Naomi
She called Raymond before Yusuf finished connecting.
Eight-thirty-two AM Riverton time was noon in Accra. Raymond answered on the second ring in the way he always answered — completely, with the full quality of attention of someone who had never learned to answer a phone with anything other than his whole presence.
"Naomi," he said. And then, because he was Raymond and he read rooms even through phone connections: "What's happened?"
"Vael is in Accra," she said. "He left Benin before the extradition request arrived. He's in the city."
A silence. Not the paralysed kind — the kind that contained active thinking. She could hear Raymond's mind working in the quality of the line.
"He's coming here," Raymond said. It was not a question.
"I don't know," she said. "But you are the c
