I Am Pilgrim

The narrative picks up in Lebanon, with al-Nassouri’s teenaged contact. As instructed, the young boy prepares to have the virus delivered to Germany. Al-Nassouri plans to remove the authentic labels from seasonal flu vaccines and place them by hand on the bottles that contain smallpox virus. He estimates that the task will require nine days.

Murdoch arrives back in Turkey from Bulgaria. With no news from Battleboi, he decides to go back to Dodge’s case to see if he can identify the woman he overheard. He finds a young American woman in the case file, who is Gianfranco’s girlfriend. Murdoch decides to interview her.

Murdoch receives a message from Battleboi buried in his spam folder, informing him that Cumali was educated in Bahrain and born in Saudi Arabia, but there is no information about her family. Desperate to think the case over, Murdoch walks on the beach and watches children playing. This makes him think of Cumali’s son, and he realizes that there are no pictures of the child’s early life in her home: Perhaps he is not her child.

To gather evidence for his new theory, Murdoch visits Cumali at home to explain his new theory of the case: that Ingrid is Cameron’s lover and accomplice. When he successfully gets Cumali out of the room, Murdoch distracts her son with silly games and takes the child’s water cup, along with one of Cumali’s utensils. He sends it to the US to have it DNA tested.

The next day, Murdoch catches sight of Ingrid while he is having breakfast at a sidewalk cafe. He is spellbound by her beauty and intense gaze, and he watches her sharp banter when strangers try to flirt with her. Ruefully, he admits, “[M]aybe I didn’t want her to be the killer” (453). During the interview, Ingrid is largely unruffled and presents Cameron as only a casual acquaintance. Ingrid spills her purse’s contents just as Murdoch explains his mirror results and that there is likely a secret passage into the house. Murdoch recognizes her perfume, confirming his hunch that she is the killer. Ingrid persuades Cameron to leave, since an FBI agent has no arrest authority. When she quotes Jude Garrett’s book in a moment of anger, Murdoch tells her he found her work at the Eastside Inn. He finds later that she spilled her purse deliberately, to turn off his recording of their interview.

As Murdoch regroups after the interview, Bradley calls with news. The little boy is Cumali’s nephew. Murdoch realizes this explains her secrecy about him: Her brother wants no official notice of his existence. Cumali is likely unaware of her brother’s real plans. The dates of the two phone calls coincide with the boy’s hospitalization, which tells Murdoch his target has a weakness. He reflects, with regret, “[I]f you’re going to kill a man, far better it’s a monster than a loving father” (465). He makes plans to go to Saudi Arabia to investigate the family’s history.