Chương 12
Sullivan continued.
"And Gideon?"
"Yeah?"
"We found the sedan."
"Where?"
"Abandoned near Jefferson."
"Driver?"
"Gone."
"Anything inside?"
Sullivan went quiet for half a second.
"Copies of the same Mercer invoices Evelyn just told us about."
Gideon said nothing.
Sullivan's voice lowered.
"Whoever followed you wanted you to know this wasn't random."
Gideon drove another half mile before answering.
"Then whoever did it expected me to recognize the invoices."
Sullivan said, "Or expected us to find them and start asking why your name is all over a fraud case."
"Same difference."
"Not legally."
"Fair."
Maisie had gone quiet beside him.
That worried Gideon more than questions.
He turned into the parking lot of an all-night pharmacy and parked beneath the brightest light he could find.
Two people were loading bottled water into an SUV near the entrance.
A delivery van idled beside the curb.
Ordinary people doing ordinary things.
For the moment, that was useful.
"Where do you want me?" Gideon asked.
"Stay there."
"You know where I am?"
"I do now."
Gideon glanced at the phone.
"You're tracking me?"
"You called 911 from that phone and gave permission to locate it during an active incident."
"Right."
Sullivan paused.
"We're sending a unit."
"How long?"
"Few minutes."
"And Dale?"
"Deputies are checking places his wife gave us."
"Work sites?"
"Yes."
"County Road Nine?"
"Already sent someone."
Gideon looked through the windshield at the pharmacy doors opening and closing.
"Check the storage facility."
"We are."
"And the job trailer."
"We are."
"Briggs's yard?"
"Also."
Sullivan's patience thinned.
"Gideon, let us do our jobs."
Gideon closed his eyes.
There it was.
A sentence he'd heard from men in uniforms and men without them.
Sometimes it meant trust us.
Sometimes it meant stop making this harder.
Sometimes it meant both.
"All right."
Sullivan's voice softened slightly.
"Keep your daughter with you."
"I was planning to."
"Don't go looking for Dale."
"I said all right."
"You said it like a man lying."
"Occupational hazard."
"Mechanic?"
"Parent."
Sullivan muttered something that sounded like a prayer against difficult civilians.
The line went dead.
Gideon lowered the phone.
Maisie was still looking through the windshield.
A woman came out of the pharmacy carrying a bag and a bouquet of cheap flowers.
She stopped to rearrange them before walking to her car.
Maisie watched her too.
Finally she said, "Are we hiding?"
"Sort of."
"From the people in the car?"
"Yes."
"And the people who burned the building?"
"Maybe."
"Those could be the same people."
Gideon looked at her.
"Could be."
She nodded.
Then she pulled one knee up onto the seat and hugged it.
"Do you have a gun?"
The question landed without warning.
"Not with me."
"But you own one."
"Yes."
"At home?"
"Locked up."
She looked toward him.
"Why didn't you bring it?"
"Because I didn't know I'd need one."
"Do you need one now?"
Gideon thought about the sedan.
The fake invoices.
Dale disappearing.
Then he looked at his daughter.
"No."
She studied him.
"That was another lie."
"Maybe."
"I don't like the SEAL thing."
"You've known about it for five minutes."
"I don't like that you knew dangerous stuff and I didn't."
"That's not the same."
"It feels the same."
Gideon leaned back against the seat.
He could have explained protection.
Age.
Trauma.
The ways parents built walls and called them shelter.
None of it would change what she felt.
"I should have told you more."
"Yes."
"I don't know when."
"Earlier than tonight."
"That's fair."
She looked down.
"Did Mom make you stop?"
"No."
"Why did you stop?"
The answer was complicated.
The true one was less heroic than strangers online would probably imagine.
He had been tired.
Not physically.
Tired in places sleep never reached.
Then Claire got pregnant, and suddenly there was a future with grocery lists and pediatric appointments and arguments about paint colors.
He had wanted that future with embarrassing desperation.
"I wanted to come home," he said.
Maisie frowned.
"You already had a home."
"I wanted to stay in it."
She absorbed that.
Then she said, "Were you good at being a SEAL?"
Gideon almost laughed.
"That is a very nine-year-old question."
"So?"
"Yeah."
"Really good?"
"Good enough."
"June says you hate bragging because it makes your face look constipated."
"June says too much."
That finally got a smile.
A patrol car entered the parking lot.
Gideon watched it circle and stop nearby.
A deputy stepped out and approached his side of the truck.
She was young, maybe early thirties, with tired eyes and rain spots on her shoulders.
"Mr. Ror?"
"Yeah."
"Deputy Morales."
She nodded toward Maisie.
"Hi."
Maisie lifted two fingers.
"Hi."
Morales glanced around the lot.
"Officer Sullivan asked me to stay here until he calls."
"Any update?"
"Not yet."
Gideon nodded.
Morales rested one hand near her belt, casual but alert.
"Want to sit inside the store?"
"We're fine here."
"Probably better with cameras."
Gideon looked toward the pharmacy entrance.
"Can we use the employee break room?"
Morales smiled faintly.
"That's ambitious."
"Had to try."
"We can sit by the pharmacy counter."
Maisie said, "Do they sell snacks?"
Morales looked at her.
"Unfortunately for your father's wallet, yes."
Five minutes later they occupied a pair of molded plastic chairs beside a rack of reading glasses.
Maisie had convinced Gideon to buy crackers and a fruit drink.
Morales stood near the entrance pretending to study cold medicine while watching everyone who came through the doors.
Gideon disliked depending on strangers.
He disliked even more that he noticed himself disliking it.
His phone rang again.
Evelyn.
He answered.
"What changed?"
"Daniel left."
Gideon sat straighter.
"Left where?"
"Headquarters."
"Why?"
"He said he needed air."
"That sounds credible."
"You don't believe him."
"I don't know him."
"I do."
Gideon waited.
Evelyn's silence became an answer.
"Do you know where he went?"
"No."
"Phone?"
"He turned off location sharing."
"When?"
"Seven minutes ago."
"Did he know Dale was missing?"
"No."
May you like
"Did he know about the sedan?"
"Not from me."
