Page 35 of The Job

When we get to the apartment building, we park so that we can see the building but with other vehicles, so we don’t stand out. We don’t want to worry her or make her suspicious. We also double check that there is no one here doing the same thing that we are doing, and watching the building. I want to make sure that Jimmy hasn’t sent anyone to watch the place.

Again, there is no reason why he would, but we want to be sure that he hasn’t, and I would much rather be safe than sorry, especially in this situation.

“I’ll drop it in,” Cash says as he puts some sunglasses on. It’s hot today, so wearing a hoody would just make him stand out.

He actually has the best disguise anyway, because no one would suspect a teenager. It’s unlikely that anyone is going to look at camera footage, in fact, the place is so run down I doubt that it has security cameras installed. But he will wear sunglasses and keep his head angled down just in case when he delivers the letter.

We have tried to make the envelope look like it wasn’t hand delivered, with all of the various markings that it would have in order to be delivered here from the fake lawyer’s office. A hand delivered letter would immediately raise suspicions. We all watch Cash as he crosses the street and into the building, the factthat there isn’t a code or anything on the door gives me hope that if there are security cameras there, they won’t be operational.

It’s a tense wait in the car, waiting for him to come back, but he finally does, a smile on his face as he walks back across the road and hops into the car.

“Did everything go okay?” Jensen asks.

Cash nods, “Yeah, I put it in her mailbox, and the mail was still in there, so it should just blend in.”

“Great,” I reply. “I guess we now sit and wait.”

“We could always do shifts?” Luc suggests.

Everyone hums, but no one offers to leave. I think we all want to stay here and make sure that she and the kid are safe. Besides, we only have one vehicle, so we would have to leave and take whoever wasn’t doing the shift back to the house and that would take a while, and mean that the apartment building isn’t being watched, so we can’t really leave anyway.

Finally, we see her and the kid come back, it’s the evening and we’ve taken it in turns to leave the car and use the bathroom in a little café down the street and get coffee too.

She’s wearing a waitressing uniform, and he’s carrying a backpack. I would be willing to bet that he went to work with her and hung out in a corner.

“Now, we wait,” I mutter.

We don’t have to wait as long as I thought we would. About an hour or so later, a taxi pulls up outside the building. The taxi is only waiting for a few moments before Rebecca and Fredrick come rushing out of the door, both of them carrying at least two bags each. Fredrick has a massive smile on his still bruised face, while Rebecca looks nervous. As she looks around, no doubt checking to make sure they aren’t being watched or that her partner isn’t anywhere around, there is a slither of hope in her eyes, and I hope that it grows and she finally feels like she’s safe.

“Well, that was quicker than I thought it would be,” Cash says.

I start the truck and pull out after them, following a few cars behind so that she doesn’t notice us, “Well, she was clearly more prepared to escape than we gave her credit for. Keep an eye out in case we aren’t the only ones that are following her.”

“Got it,” Riot replies for everyone.

I haven’t noticed anyone following us, or her, but the more eyes that we have checking that she isn’t being followed the better. The fact that she was ready to leave so damn quickly just goes to show how afraid she was and how much she wanted out of the situation that she was in.

“Does anyone see anything?” I ask when we are twenty minutes into the journey, and I know that the turn for the airport is coming up soon.

“No, I haven’t spotted anything,” Riot replies.

“Me neither,” Jensen adds, his eyes still on the cars around us.

Luc shakes his head, “I’ve seen a couple of really bad drivers, but no one that I would be concerned about. None of them were following the taxi.”

“Good,” I reply, as I pull into the airport a few cars behind them.

I try to follow as subtly as I can but it’s not as easy as it is in city traffic. I’m hoping that they will just think it’s a coincidence if they do notice us, it’s an airport, it’s going to get used by lots of people. We end up pulling into the line to drop people off and we all watch as she jumps out pulling on the bags and then grabbing hold of her son’s hand tightly.

Even from here it is obvious to see that the hope in her eyes has grown, a lot.

We watch as they rush into the airport and then I pull back out of the line, and we head back the way we came. A massiveweight has been lifted off my shoulders knowing that both of them are safe. We have done as much as we possibly can to ensure that they are safe, with the resources that we have.

“When is the next flight?” Riot asks.

“Hang on a second, and I’ll check,” Cash replies, “I honestly thought that they wouldn’t leave this quickly, so I didn’t bother to check the flight times.”

“I don’t think anyone did,” Jensen replies, “I mean, she’s just up and left a job and an apartment.”

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