Page 40 of Trust No One

He made a left turn and sped up, then turned down the ramp to the expressway.

“Guess we can go home now,” Mel said as she stood up and stretched.

“What’re we gonna do with this money?” Dev rattled the cup. There were a number of coins and a bunch of bills.

“We keep it for now. If we give it away, it’ll look suspicious when we show up here tomorrow.” Mel nodded her head toward a woman near the expressway who had a young infant in a wrap on her chest. “Once we’re finished with our surveillance of Kingsley, we’ll give the money to her.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get out of here.”

They began to head toward the parking garage where they’d left their car when Mel grabbed Dev’s wrist. “Across the street,” she said. “Heading into Kingsley’s building. Don’t make a big deal of it but look at that guy in the uniform. I swear that’s Larrimore.”

Dev turned to the side and pretended to throw something in the trash can. Studied the man in the uniform for a long moment, then turned and continued walking. “I think you’re right. We’ve only seen him in a posed photo, but I’m pretty sure that was him.”

“Why is he going to that building now?” Mel asked. She stopped and leaned against the wall beside her and pretended to be searching for something in her pockets. “Kingsley’s not there. Did he know Larrimore was showing up? Did he blow him off? Or is Larrimore surprising him?”

“Good questions,” Dev said. He nodded across the street to a small park. “Let’s go over there. Watch and see what happens.”

They positioned themselves in a grove of trees. They could see the building, but Larrimore would need to study the trees carefully to spot them.

Larrimore disappeared into the building. He emerged five minutes later, looking pissed off. He hurried across the street and went into the parking garage. A few minutes later, an older model white Oldsmobile emerged and Larrimore took off, tires squealing.

“Oh, yeah,” Mel said, watching until the car disappeared. “He’s pissed off.”

“Do you think Kingsley blew him off?” Dev said. “Or was Larrimore hoping to surprise him?”

Mel tilted her head as she studied the building. “He wouldn’t have been pissed off unless he’d expected Kingsley to be there. So Kingsley must have blown him off.” She shook her head. “Not a smart move to pull when Larrimore has the dirt on you.”

“Maybe Larrimore only knows a little of what Kingsley’s done,” Dev said.

“Probably,” Mel said. “Kingsley strikes me as the kind of guy who keeps all his business dealings separate. No one knows what he’s doing with anyone else.”

“Yeah, I suspect you’re right about that.”

“The smart thing to do,” Mel said. “Limit your exposure.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow and see if Larrimore shows up again,” Dev said.

“Yeah.” She sighed. “If only we could plant a listening device in Kingsley’s office.”

Dev snorted. “You think that guy doesn’t sweep his office every day? He’s lasted too long to be a fool about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know,” she said. “Wishful thinking.”

They crossed the street and resumed walking toward their car. “You think we could figure out where Kingsley’s office was?” Mel asked. “Somehow get outside his window to listen to their conversation tomorrow?”

“Hell, no,” Dev said. “They’re not going to let anyone into that building without IDs and a reason to be there.” He glanced at her. “And that building’s too small for us to be inconspicuous. Even if we could figure out which was Kingsley’s office, I guarantee people would notice us crouching beneath his window.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Mel sighed. “Maybe we park on the street tomorrow so that we can follow Kingsley and Larrimore if they go somewhere.”

“We can do that,” Dev said cautiously. “But we’d have to hang back. Make sure they didn’t see us. Then find a place to hide out of sight when we get to wherever they’re going.”

“That’s your expertise,” Mel said. “That’s the kind of stuff you used to do when you were in the CIA’s SpecOps group. The kind of thing you taught our Blackhawk Security team.”

Dev shoved his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. I’ll give it some thought. Figure out the best way to handle it tomorrow.”

* * *

The next morning, they were one of the first cars into the parking garage across from Kingsley’s building. Dev chose a parking spot on the lowest level, where they were close to the exit and could watch people going into and coming out of the Naval Medical building, as well as traffic on the street in front of the building and the cross-street beside the garage.

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