The Kill Artist

the shadow of Jacqueline Delacroix?
    TWENTY-EIGHT
    Lisbon
    Tariq appeared in the doorway of the fado house. Once again he was dressed like a dockworker. Ghostly pale, hand trembling as he lit his cigarette. He crossed the room and sat down next to Kemel. "What brings you back to Lisbon?"
    "It turns out we have a rather serious bottleneck in our Iberian distribution chain. I may be forced to spend a great deal of time in Lisbon over the next few days."
    "That's all?"
    "And this." Kemel laid a large color photograph on the table. "Meet Dominique Bonard."
    Tariq picked up the photograph, studied it carefully. "Come with me," he said calmly. "I want to show you something that I think you'll find interesting."
    * * *
    Tariq's flat was high in the Alfama. Two rooms, sagging wooden floors, a tiny veranda overlooking a quiet courtyard. He fixed tea Arab style, strong and sweet, and they sat near the open door of the veranda, rain smacking on the stones of the courtyard.
    Tariq said, "Do you remember how we found Allon in Vienna?"
    "It was a long time ago. You'll have to refresh my memory."
    "My brother was in bed when he was killed. He had a girl with him-a German student, a radical. She wrote a letter to my parents a few weeks after Mahmoud was killed and told them how it happened. She said she would never forget the face of the assassin as long as she lived. My father took the letter to the PLO security officer in the camp. The security officer turned it over to PLO intelligence."
    "This all sounds vaguely familiar," Kemel said.
    "After Abu Jihad was murdered in Tunis, PLO security conducted an investigation. They worked from a simple prem-ise. The killer seemed to know the villa well, inside and out. Therefore he must have spent time around the villa conducting surveillance and planning the attack."
    "A brilliant piece of detective work," Kemel said sarcastically. "If PLO security had been doing their job right to begin with, Abu Jihad would still be alive."
    Tariq went into the bedroom, returned a moment later holding a large manila envelope. "They began reviewing all the videotape from the surveillance cameras and found several shots of a small, dark-haired man." Tariq opened the envelope and handed Kemel several grainy prints. "Over the years PLO intelligence had kept track of the German girl. They showed her these photographs. She said it was the same man who had killed Mahmoud. No doubt about it. So we started looking for him."
    "And you found him in Vienna?"
    "That's right."
    Kemel held out the photographs to Tariq. "What does this have to do with Dominique Bonard?"
    "It goes back to the investigation of the Tunis affair. PLO security wanted to find out where the assassin had stayed in Tunis while he was planning the attack. They knew from past experience that Israeli agents tend to pose as Europeans during jobs like this. They assumed that a man posing as a European had probably stayed in a hotel. They started calling on their spies and informants. They showed the photographs of the assassin to a concierge at one of the beachfront hotels. The concierge said the man had stayed in the hotel with his French girlfriend. PLO security went back to the tapes and began looking for a girl. They found one and showed her to the concierge."
    "Same girl?"
    "Same girl."
    Then Tariq reached into the envelope and removed one more surveillance photograph: this one of a beautiful dark-haired girl. He handed it to Kemel, who compared it with the photograph of the woman in London.
    "I could be mistaken," Tariq said. "But it looks to me like Yusef's new girlfriend has worked with Gabriel Allon before."
    They reviewed the plan one last time as they walked through the twisting alleys of the Alfama.
    "The prime minister and Arafat leave for the United States in five days," Kemel said. "They're going to Washington first for a meeting at the White House, then it's off to New York for the signing ceremony at the United Nations. Everything is in place in New York."
    "Now I just need a traveling companion," Tariq said. "I think I'd like a beautiful French woman-the type of woman who would look good on the arm of a successful entrepreneur."
    "I think I know where I can find a woman like that."
    "Imagine, killing the peace process and Gabriel Allon in one final moment of glory. We're going to shake the world, Kemel. And then I'm going to leave it."
    "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
    "You're not concerned about my safety at this