Page 66 of Three-Inch Teeth

“This is where you get out,” he said. “Stay hidden in the bushes on the side of the road and call me if anyone comes through the gate. Remember: don’t let yourself get seen by anyone.”

“I remember my instructions,” she said sullenly. “But I wish you’d give me back my real phone.”

“We’ll talk about that later,” Cates said.

During the night at his old house, Soledad had convinced Cates over glasses of pinot noir apparently brought there by the llama people that Johnson couldn’t be trusted with her phone.

“We don’t know who she’s texting or what she’s saying,” Soledad had whispered.

“I think it’s her sister,” Cates had responded.

“She’s a security risk.”

He was right, Cates had concluded. So while she was sleeping, they’d replaced her iPhone with a burner from Walmart. She was told to communicate with them only with that, and she hadn’t received the news well.

“You’ll get your old phone back when we’re through,” Soledad had assured her. Cates was impressed by what a convincing liar he was.

*

“BUT IT’S SO cold,” Johnson said as she climbed out of her own truck.

“It’ll warm up,” Cates said. “Now, like we talked about, call me with a vehicle description if anyone comes into the club.”

“Yeah-yeah-yeah,” Johnson grumbled as she walked away. She chose a good hiding spot in a bed of chin-high junipers, where she could clearly see the front gate but couldn’t be seen by the entrants.

As Cates backed the truck away, Johnson gestured at him with her middle finger.

“What a charmer,” Soledad noted.

*

CATES DROVE TO a dense copse of pine trees and high juniper bushes on the side of the eighth fairway that bordered the cart path. Before plunging straight into it, he clicked on his headlights so he could navigate the pickup between two stout tree trunks. He drove into the copse far enough that the back end of the vehicle couldn’t be seen from the path itself.

“Eight hundred eighteen PSI,” LOR reported from the topper.

Cates turned to Soledad. “Keep it running until we reach max air pressure.”

“Will do,” Soledad said.

“I’ll set up the camera,” Cates said. “Keep a good eye on the truck camera as well. You should have two good angles.”

“Got it.”

“Axel,” Cates said, narrowing his eyes. “No more surprises.”

“You got it, partner,” Soledad said with a hard grin.

*

AT THE REAR of the truck, Cates activated a battery-powered miniature video camera and placed it on the bumper pointing to the south along the path. After it was set, he checked in with Soledad, who had moved from the passenger seat to behind the wheel.

“How does it look?” Cates asked.

Soledad drew out his phone and punched up the app that received the live stream. “It looks good,” he said. “It’s dark, but I can see all the way down the hill to the houses.”

“Good.” Cates was both impressed and a little intimidated by all the new technology that was available for pennies at places like Walmart. A lot had happened during the years he’d been incarcerated when it came to new gadgets.

“Are we sure he’ll be coming from that direction?” Soledad asked.

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