“Have you heard from Mike?”
“He got to the fancy
hotel. I told him not to expect the Fords and brought him into the loop. He’s standing by, waiting to see what you want him to do.”
“I don’t have a fucking clue.”
“You need to clear out. This room has two beds. You can bunk here tonight. We’ll discuss options.”
“See you in a few.”
When he showed up at the motel without his belongings, Gif greeted him with exasperation. “Where’s your stuff?”
“I didn’t clear out.”
“We agreed—”
“I didn’t agree.”
“You didn’t disagree, either.”
“I’m hungry. A mile back I passed a place.” Drex turned around and headed for his car. He’d left the engine running. Gif pulled the motel room door shut and followed.
On the way to the restaurant, Gif said, “While I was waiting on you, I took the liberty of calling Mike.”
“Did you interrupt his five-course, prix fixe dinner?”
“He canceled his reservation.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know. Shocked me too. He was in his room, working.”
“Doing what?”
“If the Fords left the airport in the vehicle they arrived in, it would show up on surveillance camera video.”
“That would only prove they left. Wouldn’t tell us where they were going.”
“Mike’s going to look into it anyway.”
The seafood shack was outlined in turquoise and pink neon, and had a sign with a fish jumping out of a skillet. The shrimp was hot out of the deep fryer, and the beer was icy cold. They ate in silence for several minutes before Gif again raised the subject of Drex leaving the apartment.
Drex hadn’t had a change of heart. “If they return to their house, it’ll look better if I’m still there, carrying on as though nothing happened. I replaced the transmitter where Jasper had left it. That’ll be the first thing he checks. He will suspect that it was me who triggered the alarm, but he can’t prove it.”
“Unless he has nanny cams.”
“Even if he had me on video stealing Talia’s jewelry, would he drag the police in?” He shook his head. “No. He doesn’t want involvement with the police.”
“He got them involved tonight.”
“Only to let me know that he’s on to me. I’m sure he got a good chuckle out of that. But it was a tactical error.”
“How so?”
“Why would he play hide-and-seek if he didn’t have something to hide?”
Gif thought on that and conceded with a nod. “But what if they’ve vamoosed, and we never lay eyes on them again?”