Letty drove by the house and, at the end of the block, turned a corner and pulled over into the shade of a tree. “You get it?” she asked.
Kaiser was peering at his phone: “No. Can’t see it, the way the Jeep’s parked. We really need to know who she is... if it’s Jael. She was quick to jump you with that gun last night. If that’s actually her.”
“It’s her, she had that Jeep,” Letty said, letting a little irritation show.
“You don’t know that one hundred percent.”
“Ifeelit,” Letty said. “Not only is it her, that gang killed the Blackburns and would be perfectly happy to kill us. This is about more than stolen oil.”
“Remember what about six people have said—it’s only a little oil to the oil companies, but it’s a hell of a lot of money for anyone else,” Kaiser said. “Worth killing for.”
“All right, all right,” Letty said. “Let’s find a place where we can watch them.”
They found a spoton the opposite side of the block where they could see the cluster of vehicles by looking between houses. They’d been there for twenty minutes when a police cruiser pulled up behind them, lights flashing, and a cop got out.
Kaiser said, “Ah, shit. Busted.”
Letty rolled down the driver’s-side window, took her ID case from a hip pocket, and held it open outside the window, where the cop could see what would appear to be a badge case. The cop came cautiously up, took the case, looked at it, and handed it back.
“We had a call from a neighbor,” the cop said.
“If you want somebody to verify our investigation, you could call Casey Pugh,” Letty said. “We were here a couple days ago, when the dog bit the Midland investigator.”
“I heard about the dog,” the cop said. “You got something going on right this minute?”
Letty said, “Yes, unless our targets see a cop car with flashing lights. Which would make it harder to run our surveillance.”
“Sorry. I’ll move on. I’ll call that neighbor...”
“Is the neighbor on this block? I’d hate to have it turn out to be the people we’re watching,” Kaiser said.
“Yes, it’s...” The cop gestured to a house across the street. Letty and Kaiser looked and saw a curtain move.
“Okay. Talk to Casey,” Letty said.
The cop went on his way and Kaiser said, “Hope they didn’t see that.”
“No help for it,” Letty said. “Can’t blame the cop.”
They sat for another hour, watching the needle slowly drop on the gas gauge, and then got movement. A man that Letty recognizedas Duran came out of the house, followed by Crain, and they both got in Crain’s truck. An athletic woman and an unknown man—not Low—got into the Jeep. They did U-turns on the street and headed toward the interstate.
“That woman...” Letty said.
“Yeah.”
“Right body shape, judging from the photo in theResistUS!book.”
“That’s something... and, hey, stay back,” Kaiser said. “The interstate is a pipe, once they’re in it. We don’t have to be on their bumpers.”
Letty said nothing, and a moment later, Kaiser said, “I may have mentioned that before.”
“Yes. You have,” Letty said.
“Getting snippy.”
“John...”
They stayed close enoughto see the two vehicles, moving as a loose convoy, turn south on I-20. Maybe going to the shack, or the arroyo with the hidden truck? With Letty and Kaiser a mile and a half back, they watched as the convoy went through Pecos and Toyah and a couple other small towns, and then another fifty miles onto I-10, the Jeep leading.
