The October List

after Joseph shot Reardon dead, she’d go through a period of mourning.
    Gabriela was good at what she did precisely because she tricked herself as smoothly as she did her victims.
    She looked levelly at Joseph. ‘You understand?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I need you to do the same thing.’
    ‘I get it.’ Joseph looked off for a moment. ‘You know, talking about acting. What do you think about this? I could be like that actor who died, the one in that Batman movie a few years ago. Heath Ledger, the Joker. Taunting, unpredictable, eerie.’
    ‘I like that. And what was his philosophy?’ she reflected, thinking back to the film. ‘The only good is what furthers my interest. That’ll be your driving force.’
    Joseph cocked his head. ‘“The only good is what furthers my interest.” I’ll remember that. I like it.’ Then he asked, ‘One question, at the kill zone? You’ll be there too?’
    She considered this. ‘No, they won’t want me there. Reardon and one of the others will want to meet with you alone. They’ll leave me with a babysitter, probably Sam – a safe house somewhere.’ A look at Karpankov. ‘Most likely the same place they took Carole, that apartment in Midtown, the one his company keeps.’ Then she said to Joseph, ‘I’ll text you the exact location when I know.’
    ‘You’ll have a weapon with you?’ Joseph asked.
    ‘No. I can’t. But I’m sure Sam will.’ She thought back to Reardon’s pattern. ‘Reardon will probably be planning on coming back to the safe house after he cuts a deal with you – probably to finish me off himself. And, considering what he did to Carole, I imagine he and Sam may have other plans for me first. More rope and knots.
    ‘So after you kill Reardon and Andrew, get the key to the safe house and come over there. If there’s a chain or security bar on the door, I’ll take it off. You text me when you’re close and I’ll distract Sam or Andrew or whoever my babysitter is. I’ll tell him I’ve figured out the mystery of the October List, or something like that. You let yourself in. Whoever’s there probably will think it’s the other two returning and not be too suspicious.
    ‘But we should be careful. When I hear the door open I’ll say one of two things. If I say “Is my daughter all right?” that’ll mean Sam doesn’t have a weapon out. He doesn’t suspect anything. It’s safe to just walk in and shoot him. But if I say, “Daniel, what happened?” then that means he is suspicious and has his weapon. Get back into the hall. It’ll be a firefight. I’ll take cover and do what I can from inside.’
    Joseph nodded. ‘“Is my daughter all right?” means I’m green-lighted to shoot. “Daniel, what happened?” means take cover.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Got it.’
    ‘Good.’ Gabriela slipped the yarn and the half-finished shawl back into her bag. She glanced affectionately at Gunther, who wagged his tail once more. She rose, shook Karpankov’s hand then Joseph’s. ‘So. Let’s get to work.’

Foreword
     
    We have Stephen Sondheim to thank for this book. Several years ago I was listening to a National Public Radio interview by the inimitable Terry Gross, on her Fresh Air program, with Sondheim, one of my favorite musical theater composers and lyricists. One of the plays he discussed was Merrily We Roll Along , which happened to be perhaps the only play of his I had not seen. I was fascinated by the fact that it began in the present and moved back in time. Of particular interest was his comment about a song that meant one thing in the present and meant something different when first (well, later) introduced.
    I happen to love the concept of a fractured time line. Look at Stanley Kubrick’s second best film, The Killing ( Strangelove – not 2001 – is my number one), or Pulp Fiction , Memento , Back to the Future . And, of course, the classic Seinfeld episode ‘The Betrayal,’ which was an homage to Harold Pinter’s own reverse-chronology play, Betrayal .
    I began wondering if it was possible for a thriller writer to pull off a backward-told story that was filled with the cliffhangers, surprises and twists and turns that are, to me, the epitome of good crime fiction. The task, of course, is to present the twist (the ‘reveal’ as they say in Hollywoodspeak) before giving the facts that led up to it and still make the surprise thrilling. It’s like telling a joke’s punch line first, then giving the set-up itself –