Nick seemed more fidgety, as if he was ready to shut down this operation. “I’ll make you a copy and send it to you. Give me your contact information.”
Cole handed over his card while he continued to observe, but Dodge never left the office, at least while Cole was there to watch. Nick gestured to the door. Cole got it. Nick’s supervisor might not approve of this activity. Cole thrust his hand forward, and Nick shook it.
“We’ll be in touch,” Nick said.
Cole exited the office, then found Jo.
She stood when she saw him approach, dropping the magazine on the table. “Well?”
“Let’s take a walk.” He led her to the elevators, which they rode to the forty-sixth floor. They weren’t alone, so Cole said nothing.
Exiting the elevators, along with another person who took a right, Cole turned left and walked the hall and found two businesses. He suspected that Advanced Technologies took up half the floor.
He said nothing, just walked with her toward the main entrance. Next to the company name was an emblem that had three dots inside a flashy circle. “That’s where he went. Does that ring a bell?”
“Not at all. What even is it?”
“I don’t know.”
She almost stopped in her tracks, but he nudged her forward.
“Are we ... are we going inside? What would we do or say?”
A couple of burly men exited through the double doors. They had the look of personal security guards and seemed somewhat out of place here. To avoid looking suspicious, he smiled and laughed and grabbed her hand, turning her with him, and they walked toward the other company onthe floor—IncuTech. He pulled on the door and entered to get away from those men.
Inside, he snatched a brochure—IncuTech was a “sprout lab,” designing containers and storage for sprouts.
“Can I help you?” A woman looked up from a tall reception counter.
“No, I think we’re good.” He pulled Jo with him out into the hall, took the elevator ride down forty-six floors, then exited the building.
His heart rate didn’t slow until they reached his vehicle. Normally, he would have gone inside to find out what he needed to know—in this case, from Advanced Technologies—but Jo was with him. Coming here might have been too much of a risk, after all.
He opened the door for her, and as she slid in, he whispered, “I’m supposed to get a copy of the security footage so we can review things later.”
Once he sat in his vehicle next to her, he took a deep breath. “I barely recognized him.”
“What do you mean?” She gave him a concerned look. “Are you sure it was him?”
“Oh, it was him, but he looked like a different person.”
5
He looked like a different person.”
Those words played over and over in her mind. Cole said nothing more, for which she was grateful, as he concentrated on driving in the pouring rain, through heavy traffic and oblivious pedestrians. They approached the ferry station. Jo’s breathing hitched. Could she do this? Could she get onto another ferry so soon after everything that happened this morning?
The Yukon inched forward behind a crimson Volvo midsize SUV.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. He must have noticed her tensing up.
“Sure about what?” Might as well play dumb when she didn’t want to admit what a coward she was.
“We could always just take the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.”
“At this time of day, the traffic would be awful. We’re here.”
“If you’re sure.”
