They'd been criss-crossing the neighborhood for an hour but Eva still hadn't come up with one idea about where her husband might have gone.

"How about Carmine's Pizza? Maybe he's homesick for Italian food," Lee suggested.

Eva shook her head. "Angelo does not eat pizza. After fourteen months of stale cabbage soup, his stomach is touchy."

Lee thought back to the gusto with which Angelo had eaten his burger the day he arrived, but remembered Eva hadn't been there to see that. She was probably projecting her own experiences with prison food onto him, he decided.

"Eva, how did the two of you survive that hell?" he asked, curious.

"Angelo survived by forcing his mind to see beyond his prison. I survived by remembering I could still be the same woman that you remember. And that spring when we met." She turned a limpid yearning gaze on Lee and for a brief second, his heart seized, thinking of their kisses the night before. In the next moment, he remembered Amanda's warnings that she was hiding something and tried to act objective.

"Oh, I stopped thinking about those days and what might have been. There's no point to it," he said in a light tone.

Eva sat silently for a moment, then gave a seductive laugh and laid her hand on his where it rested on the stickshift. "Have you changed so, Lee? What happened to the man who I waltzed with on the banks of the canals in Venice, in the rain?"

Lee chuckled in self-deprecation. "Dancing's not so good along the Potomac. There's too many tourists."

"More than Venice? That seems difficult to believe," she smiled.

"You never said," he changed the subject idly. "How did you end up in Moscow anyway?"

"They made a tempting offer. Angelo was keen to accept it," she said with a flash of annoyance that he had changed the subject.

"You didn't want to go?"

"There was nothing for me behind the Iron Curtain," she replied, turning to stare out the window.

"I'm surprised you went though. I wouldn't have thought you'd want to start a family in those conditions."

"Oh, that did not bother me," she said. "Angelo was enough work for me to look after – children would have been an unwelcome distraction." She gave a brittle laugh. "Unlike Mandy, I have never been one to desire being a housewife, I'm afraid."

Lee gave her a quizzical look. "Really? I always thought you wanted to have a big family."

"Did you?" she laughed again. "I'm sure I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to begin, having grown up with no mother myself."

"I thought…" Lee stopped, his eye caught by something in his side mirror. There was a car following them – a dark sedan he was certain he'd seen before.

"Is something wrong?" asked Eva.

"No… no, nothing," he answered.


"Francine? I think I know where Angelo went. I mean I don't know where he was all night, but I think I know where he's headed. The ad on the fridge is ripped."

"I just know this is going somewhere," sighed Francine. "Can we cut to the chase?"

Amanda pressed her fingers to her forehead. "I'm sorry. I know I need to stop doing that. Liberty Larry's!" she rushed to say as Francine gave off an annoyed sound. "He's gone to Liberty Larry's to buy a car!"

"I'll get a team there right away," said Francine.

"No, wait," said Amanda immediately. "Let me go over there first. We don't know why he ran away. If he's frightened of something, and you go running in with an army of people…"

"You think he won't run from you?" asked Francine. "He knows you're with us."

"He does, but he knows I'm his friend too," Amanda answered softly. "He knows me."

"He's known you one day!" exclaimed Francine.

"What can I say?" Amanda replied. "His ESP is very good – that's why everyone wants him right?"

"You think he trusts you that much?" Francine was still skeptical.

"I think he knows I don't trust Eva – and I think she's the reason he left. He was fine when I left last night, but I know he saw what I saw at dinner last night."

"Which was what?"

"That she still wanted Lee. That she wasn't making any effort to hide it. I think he knew their time apart had changed her somehow. I think maybe he's just gone off to get his head together."

She could hear Francine clicking her pen over and over while she thought about that.

"Fine," she said eventually. "I'll bring a team, but we'll keep you under distance surveillance until you signal that it's okay to show ourselves."

Amanda gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Francine."

She hung up, then grabbed her coat. She was almost out the door before she remembered. Running back to the phone, she quickly recorded a coded message for Lee, in case he called in, then headed out to her car.