She was letting Laverne down, and she hated that, but Gedeon wouldn’t. He was a professional. He would see the case through. He didn’t care about the money, but he did care about the missing woman. If there had been foul play, he would find out. She was certain if Laverne was dead, her husband was behind her death.
The Café Du Monde was very full, and she stood in line to get her usual café au lait. Several times she glanced at her watch, and then she left the line to go to the women’s restroom. Once inside, she hurried to a stall and stripped, passing her clothes to the woman waiting in the stall beside the one she’d chosen. She dressed in the clothes given to her right down to the hiking boots. Next, she wound her braid tightly around the top of her head and secured it with a net. Pulling on a chestnut wig with a ponytail and bangs, she pushed dark sunglasses onto her nose. Her earrings were next. She handed over the gold hoops and took the little crystal studs. Phones were exchanged. She was given a hot coffee.
Meiling walked briskly out of the restroom, ponytail swinging, bouncing on her heels, small pack on her back and coffee in hand as she strode out of the café and started down the street along the French Market to where a little Mini Cooper was parked. Climbing inside, she drove away.
Meanwhile, the small woman looking like the perfect replica of Meiling stood in line to get her usual café au lait. Once she had it in hand, she strolled down to her favorite spot by the river, put in her earbuds and sat back to relax.
Meiling used the Mini Cooper to get out of Louisiana. She stuck to the back roads as much as possible. Cities had traffic cameras. Gedeon had access to traffic cameras. He would look for her. His specialty was finding people. He would take her running as a challenge.
He knew her better than anyone else in the world did. She had gotten too comfortable with him and given too much of herself away. He knew most of the people who owed her favors. He was familiar with her network, the ones she could count on in a pinch to get her out of trouble fast. Any of them would give her up to Gedeon.
Etienne was the exception. He was hers and Gedeon knew it, so Etienne’s communication would be monitored. She drove all day, stopping only when necessary to get gas and then finding a station where she didn’t have to go inside. She filled the tank using the credit card with her new identity. She was using the name Vivienne LeClare, originally from Canada. Mainly she preferred hiking and camping to any other method of recreation. She was trying to hit most of the national parks across the country.
The Mini Cooper was stocked with camping gear and a very practical all-weather tent. She had several passes to the parks she wanted to visit. Her cover was solid. She just had to become Vivienne in her head until she believed she was. She couldn’t forget for a moment that Gedeon wasn’t the only one hunting her. He might be the one she feared the most, but only because he would tear out her heart. The others hunting her wanted her dead for no reason other than that she’d been born.
Linda Wu, the woman who had taken her place, had to do exactly as she told her and disappear as well. She had done a huge favor for Linda. Both had noticed Linda’s eerie resemblance to Meiling, and when Linda wanted to try to make payments, Meiling had suggested she be ready to do this favor in case Meiling ever needed to disappear. They worked out the details meticulously.
Linda would sit on the bench for an hour, and then she would go to one of the tables and appear to puzzle out the work in the notebooks. Hopefully she could eke out another hour. She was to walk to the public transit. Along the way, she was to break down the phone, take out the card and destroy it, putting pieces in garbage cans, and then, when she reached the transit stop, get aboard. She was to get off at the next stop, where an Uber would be waiting to take her to the truck they had stashed. While aboard the public transit, she could get rid of the wig, change sunglasses, turn her reversible jacket inside out and take out the hoop earrings.
Once in the Uber, she would go near the location of where her truck was stashed, but without allowing the driver to see it. Once he was gone, she could use her truck to drive safely out of town, back to her farm.