Patterson, James - Alex Cross 14 - Cross Country

Like most of the men she met, no doubt, I wanted to kiss Adanne, but I held myself back. I didn't want to insult her or dishonor her parents, or, more important, Bree.

She smiled at me. “You are a good man, Alex. I wasn't expecting that-in an American.”

Cross Country

Chapter 96

I EXCUSED MYSELF for a few minutes and borrowed Adanne's mobile to make a call. I didn't think Ian Flaherty would pick up, but I wanted to at least try and reestablish contact with the CIA.

So I was surprised when Flaherty answered on the second ring, and then shocked when he knew it was me calling.

“Cross?”

“Flaherty? How did you do that?”

“Caller ID, ever heard of it?”

“But-”

“Tansi. Your girlfriend's name is on the AU flight record along with yours. I've been looking everywhere for you. Both of you-she's a celebrity too. Writes controversial articles, one after the other. She's a big deal down here. We need to talk. Seriously. You finally have my interest. And so does your killer, the Tiger.”

“Hang on a second. Slow down I'd forgotten how quickly Flaherty could piss me off. ”You've been looking for me? Since when? I only tried you about sixteen times."

“Since I learned something you want to know.”

“What do you mean?”

He didn't answer right away “I mean, I found out something you want to know.”

It was suddenly obvious to me that he didn't trust the phone line. I stopped to regroup for a second and picked up a pen from the desk.

“Where can I meet you?”

“Let's say tomorrow, same time as before, at the place on that card I gave you. You know what I'm talking about, Detective Cross?”

He meant the bank on Broad Street but didn't want to name it, obviously. It was a Victoria Island location, so it was perfect for me.

“Got it. I'll see you then.”

“And dress nice, Detective. Wear a tie or something.”

“A tie?” I said. “What are you talking about?”

But he'd already hung up on me.

The prick.

Cross Country

Chapter 97

EVERYONE WAS WAITING for me on the patio after my call-with palm wine and kola nuts untouched until I got there.

First though, Adanne's father, Uchenna, blessed the nuts in the Yoruban custom, and the boys, James and Calvin, passed them around.

Adanne seemed to be finding my visit either very joyful or amusing, and she was smiling all the time. I could tell she was happy to be home.

Then the boys got me into a little backyard soccer. The twins were either polite or genuinely impressed that I could juggle the ball a little, even as they schooled me up and down the yard. But it felt good to be running around with the kids. Nice boys. Not killers.

Dinner was a chicken stew called egusi-and fufu, which is pounded yam for dipping in the broth. There were also fried plaintains, served with a spiced tomato sauce that could have taken the paint off a car. The family setting seemed familiar to me, yet different at the same time, and I ate easily the best meal I'd had in Africa.

Uchenna's favorite topic clearly seemed to be his daughter, Adanne. I learned more about her in those few hours than in all the time she and I had spent together before coming back to Lagos. Adanne jumped in to tell her own version of a few of her father's stories, but when Somadina dragged out the baby pictures, she surrendered and went off to the kitchen to clean up.

While she was gone, the conversation got more serious, and her father spoke of the tragic murders of Christians in northern Nigeria, and then of the reprisals by Christians in the east. He told me the story of a Christian schoolteacher who was recently beaten to death by her Muslim students.

Finally, Uchenna talked about the provocative newspaper articles his daughter wrote on a weekly basis and said how dangerous they were.

But mainly there was laughter in the house that night. Already I felt at home. This was a good family, like so many families here in Lagos.

After Nkiru took the boys to bed and Adanne rejoined the group, the conversation turned to politics and grownup talk again. There had been four bombings in Bayelsa State that week, down in the Delta region near the oil fields. The pressure for Nigeria to split into independent states was growing along with the violence all around the country.

“It is all about bad men. All of it, always has been,” Adanne said. “It's time that the world was run by women. We want to create, not destroy. Yes, I'm serious, Daddy. No, I haven't had too much wine.”

“It was the beer,” her father said.

Cross Country

Chapter 98

AROUND MIDNIGHT, ADANNE led me to a small bedroom where I'd be staying in the rear of the house. She touched my arm, came in behind me, and sat down on the bed.

I could see she was still in a playful mood, still smiling, a different person from the one who had taken me to Darfur a few days ago, and very different from the suspicious, serious-faced reporter I'd met in her office.

“They like you, Alex, especially my mother and sister-in-law. I can't see why. I don't get it.”

I laughed. “I guess I fooled them. They'll catch on to me soon.”

“Exactly right. Just what I was going to say. So now, we're thinking the same thoughts, I see. So-what are you thinking at this moment? Tell me the truth, Alex.”

I didn't have a very good answer for Adanne. Well, actually I did, but I didn't want to say it out loud. But then I did anyway.

“I think there's an attraction between us, but we have to let it go.”

“That's probably right, Alex. Or maybe not.”

She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek and held her lips there for a few seconds. She smelled nicely of soap, clean and fresh.

Adanne looked up into my eyes and she was still smiling. She had perfect white teeth. “I just want to lie here with you for a while. Can we do that? Just be here together without any more intimacy than that? What do you think? Can we do it two nights in a row?”

I finally kissed Adanne back, on the lips, but I didn't hold the kiss for very long.

“I'd like that,” I told her.

“Me too,” she said. “I have love in my heart for you. It's just a crush, I think. Don't say anything, Alex. Don't spoil this, whatever it is.”

I didn't. We held on to each other until sleep took us both. I'm not sure if it took us farther away or closer together that night, but nothing happened for either of us to regret.

Or maybe I would come to regret that nothing happened.

Cross Country

Chapter 99

THE NEXT MORNING, Adanne was up early, making coffee and fresh-squeezed juice for everyone. Then she volunteered to drive me to my meeting with Flaherty. She was more serious and businesslike now, the way I'd seen her away from her family.

“Why are you wearing a dumb tie?” she asked. “You look like a downtown lawyer. Or a banker. Ugh.”

“I have no idea,” I told her and smiled. Now I was the one smiling all the time. “It's another Nigerian mystery, I guess.”

“You're the mystery,” she said. “I think so.”

“You're not alone in that.”

She stopped the car in front of the bank on Broad Street.

“Be careful, Alex.” She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “It is dangerous out there, more than ever.”

Then I hopped out of the car and gave a wave, and she was off. I decided immediately not to think about her, but then

I was thinking about nothing else but Adanne-her smile, last night at her house, things that we didn't do.

Flaherty! I reminded myself. What the hell does he want from me?

The CIA man was nowhere to be seen, though. I waited about twenty minutes, just long enough to start getting paranoid, when his Peugeot skidded up to the curb.