Outfox

“Without her seeing you.”

“And you?”

“I’ll follow them in my car as far as the airport to make sure that’s where they’re headed. If they take another direction, I’ll continue following until you can catch up with me. If they do go to the airport, I’ll let you know to watch for them, then I’ll circle around, come back here, and—”

“Break and enter.”

“With any luck I won’t have to break anything.” Gif didn’t respond to the quip. Drex sighed. “Don’t start again.”

“It’s risky, Drex. Why take such a chance?”

“Because we’ve established that legal channels are closed, and I don’t know any other way.”

“Okay. But you don’t have to go it alone. After I see them off, why don’t I join the search? Another pair of eyes and hands would halve the time it will take.”

“Nope. It’s my plan, so my neck is the only one on the block. Besides, if I’m caught, I’ll need you to rush in waving your badge and getting me out of hock with the local cops.”

“I’d rather you not get cau

ght.”

“Goes without saying.”

“What are you doing now?”

He was doing what he’d been doing since his exchange with Talia at dawn: wishing that Jasper had rushed up the stairs and kicked in his door. He wished Jasper had tried tearing him limb from limb. He would have demonstrated to him and his lying wife what animal impulses unleashed looked like.

But to Gif he said, “Killing time till they leave.”

He paced. He sat. He eavesdropped on the Fords’ intermittent conversations as they came and went from the kitchen, but nothing substantive had come from those exchanges. If Talia had told Jasper about seeing him that morning, and what had been said, she’d done so outside his hearing. The climate between the two of them seemed to have warmed from what it had been the night before.

It gave Drex no pleasure to speculate on what had brought that about.

At 10:05, Jasper left the house alone. He returned at 12:36.

Knowing that they could be leaving at any time soon after that, Drex posted himself at the window and began an uninterrupted vigil. At 2:07, his phone buzzed. He answered. Gif said, “The five nineteen flight?”

“Looks like. Stand by.”

Three o’clock rolled around. Three fifteen arrived, and still there was no sign of them. By 3:22, with Drex on the verge of imploding, Jasper’s car backed out of the garage.

Drex called Gif. “They’re rolling.”

“Car service?”

“He’s driving.”

“On it.”

They clicked off. Drex watched to see which way the car turned out of the driveway, then waited at the door and counted slowly to fifty before bounding down the stairs.

He didn’t pick up their tail until he reached a major thoroughfare and saw their car stopped at a traffic light. Several cars were between them. He slowed down to let more pass him to create a safer barrier without blocking them from sight. He followed them across the bridge into Charleston, then north on the freeway toward the airport.

Jasper stayed within the speed limit and stuck to the outside lane, making him easy to follow. When Jasper signaled to take the airport exit off the freeway, Drex called Gif. “Looks like it’s a go. You in place?”

“Trying not to make myself conspicuous to ATF.”

“We’re here. Hang on.” Staying a discreet distance behind Jasper, Drex followed him toward the parking garages and reported to Gif when Jasper entered the short-term one directly across the street from the terminal. “They should be coming your way in a matter of minutes.”