“She’s awake,” Quinn said as he reentered the hotel room.
Misty apparently had decided not to lie back down, and had joined Daeng and Howard in the sitting area. “Orlando?” she asked.
Quinn nodded.
“When?” Daeng said.
“Within the last half hour. I…I’ve got to go.”
“Of course. Do you want me to come with you or stay?”
Quinn thought for a moment. “I’d like you to stay until we’re sure things have calmed down here, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
Quinn looked at Howard. “Is there any safe place, not connected to the business, where you all could hole up for a while?”
Howard took a moment to consider the question. “I have a friend who has a cabin in the forest near the border with West Virginia. As far as I know, he’s not using it right now.”
“And he’s not in our world?
“Not even close.”
“Good. You can drop me at the airport on the way.”
“Wait,” Misty said. “What about my car? My purse?”
Quinn had forgotten about the car. Before he could come up with an answer, Howard said, “We could swing by there. Probably a good idea to move it out of the neighborhood just in case, don’t you think?”
Quinn knew it was risky, but leaving Misty’s car near Peter’s place for so long wasn’t good, either. “Drop me at the airport first, then go for the car. If you spot anything unusual, get the hell out of there.”
CHAPTER 16
“Central, we are now on site,” Teig reported as Holt, his recon team partner, turned their car onto the calm Georgetown street.
“Copy that, Team Seven,” Central replied.
Teig set the radio down and started checking addresses. “That’s it.” He pointed at a building a quarter block away.
Holt pulled the sedan into an open spot. “What first?” he asked as he turned off the engine.
“Check around the building. Central said there should be a pass-through on the left side that’ll take us to the alley in back. After that, we’ll check the street.”
“Works for me.”
“How do you want to do this?” Howard asked Daeng as they reached Georgetown.
“Once we turn onto the street, keep it slow and steady so we can scope things out. If it looks good when we reach Misty’s car, then we’ll stop. If not, keep going.”
“Sounds good.”
Daeng turned so he could see Misty in the backseat. “Let me have your keys.”
“Why?”
“So I can drive your car.”
“I can do it.”
“I’m sure you can, but I think it would be better if I did.”
Reluctantly, she handed her keys to him. “The driver’s door can be tricky. My car is old so it doesn’t have keyless entry, and the lock sticks.”
“No problem.”
A few minutes later, they turned onto Peter’s street. Like the previous day, cars were parked up and down both sides, but since it was still the middle of the workday, plenty of spots were available. Howard kept the speed of his BMW down as they scanned for trouble.
Daeng saw five people total — seven if you included the occupants of the two strollers a couple women were pushing. He worked his way from one person to the next, quickly assessing and then dismissing them as threats. He sensed that all five either lived on the block or worked there in some kind of domestic function — nannies, most likely.
“Anything on your side?” Howard asked.
“Not yet,” Daeng said.
“How do things look to you?” Howard asked Misty.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Everything looks normal.”
As they continued forward, Peter’s building came into view. It looked quiet, no one out front, just a man with another stroller a few buildings down, and a woman walking a small dog a dozen feet behind the man.
“There’s my car,” Misty said, pointing at her Camry. It was parked on Peter’s side of the street, right where they’d left it the day before, and looked untouched.
“What do you think?” Howard asked.
Daeng looked around. The street seemed quiet enough. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
There was nothing of interest along the side of the building, and as far as Teig could tell, the alley was also a bust. Central had told him he might not find anything, but that did little to ease Teig’s annoyance. He was a goal-oriented person, so when assigned a task, he felt a hell of a lot better when he accomplished it.
“Let’s go back to the street,” he said. “Central wanted photos of the plates on all the cars parked around here.”
“How far do we go?” Holt asked.
“Both sides of the street, a block each way. I think that should do it.”
There was an empty spot at the curb two cars in front of Misty’s. Howard drove to the end of the block, made a U-turn, and then drove back and eased his sedan into the spot.
Daeng once more scanned the street in both directions.
Nothing new. Nothing unusual.
He opened the door and hopped out, phone in hand. Walking casually along the road, he looked down at the cell’s screen like he was checking e-mail or texts. Just another busy local doing what everyone else did.
He didn’t look up again until he was only a few feet from the Camry. He quickly examined the door, checking for any signs that someone had tried to break in — scratches around the lock, loose weather stripping at the base of the window — but all looked good.
He slipped Misty’s key into the lock, but it only turned a quarter of the way. He jiggled it, thinking that would loosen it up, but it would go no farther.
Fine, he thought. He’d get in on the passenger side. But when he tried turning the key to extract it, it wouldn’t come back out, either.
Behind him, he heard a car door open, and looked over to see Misty heading in his direction.
“I told you it was tricky,” she whispered as she walked up.
She jiggled the key until it turned all the way and the door opened. “There you go,” she said, taking a step back.
But Daeng barely heard her. His attention was focused on Peter’s building, where two men in suits looking very much like the ones from yesterday had just emerged from the side access way.
“Get in the car,” he said.
“What?”
“Get in. Now. And move over to the passenger side. I’m driving.”
He glanced over at the BMW, and shared a quick look with Howard through the side-view mirror. Daeng could tell Howard had seen the men, too.
“Go,” he mouthed, and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Camry.
Teig and Holt walked over to the cars parked directly in front of the apartment building.
“You take this side of the street. I’ll take the other,” Teig said. “Frame it so you get the license plate and a partial of the car so that they can see make and color.”
“All right.”
Teig stepped between the bumpers of the two closest cars, planning on crossing to the opposite side, but paused when he noticed the BMW heading in his direction. By the way the car was angling onto the road, Teig was pretty sure it had pulled out of a spot at the curb. Best to get a picture of it.
When the BMW neared, he raised his phone to take the shot. That’s when he noticed the second car pull out of a parking spot.
This one a Toyota Camry.
Daeng wanted to pull a quick U-turn and head in the other direction, but the parked cars on the other side made the street too narrow. They had no choice but to drive by the men in front of Peter’s building.
As they pulled away from the curb, Misty gasped.
“That man. Is he—”
“Act like you live here,” Daeng told her.