Page 118 of The Last Close Call

The sheet settled over her, and she winced from the pain.

“I’ll put the hide-a-key back in your flowerpot.”

“Thank you.”

“We need to talk about your security setup, by the way. It’s crap.”

She sighed.

“If you need anything, call me.”

“Thanks.”

His footsteps faded. She lay there, every cell in her body aching. She heard the front door open.

It closed with a soft click.

***

Jack stared through the binoculars at the front of the house. If he had to spend another entire night here, he was going to lose his mind.

He lowered the binoculars and stretched out his leg that was falling asleep. They’d switched from a van disguised as a utility truck to a less conspicuous minivan in front of a house where the owners were out of town, and the new vehicle didn’t have nearly the same space to spread out. Jack grabbed his phone from the cup holder and checked his messages. Still nothing.

He called Liz.

“Lasco.”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Any movement?” she asked, and he caught the excitement in her voice.

“No. What’s the status with the lab?”

Her weary sigh on the other end made Jack’s gut clench.

“I talked to Hood,” she said.

“Well, were you going to tell me?”

“I just got off the phone with him. Calm down.”

“What’s the story?”

“Still waiting.”

Jack gritted his teeth.

“There’s an issue with the sample. They’re having to rerun everything, and he thinks it will be tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? What the fuck?”

“I know you’re frustrated.”

Frustrated didn’t begin to cover it. Jack was livid. He’d spent four days swigging coffee and Red Bull and freezing his ass off in a parked car. He was pissed off at Hood, pissed off at Heidi, pissed off at Heidi’s team, and he and Bryan were barely on speaking terms.

“Sorry,” Liz said. “I know it sucks.”

No, she didn’t know. She hadn’t been stuck in a van for four days.

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