“Looks like the driver of the Outback is staying at the Hilton Garden Inn on Broad Street,” said Gupta. “He pulled out right in front of the Durango. It’s coming up on the left if you want to take a quick look for the other vehicles.”
“Can’t hurt to know where everyone is staying,” said Farrington.
“It’s a block past this next traffic light,” said Gupta. “I’ll run the license plate identification application in live-match mode and see if we pick up any other vehicles from the coffee shop or Whole Foods.”
When activated, the application automatically recorded license plates captured by the Suburban’s cameras, compiling them in a database by time and location filmed, state, and plate number, which they could analyze later. It also ran newly recorded plates through the entire database, looking for matches. The application would allow them to drive through hotel parking lots and identify a vehicle they might have missed while visually surveilling the morning’s other areas of interest.
It also gave them the capability to detect a tail. While driving, they could capture the license plates in front and behind them for a predetermined amount of time. The heavier the traffic, the longer the camera needed to grab all the plates. It would zoom out as far as possible to accomplish this. Thirty minutes later, after executing a few soft evasion techniques—such as slowing down or running a repetitive street-grid pattern—they could reactivate the application with the live-match feature enabled, and identify every vehicle that had stuck with them.
“Scott. Why don’t you climb in back so you don’t get made, just in case they’re having a meetup in the parking lot,” said Farrington.
“Good thinking,” said Daly before leaning his seat back as far as it would go and crawling over it.
Daly returned the seat to its upright position as Farrington turned into the Hilton Garden Inn parking lot. A long driveway passed underneath the hotel’s covered entrance, paralleling the hotel until it opened into the parking lot situated behind the building. He spotted the black Outback immediately, its owner still seated behind the wheel. The man glanced through the driver’s-side window as the Suburban passed but didn’t seem to take interest. Thankfully, the lot was nearly full, the two spaces remaining clearly too tight for his oversize vehicle. He made an attempt to park in one of them, lining up a few times before driving away, to demonstrate to the Outback’s driver that he’d tried.
“Was he watching me the whole time?” asked Farrington.
“No. He went back to looking at his phone as soon as you passed by,” said Gupta. “Looked up once after that, but just for a moment.”
“Thank god the lot was full,” said Farrington. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this small, with one way in or out.”
“That’s my fault,” said Gupta. “It looked like it connected to the street behind it on Google Maps, or I would have said something.”
“Any hits on any other vehicles?” asked Farrington. “I didn’t see the Durango or Pathfinder.”
“None. But I have two Kentucky plates. The rest are regional, with a few Floridas and an Illinois,” said Gupta. “They’re all in the system now, so if they come up again tonight, we’ll have a heads-up.”
“Might not be a bad idea to take a spin through any nearby hotel parking lots,” said Daly.
“Actually, that’s a stellar idea,” said Farrington. “What are we looking at?”
“There’s a Hampton Inn on the southern edge of Falls Church. Pretty close to Marnie Young’s house,” said Gupta. “We should definitely swing through there. I also see a few motor lodge–type places a little farther down Broad Street. And a Marriott TownePlace Suites a few streets over to the west. An Econo Lodge in East Falls Church.”
“We may as well hit all of them,” said Farrington. “It’ll take Young some time to arrange the Airbnb. We can’t really start any serious planning until we have that address—and the rest of the team, which should be in place before rush hour starts.”
CHAPTER 22
Devin Gray paced the vault while Berg spoke with the man who held their fate in his hands. Berg mostly listened, responding here and there with a question or a brief answer—none of which gave Devin any indication one way or the other what the team had decided. This went on for another minute, until the call ended, and Berg stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the evidence wall. Not saying a word.