
    "I will. Thank you for showing it to me."
    "If you're going to work here, I suppose you should know your way round the place."
    They took the lift to the main level. Jacqueline sat at her new desk, pulled open the drawers, rummaged through the paper clips and pens, experimented with the copy machine.
    Isherwood said, "You do know how to use those things, don't you?"
    "I'm sure I'll get the hang of it."
    "Oh, good Lord," he murmured.
    Oliver Dimbleby arrived promptly at eleven o'clock. Jacqueline inspected him through the security camera-he did look rather like a sausage in a Savile Row suit-and buzzed him up. When he caught sight of her, he pulled in his stomach and smiled affectionately. "So, you're Julian's new girl," he said, shaking her hand. "I'm Oliver Dimbleby. Very pleased to meet you. Very pleased, indeed."
    "Come, Oliver," Isherwood called from the inner office. "Here, boy. Let go of her hand and get in here. We haven't got all day."
    Oliver reluctantly relinquished her hand and stepped into Isherwood's office. "Tell me, Julie, my love. If I actually buy this place, does that angel in there convey?"
    "Oh, do shut up, Oliver." Isherwood closed the door.
    Jacqueline went back to her office and tried to figure out how to use the fax machine.
    The telephone call arrived at the Kebab Factory at 4:00 P.M. Gabriel waited three minutes and twenty seconds for Yusef to come to the phone-he knew the precise amount of time it took because later he felt compelled to measure it with a stopwatch. During Yusef's absence he was treated to the sounds of the kitchen help chattering in Lebanese Arabic and Mohammed, the afternoon manager, screaming at a busboy to clear table seventeen. When Yusef finally came to the phone, he seemed slightly out of breath. Their entire conversation lasted thirty-seven seconds. When it was done Gabriel rewound the tape and listened to it so many times Karp begged him to stop.
    "Trust me, Gabe, there's nothing sinister going on. It's two guys talking about getting a drink and maybe finding a girl and getting laid. You remember getting laid, don't you?"
    But Gabriel was initiating the next phase of the operation-he was sending Jacqueline into hostile territory-and he wanted to be certain he wasn't sending her into a trap. So he listened again:
    "We still on for tonight?"
    "Absolutely. Where?"
    "All Bar One, Leicester Square, nine o'clock."
    "I'll be there."
    STOP. REWIND. PLAY.
    "We still on for tonight?"
    "Absolutely. Where?"
    "All Bar One, Leicester Square, nine o'clock."
    "I'll be there."
    STOP. REWIND. PLAY.
    "All Bar One, Leicester Square, nine o'clock."
    STOP. PLAY.
    "I'll be there."
    Gabriel picked up the telephone and punched in the number for Isherwood Fine Arts.
    TWENTY-THREE
    Leicester Square, London
    All Bar One stood on the southwest corner of Leicester Square. It had two floors and large windows, so that Gabriel, seated outside on a cold wooden bench, could see the action inside as though it were a play on a multilevel stage. Crowds of tourists and filmgoers streamed past him. The street performers were out too. On one side of the square a German sang Jimi Hendrix through a crackling microphone, accompanied by an amplified acoustic guitar. On the other a group of Peruvians played the music of the mountains to a disconsolate-looking gang of urban punks with purple hair. A few feet from the entrance of the bar a human statue stood frozen atop a pedestal, face painted the color of titanium, eyeing Gabriel malevolently.
    Yusef arrived five minutes later, accompanied by a trim, sandy-haired man. They negotiated the short line at the door by bribing the muscled ape who was standing guard. A moment later they appeared in the window on the second level. Yusef said hello to a lanky blonde. Gabriel removed a mobile phone from his coat pocket, dialed a number, murmured a few words, then pressed the END button.
    Jacqueline, when she arrived five minutes later, wore the same clothes she had worn to Isherwood's gallery that morning, but she had let down her long hair. She presented herself to the doorman and inquired about the wait. The doorman promptly stepped aside, much to the annoyance of the other patrons gathered outside. As Jacqueline disappeared into the bar, Gabriel heard someone mutter, "French bitch."
    She went upstairs, bought herself a glass of wine, and sat down in the window a few feet from Yusef and his friend. Yusef was still talking