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ONE

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, THE PRESENT

1:45 AM

COTTON MALONE STARED STRAIGHT INTO THE FACE OF TROUBLE Outside his bookshop’s open front door stood his ex-wife, the last person on earth he’d expected to see He quickly registered panic in her tired eyes, re that had awoken hiht of his son

"Where’s Gary?" he asked

"You son of a bitch They took hied forward, her closed fists crashing down onto his shoulders "You sorry son of a bitch" He grabbed her wrists and stopped the attack as she started crying "I left you because of this I thought this kind of thing was over"

"Who took Gary?" More sobs were his answer He kept hold of her arms "Pam Listen to me Who took Gary?"

She stared at him "How the hell a here? Why didn’t you go to the police?"

"Because they said not to They said if I went anywhere near the police, Gary was dead They said they would know, and I believed them"

"Who’s they?"

She wrenched her arer "I don’t know All they said was for ive you this" She ru and produced a phone Tears continued to rain down her cheeks "They said for you to go online and open your e-ht? Go online and open your e-mail?

He flipped open the phone and checked the frequency Enough ahertz to make it world-capable Which made him wonder Suddenly he felt vulnerable Højbro Plads was quiet At this late hour no one roamed the city square

His senses came alive

"Get inside" And he yanked her into the shop and closed the door He hadn’t switched on any lights

"What is it?" she asked, her voice shredded by fear

He faced her "I don’t know, Pam You tell me Our son has apparently been taken by God-knoho, and you wait two days before telling a soul about it? That didn’t strike you as insane?"

"I wasn’t going to jeopardize his life"

"And I would? How have I ever done that?"

"By being you," she said in a frigid tone, and he instantly recalled why he no longer lived with her

A thought occurred to him She’d never been to Denmark "How did you find me?"

"They told me"

"Who the hell is they?"

"I don’t know, Cotton TwoTall, dark-haired, flat face"

"American?"

"Hoould I know?"

"How did he speak?"

She seemed to catch hold of herself "No Not American They had accents European"

He motioned with the phone "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"He said to open your e-lanced nervously around at the shelves cast in shadows "Upstairs, right?"

Gary would have told her he lived over the store He certainly hadn’t They’d spoken only once since he’d retired froia last year, and that had been two ht Gary home after their summer visit She’d coldly told him that Gary was not his natural son Instead the boy was the product of an affair froo, her response to his own infidelity He’d wrestled with that demon ever since and had not, as yet, co he’d decided at the tiain Whatever needed to be said would be said between hied

"Yeah," he said "Upstairs"

They entered his apartment, and he sat at the desk He switched on his laptop and waited for the prograrabbed hold of her e highs and cavernous lows She was a lawyer, like hiovernh-stakes trials for Fortune 500 companies that could afford to pay her firone to law school he’d thought the decision a reflection of hiether Later he’d learned it was a way for her to gain independence