“She’s a good friend and a combat-decorated Marine. Completely trustworthy,” said Devin. “All she wants to do is make sure I’m not being put up to something or being forced to do something against my will. I know how that sounds, given the fact that I came to you with this, but she’s not going to let this go. She’s doing what a good friend would do. The harder I try to get her to leave, the less likely she will. She made that clear. You heard the phone call.”
“Yeah. Well, she’s getting in the way,” said Berg, sliding his satchel’s strap over a shoulder.
“She won’t stick around for long. She’ll see everything’s fine with me, and that’ll be it.”
Berg shook his head and started walking, almost mumbling to himself. They got to the corner of Foster Avenue, where Berg stopped. “I need you to remember what we discussed earlier today,” he said. “About doing this my way.”
“I remember,” said Devin. “I simply can’t force Marnie to leave without making her even more suspicious than she already is. She’ll just hang around in her car all night. I know her.”
“That would be even worse,” said Berg, looking somewhat exasperated.
“What?” asked Devin, thinking he might have misspoken.
“Nothing. Let’s go,” he said.
They walked the two blocks to South Glover Avenue, Berg checking his phone every minute or so for texts and immediately assuring Devin that everything was on schedule. They didn’t encounter much foot traffic on the way. A college-age student with a backpack bopping along to whatever music was pumping through his headphones. A thirtysomething-looking couple headed in the opposite direction, probably on their way to a cozy dinner in one of a number of Canton neighborhood restaurants. He’d pictured the streets here to be a little busier, due to the proximity to the waterfront, but it was still early by city standards. Just a little past ten.
South Glover was packed with cars, like every street in the area. He imagined having a dedicated garage or parking space behind your town house in the alley was important if you owned a place here. The parking situation around his mother’s apartment was bad enough, but nothing like this. While they walked down the street, he scanned the vehicles without being obvious.
“Karl. Would it be fair to assume that your friends are already watching the town house?” asked Devin.
“It’s possible,” said Berg. “Why do you ask?”
“We either passed by two friends or two hostiles a few cars back,” said Devin. “One close to the intersection. The second on the other side of the street. Both sedans. The car windows are cracked open for air, which means they’ve probably been there for a while. I also saw some movement in the back seat of one of the cars. Very subtle, but definitely movement.”
“They’ve been here for a few hours,” said Berg. “To make sure Marnie hadn’t been followed.”
“They need to work on their surveillance fieldcraft,” said Devin.
“I’ll pass that along,” said Berg.
Devin watched the numbers on the front of the brick townhomes, stopping about two-thirds of the way to the next cross street, in front of a brightly lit redbrick stoop with a single black handrail, which pretty much looked like every other stoop in the neighborhood. He imagined this hadn’t been exactly the best part of town a decade or so ago. Fully rehabilitated now, but not much you could do with the squat row house facades.
“Seven-twenty-seven,” said Devin, raising his hand to knock on the door.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t more nervous about seeing Marnie than Berg’s mercenaries. A different kind of nervous. More like butterflies in the stomach.
“Hold up,” said Berg, checking his phone.
“I have a third surveillance vehicle down the road, before the next intersection,” said Devin. “Make sure that’s ours.”
“It is,” said Berg, typing a response on the phone before looking up at Devin. “They’re being extra cautious. Ready?”
Devin knocked on the door.
“Just remember. I need you to trust me. No matter what happens,” said Berg. “When Marnie opens the door, we get inside fast. Okay?”
“Are you sure everything is all right?”
“Couldn’t be better,” said Berg.
Marnie opened the door a moment later, smiling warmly.
“I thought you might have stood me up,” she said, glancing at her watch.