I popped a piece of nicotine gum into my mouth. A tingle of alertness passed through my nerves alongside the chilly mint flavor. Fiddling with the radio, I found an upbeat pop station that wasn’t my usual tastes but should at least stop me from getting too dozy.
Then there was nothing to do but wait. I’d have brought a book to read, but I didn’t want the overhead light running down my battery—or drawing attention to me sitting here in the car.
It took about two hours. Around one in the morning, about an hour after the last light on that side of the house had switched off, a figure appeared by Anthea’s window. The light from the nearby streetlamp caught on her fiery hair as she wiggled the screen free and then dropped something I could barely make out in the darkness over the ledge.
With an impressively nimble swing of her legs, she was clambering down the side of the house, gripping what must have been a thin, dark rope. Totally bypassing the Hell Kicker guards who’d be hanging out by the front door. Clever bitch.
I dismissed the flicker of admiration and watched her hop the last few feet to the ground. She immediately turned and hurried off in the opposite direction. She’d traded her dress for a black tee and leggings, and everything below her neck blended into the night.
I gave her ten seconds head start and then switched on the car engine. I couldn’t follow too closely or she’d realize something was up.
As she crossed the street, I pulled into the road and drove after her. But just as I passed the house, she vanished from view down a laneway between the backs of the houses the next block over.
I swore through my teeth and peered down the laneway as I cruised past it, not wanting to alert her by following her directly down there. I couldn’t make out her delicate figure amid the fences and garages anyway. She’d already disappeared in some new direction.
I’d barely started following her, and now I’d lost her.
Just in case I could pick up her trail again, I circled the block a couple of times, but whichever way she’d gone, she’d kept a very low profile. With a sigh, I drove back to our garage.
Fine. I wasn’t going to find out where she was sneaking off to by seeing it with my own eyes, so I’d just have to switch to plan B.