“And since they’ve already seen me.If they catch you, you can make up some story about what you’re doing.If they catch me, they’ll know I’m following them.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Rachel said, dusting off her posterior.She was dressed in yoga pants and an oversized sweater: one of the very few times I’d seen her in anything but a frumpy but perfectly appropriate business suit.“I have my phone.We’ll keep in touch that way.”
That sounded good to me.“Don’t get too close to them.”
“I’ll do my best,” Rachel said, “but it isn’t the best time of day to follow someone, you know.There’s not much traffic.I can stay back, but I’ll still probably be the only car behind them.”
Until I joined the hunt, and then there would be two of us.
“Just do your best,” I said.“Once you’ve driven a few minutes, as long as I’ve caught up, you can peel off down a side street, and I’ll stay behind them for a while, and then, when you get behind me again, I’ll peel off and you can follow.It’s known as a two-vehicle leapfrog.”
Rachel didn’t say anything, but she looked impressed.At least as far as I could tell in the dark.
“You’d better go,” I reminded her.“Before they come out.”
She nodded.“I’ll text you when I get there.”
She crunched off through the dry leaves and twigs.To anyone nearby, she probably sounded like a buffalo, but since we weren’t really worried about anyone up here noticing us, I didn’t say anything about it.
Half a minute later, I heard her car drive off, and I devoted myself to the surveillance of Stella’s while I hoped that Rachel would get down there in time.
Fifteen
I didn’t seeher arrive down below.But a few minutes after she’d driven off, my phone alerted that I had a text.I’m in the McDonald’s parking lot.They’re open 24 hrs.
Good, I texted back.And it was.An excellent place to be.Nobody—specifically the two Russian men—would think twice about anyone being there.Not if the store was open around the clock.I’ll let you know when they move.
We went back to our surveillance.To tell the truth, I was starting to get tired.It was getting close to two in the morning.I’d been up since just after six.And it had been an eventful day.The only things that kept me awake were the chill in the air, and the moisture that was slowly seeping through the knees of my jeans from their contact with the ground.
I was about ready to give up when something finally happened.A rectangle of light opened in the darkness and then was extinguished quickly.It stayed on my retinas for a while, as such things do, as I reached for the binoculars and lifted them to my eyes.
Yes, there they were.One man in the lead, with… was that a gun in his hand?
Surely not.I mean, normal people don’t walk around with guns, do they?
Or maybe, if they’re operating successful nightclubs and transporting the night’s take, they do.
He had a bag in his other hand, that might be full of money.It didn’t quite have the dimensions of Diana’s duffel, but there’d be room enough for a fair amount of newspaper in there.
Or maybe there was another—or additional—reason for the gun.
He opened the passenger door of the black sedan, and put the bag on the seat.Then he closed the door again.And opened the door into the back.And walked back to the door into the nightclub.
The girls filed out and over to the car, where they scrunched together in the back seat.He slammed the door after them and went around the car and got behind the wheel.Meanwhile, his associate locked up before getting into the passenger seat.I saw the movement when he transferred the money bag from the seat to the floor before he sat down.
The lights came on.I grabbed my phone and texted Rachel.Get ready.They’re moving.
She didn’t respond.I hoped that meant that she was getting ready, and not that anything had gone wrong.
Down below, the black sedan pulled around the building and out of sight.I refocused the binoculars on the opposite side of the street, and saw Rachel’s car pull into traffic.
Time to go.
I jumped to my feet—not as quickly as when I’d been twenty—and made my way toward the Lexus.And while I’d like to think I didn’t sound like a buffalo moving through the brush, I wasn’t anywhere close to quiet, either.
Edwina was thrilled to see me, of course, and I had to nudge her over into the passenger seat before I could get in.Then she kept insisting on sitting on my lap, and I had to keep pushing her over into her side of the car.It wasn’t until I was down on Nolensville Road, that I was able to dig my phone back out of my pocket and dial Rachel.
“Where are you?”
