Five minutes later, she reappears walking slowly toward me, bath foam in her hand, and nattering politely with a man. He’s carrying a pack of six bottles of water and smiles, shaking his head. I stand up straight and narrow my eyes.

The man is around forty, a little smaller than me, pretty burly. His head is completely shaven. He has blondish eyebrows and the shadow of an unshaved beard covers his cheeks. Blue eyes, a protruding chin and strong, stocky hands.

“Hey…”, Cassandra says, smiling at me.

“Hey”, I say in a low voice, keeping my eyes on the man.

“Francois had problems in finding the cash desks…”, she says, in English.

“Francois?”, I repeat.

The man beams at me. A friendly, reassuring smile.

“I am sorry Mister. I don’t speak Italian”, he says, with a very thick French accent.

I just nod slightly.

“Your wife is a very kind woman”, he adds, looking squarely at her, “She helped me find the water, and then she walked me here”.

I take Cassandra’s hand and pull her slightly toward me, in a protective way.

"I see".

Francois shifts the weight on his feet, in a light discomfort. His blue eyes glance around the mall.

“It’s noisy here. They should keep those children on a leash”, he chuckles.

End Flashback

“Are you sure, Dante?”, Shane asks, taking a drag from her cigarette. Dante shakes his head.

“No. I can’t say that I am 100% sure. But I am almost entirely positive that he was the same man. You know, the tone of his voice, that accent, and that sentence about the leash”.

“He told you to keep me on a leash”, I murmur, pensively.

“Yeah, Carmen. If it’s the same man, then they’ve been watching us all for months”.

“What’s that man got to do with it?”, Shane asks. Again, Dante shakes his head and, at the same time, pushes the footbrake and cuts off the ignition.

“I have no idea. But I guess we’re going to have our answers. We’ve arrived”.

”Lie to get what I came for
Lie to get just what I need
Lie to get what I crave
Lie and smile to get what’s mine”

A huge Victorian mansion at the end of the street. Behind the house, just a long, deserted road sunk in darkness. No streetlamps, no cars passing by. Just high railings surrounding the whole structure and an all-metal gate.