When he got back to the table, he waved at the waiter to bring him more coffee and then he addressed the group, who were watching him anxiously.
“Bad news, but just as I figured. There are two men out front with a camera watching the entrance. They’ve got to be Ashby’s men. Problem is, there is another man watching who is an obvious government type, and I don’t know if he’s watching Ashby’s men or if he is here to watch you guys.”
“What?” several of the group exclaimed at the same time.
Dillard nodded. “I’ve no idea which governmental agency is involved in this, but it does make our job considerably more difficult. Private dicks are easy to handle, but governmental types have a lot more power and have access to much more sophisticated surveillance equipment.”
“So, what do we do?” Kevin asked.
Dillard shrugged. “Like I said, our first priority is to obtain a few safe houses and then to move into them and disappear off the grid, though that’s gonna be a bit more difficult now that Uncle Sam is involved.”
He thought for a moment while the waiter poured his coffee. After the waiter left, he said, “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Burton, you and Sheila and Kevin leave the restaurant just as you entered and head back to your apartments as if nothing is going on. I’ll make sure our tails all follow you guys, and then Kat and I will go about getting some safe houses ready for us to move into when the time comes. We’ll also see about getting your professor safely out of the house in Conroe. When we’re ready, probably sometime after midnight, I’ll call you on the encrypted burner phones, and you can sneak out of your apartments, get into your safe cars, and come to the safe house.”
“What about the detectives following us?” Burton asked.
Dillard grinned. “I’ll be there to make sure they don’t see a thing.”
* * *
As Sheila, Kevin, and Burton went out the front door, laughing and talking as if they hadn’t a care in the world, Dillard slipped out the rear door and made his way to a corner of the restaurant where he could get a good look at both of the cars that were tailing them.
When Sheila drove her Mercedes sedan out of the IHOP parking lot, both of the trailing vehicles followed, showing Dillard that the men had no idea that Sheila and the others had met someone else for lunch.
As soon as the vehicles were out of sight, Dillard hurried back into the restaurant and motioned to Kat for her to follow him.
Moments later Kat was pulling out of the parking lot in her safe car while Dillard pulled a tablet notebook out of his duffel bag.
“Are you going to use that to rent us some safe houses?” she asked.
“Yeah. Google is great about listing all of the Realtors who have rental property available in the area.”
“So, you’re gonna rent here in Houston instead of Conroe, where our other safe house is?”
He nodded. “Yeah, ’cause the detectives probably already know about Conroe, and that city is just too small for the five of us to hide in for very long without being spotted.”
“What are you going to rent—a house, condominium, or town house?”
He smiled and looked over at her. “Well, they all have their advantages and disadvantages.”
She raised her eyebrows and glanced over at him. “Such as?”
“Well, a condominium building is good, because once you’re in the doors, you could go to virtually any apartment in the building and it would be very hard to follow you to find out which one without becoming obvious. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that your car would be easy to watch and there are usually only two entrances, front and rear, that have to be watched, so they are hard to sneak out of without being observed.”
“What about town houses?”
He shrugged. “Depending on the layout, both good and bad. If it is a gated town house community, it would be difficult to follow you onto the grounds to see which unit you live in, unless there is a good line of sight from the fence surrounding the property. If there is, then a good pair of binoculars would be all that was needed to track you to your unit. Another disadvantage is that individual units are easier to kidnap someone from without causing a disturbance. Then it would depend on just how good the guards are who man the gate.”
“And houses?”
“If I can find at least two next to one another and another within walking distance of the first two, and if they have enough land to keep them apart from their neighbors, that would be perfect. That will be hard to find in a town like Houston, but hopefully with a large budget, not impossible.”
“Why do you want two next to each other? I would think you’d want them far apart.”
He shook his head. “No, just the opposite. If we find that our first house has been discovered, it’ll be fairly easy to slip next door without being seen, and the people following us will think, just like you, that we would never have a second house so close to the first.”
“Okay, so which way do you want me to drive?”
He looked up from his tablet and motioned with his head toward a roadside park. “How about pulling in there and give me a few minutes on the phone to see what is available?”
When she’d pulled up next to a concrete picnic table, he got out of the car, stretched his legs, and pulled out his burner phone.
It took him three phone calls before he found a Realtor who had what he considered were strong possibilities.
He arranged to meet the real estate agent at the first address and told Kat to drop him off at the nearest rental car agency.
“Why not just use my car?” she asked. “Ashby’s men don’t know about it.”
“I know, and I want to keep it that way. There is no need to let the real estate person see either your face or your car. I’ll rent a car using a fake ID that I always carry and give the agent the same name. Once the houses are rented, both the ID and my rental car will be discarded.”
CHAPTER 35
While Dillard was meeting with the Realtor, Kat drove her safe car to Conroe, parked it in a local theater parking lot, then jogged three blocks over to a small strip mall. Only then did she call a cab and have it take her to the safe house where Professor Stone was staying.
Knowing the house was probably under surveillance made it very hard for her to keep her gaze on the front door and not look around to see who might be watching, but she managed, though it didn’t stop sweat from pooling under her armpits.
When she got to the front door, she gave the coded knock Kevin had arranged so Stone would know it was one of them at the door.
He flung the door open, a wide grin on his face. “Kat, you won’t believe the progress—”
She frowned and shook her head, making a shush sound with her lips.
Thankfully he got the hint and immediately shut up, though he wasn’t cool enough to keep from sticking his head out of the door and peering around.
“Jesus, Professor,” Kat said with exasperation as she brushed by him into the living room. “Could you possibly be more obvious?”
His face burning with embarrassment, he shut the door and turned. “Well, I am sorry, Mata Hari, as I am not used to being in a spy movie.”
Kat’s frustration vanished when Angus rushed up to her, his tail wagging furiously. He put his paws up on her legs and barked several times to show his joy at seeing her.
“Oh, my big boy . . . you are as handsome as ever,” she cooed, squatting down to put her arms around his neck and give him a big hug.
Finally, she stood, took a dog cookie out of her purse, and handed it to him. Instead of snatching it out of her hand like most dogs would, Angus took it very gently in his lips and sat on his haunches, staring at her for a moment. Then he nodded his head as if to say thank you and began to crunch the cookie.
Kat took a deep breath and told herself to relax, that it wasn’t the professor’s fault. They’d just had a bit more time to realize what danger they were all in. “I’m sorry, Jordan,” she said, moving to
give him a hug and a peck on the cheek. “It’s just that things are moving very quickly, and I’m afraid there is some bad news.”
He hugged her back and used a hand to her back to gently guide her toward the kitchen. “Well, I am sure that a bracing cup of caffeine with lots of sugar in it will have you feeling better in no time.”
He sat her at the kitchen table and began the process of making them both cups of Colombian Supreme coffee. When her cup was ready, he looked over his shoulder at her and grimaced as he added the requisite four teaspoons of sugar.
“What?” she asked, actually smiling for the first time in hours. “You don’t like sugar?”
He shook his head. “Used to, but life on the street taught me to drink it black, since sugar was in short supply to homeless people.”
Moments later, after he had thrown a few bits of kibble into Angus’s dish in the corner, he sat across the table from her and leaned forward, whispering while he smiled, “Do you think it is safe to talk here or might ‘they’ be listening?”
She took a sip of her coffee and spoke in a low voice, just above a whisper. “You’re joking, but that is what the bad news is about. Ashby’s men are not the only ones watching us—now there seems to be a government man of some sort also on the case.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“And that is not all. They probably have managed to track us to this safe house and are likely watching as we speak.”
“What? How? I thought you all made sure all of your safe cars were not bugged and Kevin even had you turn off your phones.”
She grimaced. “That’s just it. It seems that turning off and not using the phones is not enough. With new, sophisticated equipment, the phones can be tracked as long as their batteries are connected, even if the phone is turned off. In fact, I’m told that the government can even turn the phones back on and use them as listening devices without your even knowing it.”
He wagged his head. “So, since they probably know where we are, what are we going to do?”
“There is a new player in town, a friend of mine named Jackson Dillard.”
She went on to tell him all about Dillard’s past and about the meeting at the IHOP and Dillard’s plan for them to go “off the grid.”
“But if they are indeed watching the house, how will we do that?” Stone asked.
He was interrupted by a deep growl from Angus, who was squared off staring at a man standing in the door to the kitchen.
“Easy enough, if we’re careful,” said the man, who then knelt down and held out his hand, palm down toward Angus.
Kat gasped and grasped her chest. “Damn, Jack, don’t do that! You almost scared me to death.”
Stone glanced at the doorway, his mouth open, as Angus moved slowly to sniff at the man’s hand.
Angus glanced over his shoulder at Kat, who grinned and nodded once. Angus seemed to relax, and he sat on his haunches and raised his right paw to Dillard.
Dillard grinned and held out his hand to shake Angus’s paw.
“That’s his way of welcoming you to our pack,” Kat said proudly.
“I am honored, Angus,” Dillard said.
“Mr. Dillard, I presume?” Stone asked, rising with his hand out.
“In the flesh,” Dillard replied and shook his hand.
“How in the world did you get in here?” Kat asked.
“There are men watching both the front and rear entrances, so I climbed in through a bedroom window so they wouldn’t get a look at me.”
“But the windows are all locked,” she said.
“Please,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “Child’s play for an old reprobate like me.”
“Would you like some coffee before you whisk us off the grid?” Stone asked, rising.
Dillard nodded. “A cup’a joe would be great, thanks. I’ve been on the move so fast this afternoon I haven’t had time to caffeine up.”
“I’d like another, too, please,” Kat said, handing Stone her cup.
While he attended to the Keurig machine, she turned to Dillard. “Speaking of being on the move, did you manage the new safe houses?”
“Yeah, and to tell the truth it wasn’t so hard,” he said, taking a seat at the table while reaching down to rub Angus’s head between his ears. “Seems the rich have fallen on hard times and quite a few homes in the Memorial Park area are up for rent, and most of them come furnished.”
“The Memorial Park area?” Kat asked. “That means they must have large yards, as those homes are mostly what I would call mansions.”
He nodded. “Yes, they are, so they are perfect for our purposes. Of course, they come at a steep price, but I figured our safety is more important than extra profits.”
Stone handed them both cups of steaming brew. “A sound decision, if my opinion counts,” he said.
Dillard saluted him with his cup. “Of course, your opinion counts, since I’m told you are now the most intelligent one of our small group.”
Stone grinned and nodded his head toward Angus, who was sitting next to Dillard’s chair watching him with interest. “Yes, except for Mr. Angus there, who seems to be getting more intelligent with each passing day.”
Dillard chuckled and gave Angus another pat on the head.
Stone snapped his fingers. “That reminds me, Kat. You interrupted me as I was about to tell you that I believe I have made tremendous progress in separating the effects of the serum.”
Dillard drank most of his coffee in one gulp and held up his hand. “Excuse me, Professor, but I must also interrupt. We need to get a move on and make our escape before the next shift comes on duty.”
Kat glanced at him. “I am sure there is a good reason for that.”
He nodded. “Yeah. It is getting near the end of the evening shift’s time on duty, so they will be tired and less vigilant than the new boys about to show up. Also, I plan to dart them and put them to sleep while we slip away. Since they’ve been on duty almost twelve hours, hopefully they’ll think they just dozed off for a few minutes and won’t raise an alarm until we are well on our way to our new digs.”
“How do you know their schedule?” Stone asked, finishing his cup of coffee.
Dillard shrugged. “I don’t, for certain. But since I often set up surveillance like this, it’s how I would schedule the men watching, so we’ll just have to hope they did it the same way.”
He stood up. “Professor, pack everything you need into one duffel bag that you can easily carry and leave the rest. We’ll resupply later.”
“Roger,” Stone said, giving a small salute.
“Kat, you make sure all of the electronic gear—laptops, tablets, smartphones—and even handwritten notes are picked up and taken with us. They will for sure go over this place with a fine-tooth comb when they realize we’re gone for good.”
“What about fingerprints?” she asked. “They’ll be able to identify the professor if we don’t wipe the place down, and I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
He laughed. “What, ‘wipe the place down’? Did you see that in some movie?”
She blushed. “No, but in all the romance novels I’ve read . . .”
“We’re more high-tech than that now,” he said, shaking his head and smiling. He pulled a quart-sized canister from the duffel bag that was always at his side.
“And that is?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Aerosolized bleach,” he answered. “Just before we head out, I’ll spray a fine mist of bleach over all of the surfaces that might have been touched, and then I’ll also connect the canister into the air conditioner so that it will spray the mist over every surface in the house.”
“Very nice,” Stone said from the doorway, as he began to pack Angus’s food and water bowls into the bag in his hand.
“Yeah, in the olden days we’d just burn the house down to destroy evidence, but that often led to a lot of collateral damage with neighbors’ houses and property.”
He looked over at Kat. “While you’re gathering up the electronics and any notes the professor made, I’ll go make sure the guards get a nice little nap. I’ll be back in ten, so be ready.”
* * *
Matt Gomer was still smarting from the ass-chewing he and Doug Johnson had received from Harold Gelb for not getting a picture of whomever the scientists had met at the IHOP earlier. After they’d followed the scientists back to their apartments, they had called Gelb to check in. Gelb had asked whom the scientists had met at breakfast, and he’d tried to explain that to get close enough to get a picture would have blown their cover, but Gelb had just cursed him for an incompetent idiot.
“Just for that, I want you to get your asses out to the location in Conroe that their phones had pinged and find out what in the hell is going on out there. And don’t bother to come back unless you have some answers for me!” he’d screamed at them over the phone.
They’d tried to explain that they’d been on duty for almost eighteen hours already and were dragging, but Gelb had just laughed. “You can sleep when you’re dead, Gomer,” he’d said, “which might be sooner than you’d like if Mr. Ashby and I don’t get some results—and sooner rather than later!”
Now, here they were, sitting in bushes in the middle of the night, getting eaten by mosquitos, and trying to get a peek into the windows to see who was in the house where the scientists’ phones had pinged.
He was near the front door while Doug was similarly placed to watch the rear door.
He looked down and fiddled with the settings on his Canon Rebel camera. He was going to make damn sure if anyone came out the door, he’d get them on camera.
He thought he heard a rustling in the bushes to his right and was just turning his head to take a look, when he felt a sudden sharp sting in his neck. “Damn mosquitoes,” he exclaimed as he slapped at his neck.
Twenty seconds later, he slumped over and slid face-first into the bushes, dead asleep.
Dillard slipped up and gently removed the dart from the detective’s neck, and moved his body into a more comfortable position lying on his side.
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