She’d almost finished her coffee when she received a text from Devin about a half hour later, green-lighting her departure for Whole Foods. She took her time as agreed, clicking a few more links before shutting her laptop and putting it in the leather satchel on the seat next to her, along with her phone. She chased the last bite of her cookie with the coffee and piled her napkins in the empty cup. It took nearly all her restraint not to look over her shoulder on the way out. Marnie stopped at the trash receptacle near the door and casually looked around the shop as she separated the recyclable items.
At least she hoped she looked casual. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she was second-guessing every decision, movement, or gesture she made, from how long to spend in front of the trash down to whether she was blinking naturally. Maybe this spy stuff wasn’t as easy as it looked.
CHAPTER 20
Harvey Rudd snuggled next to Jolene on the leather couch, facing the front of the coffee shop, pretending to read through the Washington Post. Marnie Young had just walked out of the shop about five minutes ago, vanishing from view into the packed parking lot, where Rick Gentry would pick up her trail. Not that they needed to follow her too closely while she was in transit. They just needed to stay close enough to watch her wherever she stopped.
He’d attached three trackers to her vehicle. Two standard GPS transmitters and one long-haul tracker typically used in commercial fleet vehicles or tractor trailers. The long-haul trackers included an option to transmit less frequently to conserve battery power, in case the company didn’t want to hardwire them to their vehicles or cargo trailers. Rudd added one of these to Young’s Jeep in case Gray instructed her to buy an RF detector and sweep her vehicle.
He suspected that was how Gray had found the two they had installed on his SUV so quickly a few days ago. They had hidden them well enough that it would have taken him some time to get under the chassis and locate both devices. The long-haul device may have remained undetected, since it only transmitted twice an hour, instead of every fifteen to thirty seconds.
Even if the RF detector measured a quick spike in activity, without repetition, it would take forever to locate. In Marnie Young’s case, she was more than likely to think it was a one-time blip in RF activity, likely originating from somewhere in her neighborhood. Off-the-shelf RF detectors weren’t exactly the most reliable or accurate devices. Then again, all this could be moot. There had been no indication to this point that Devin Gray had been in touch with Young.
CONTROL had indicated they had texted back and forth about possibly meeting up for drinks, which had put Young on their radar, but beyond that, nothing had materialized. Her routine looked solid, like it hadn’t varied in a while. Gym by six, which was what one might expect from a fifteen-year veteran Marine. Back home for an hour. Coffee shop by nine. A few hours working on her laptop and phone, mostly job websites. A trip to Trader Joe’s before heading home for lunch, presumably. She’d spent a few hours there during the middle of the day. Back out to a different coffee shop in the afternoon until 5:00 p.m. A run through the neighborhoods before dinnertime. Home for the rest of the night.
“You ready?” asked Jolene.
“I suppose so,” said Rudd. “Feels like a dead end, though.”
“We’ve only been watching her for one day,” she said. “Who knows what she’s been up to?”
“I guess,” he said, putting the paper down and getting up.
They’d just stepped outside when he got a text from Gentry.
She’s at the Whole Foods about a mile and a half north on Broadway. I’m heading in to keep an eye on her. It’s pretty busy.
He showed Jolene the text, and she nodded. “Let’s get in position for the handoff. We might want to pull Walsh off Gray’s dad—just in case she heads somewhere else before heading home. I don’t know how observant she is, but my guess is she’ll recognize the two of us if we show up at her next stop. Rick is good at ghosting folks, but it’s bad fieldcraft to use the same person twice in a row.”
“Yep,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Give Logan a ring and get him in position near the Whole Foods. Like you said, it’s only been one day. We might use up everybody by the time she calls it quits for the morning.”
“They need to send us another team,” she said, grabbing the push-to-talk satellite phone from the center console. “Or at least free up Ward. It’s a waste of resources to have him sitting on Gray’s apartment with Sandy.”