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“We’ll find something. We only just began our investigation. This will take time.”
She nodded despite Jessica not being able to see her.
A chorus of barks from Button and Bow resounded through the house.
“They’re leaving.” Robin hustled toward the door and peered down the house. “Uncle Daar, Dad and Saaina are heading out.”
“Give yourself five minutes in case they come back.”
She padded out of the office to watch the procession from the safety of the kitchen windows.
Five minutes. She could do this.
Friday. Surveillance Van, New Orleans, LA.
Harper’s body went cold. Had he just heard Robin right?
“What the fuck?” Samuel’s words echoed Harper’s thoughts.
The entire case just did a massive right turn and dumped them on their asses.
“Where the fuck is she?” Samuel was frantic. He tapped buttons, calling up different audio feeds trying to find Robin somewhere in the house.
Why hadn’t Harper put more bugs out? He’d had the opportunity, but he’d balked.
“They’re leaving. Harper. Harper?”
He jerked his head up and blinked at Samuel. “What?”
“Change of plans.” He snatched up his rental keys. “I’ll follow Daar. You stay on this house. Try to get inside. If she finds that laptop, we need it.”
Harper nodded. He was still processing the last few moments and piecing it all together while Samuel vaulted out of the van and hustled to his car two blocks away.
These stakeouts were Harper’s least favorite part of the job. There was nothing more boring than listening to people go about their lives and watch a house through binoculars. They’d done it enough he’d been lulled into a false sense of calm about it.
He still wasn’t over the first half of that conversation.
Robin’s feelings were genuine. He knew that from the way she kissed him, how her body melted against his. But she was right. He had pulled back some, for his own benefit. This was a job. He couldn’t allow himself to get wrapped up in her for real, and he’d almost done that at her house.
He scooted the rolling stool toward the desk built into the surveillance van and continued cycling through the audio.
There was one way to figure out where she was.
He pulled out his phone and tapped out a quick text then hit send. He watched the audio feeds for any spike in sound.
There.
The bug in the birdcage.
She was either in that back room off the patio or the kitchen.
“Harper just texted.” Robin’s voice was soft, which meant she was probably closer to the kitchen or trying to keep her voice down. “He just wants to know if I’m free earlier… I know. It’s not like I can complain, either. We spend a lot of time together, I just feel like… I don’t know, Jess. Everything seems perfect, but something is off. What if he’s seeing someone else? We never had the exclusive conversation. For all I know… Yeah. Okay. That makes sense.”
He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed at his face.
Yeah, the problem was him.
How was it after this long this was the first they were hearing about Robin investigating her uncle? The way she talked most of the time he’d assumed she was Daar’s biggest family fan. And the whole time she’d been playing them all.
