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“Which is?”
“How do you feel about swapping cars?” She held up the keys to her Hellcat.
With a new gleam in his eyes, Dustin smiled. “I’ve been trying to get behind the wheel of that beauty since I started working here.”
“Now’s your chance.”
“Say no more.” He fished in his pocket, pulled out the keys to his SUV and handed them to her.
“I’ll be back in time to close.”
Once she grabbed her things, she headed to his SUV. The Jeep was ideal for surveillance. It had black-tinted windows, plenty of room to spread out and it blended in. Best of all, in case Seth noticed the vehicle, it wasn’t registered to Charlie.
She tucked her hair into a baseball cap and took off. Next on her to-do list was finding Detective Olsen. Today, that might be a crapshoot.
Three weeks ago she had surveilled him, taking pictures and meticulous notes. The purpose hadn’t been to ascertain if he was up to something nefarious, like now. Then it had been to see if he had a routine in order to pick the best day and time for Haley to leave him. To help a person make a smooth transition into a new life took months of preparation. Time to arrange fake credentials and build an online history. The documents that Haley would have needed weren’t even ready. The plan was for Haley to disappear in twelve days once everything was in order.
While following Seth, Charlie had quickly learned two things. It was easier to do undetected if she had a tracker on his truck. The second being that the most predictable part of his schedule was in the early morning. Later in the day things got hectic, but he always hit the gym at the crack of dawn, no matter what. Beyond that, he ate at Delgado’s bar and grill about three times a week. The only other places he frequented with any regularity was the local strip club out on Raven Drive—sometimes in the middle of the day or late at night since they were open from noon to 2:00 a.m.—and the station.
Charlie cruised past the police station. Brian’s truck was parked out front. She took it as a hopeful sign that he was there investigating. Normally, he was at a different facility where the task force worked.
Turning the corner, she drove by the adjacent parking lot in the rear of the building and spotted Seth’s gray Chevy pickup. Charlie made a U-turn farther down the block and pulled over, where she had sight of the station as well as the lot. While she waited for him to leave, she took out her camera, which had an attached telephoto lens. She wanted proof of whatever he was up to.
Her timing couldn’t have been any better. Seth shoved through the back door and strode into the lot, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Clean-shaven. Slicked-back hair.
She wasn’t sure what she had expected. Perhaps for him to appear disheveled, at the very least distressed. Certainly not groomed and undaunted with a smug smile on his face. He lit up a cigarette as he crossed the lot. She zoomed in closer on him, making sure she got a shot of the carefree grin on his face, right before he hopped into his truck.
If she was a betting a woman, she’d wager a kidney that Seth Olsen had just given the performance of his life inside the station. Playing the part of the grieving, confused husband.
What a fake and a liar. The man was no good.
It didn’t take long until he drove out of the parking lot, headed in the opposite direction. Charlie put the SUV in drive and followed him, keeping as much distance as possible without losing him. Even though she was in an inconspicuous car, she didn’t dare get too close. She had hoped to catch sight of another vehicle tailing him, a detective conducting a thorough investigation. But she was the only one on him.
Not surprising.
They were headed toward the outskirts of town, where it was going to be difficult to follow someone surreptitiously. With long, wide stretches of plains and winding mountain roads, there would be few, if any, cars to hide behind, but she was too stubborn to give up.
As soon as she had an opportunity, she’d put a GPS tracker back on his truck. That would enable her to keep a good mile between them without the threat of being discovered. In the meantime, she pulled into the lot of a feed store. It was the last retail shop, or much of anything, before leaving town. If Seth came back to Laramie, he’d have to take this road.
To bide some time, she used the facilities inside the store, bought some water and hunkered down in the SUV. The store had open Wi-Fi. She piggybacked off it, using the laptop that she’d brought along, and kept an eye on passing traffic while she got some work done.
Two hours later, she spotted a gray Chevy pickup. It was Seth’s.
She set her laptop to the side and started the engine. Once he passed, she gave him a few seconds, then drove out. Back through town they went. Until he headed east.
The moment he turned onto Raven Drive, she knew where he was going. The audacity of it had her gritting her teeth.
Across the street from the Bare Back Gentlemen’s Club, she found a place to park that offered a prime view. Rather than staying visible from the front seat, she climbed into the back of the Jeep and managed to get a few pictures of him entering the club.
Now all she could do was wait. She glanced at the time on her cell phone. If only there was some way for her to get out of dinner with Brian. Tailing Seth was a higher priority. In her gut, she knew it would lead to something, eventually. But Brian had made it clear that he wasn’t going to share whatever he learned over the phone.
She needed all the pieces to put together the puzzle.
So as much as she wanted to get out of it, later tonight she had to have dinner with Bradshaw.
ASBRIANLIFTEDthe strainer basket from the large pot on the stove, the doorbell rang.
He looked at the time on the oven. Seven thirty on the dot. He dumped the seafood boil into an aluminum pan and shook the mound of fresh shrimp, lobster tails, crab legs, sweet corn and halved red potatoes before setting it on the outside dining table that he’d lined with newspaper. Then he wiped his hands and answered the door.
