With the scrutiny that only a team of bored judges could generate, the questions poured forth. And then the strategies.
Trevor was making coffee in his newly cleaned and shined kitchen when Wes and Chap made their quiet entry and came straight at him.
"What happened?"Wes asked. They were frowning and gave the impression they'd been fretting for some time.
"What do you mean?" Trevor asked, as if things were splendid.
"What happened to the mike?"
"Oh that. The guard took the briefcase and kept it outside."
They frowned at each other some more. Trevor poured the water into his coffee machine.The fact that it was almost five and he was making coffee was duly noted by the agents.
"Why did he do that?"
"It's routine. About once a month the guard will keep the briefcase during the visit."
"Did he search it?"
Trevor busied himself by watching the coffee drip. Absolutely nothing was wrong. "He made his usual quick exam, which I think he does with his eyes closed. He removed the ingoing letters, then took it. The mike was safe."
"Did he notice the thick envelopes?"
"Of course not. Relax."
"And the meeting went well?"
"It was routine, except that Spicer had no outgoing mail, which is a bit unusual these days, but it happens. I'll go back in two days and he'll have a stack of letters, and the guard will not even touch the briefcase.You'll get to hear every word. Want some coffee?"
They relaxed in unison. "Thanks, but we'd better go;" Chap said. There were reports to make, questions to answer. They started for the door, but Trevor stopped them.
"Look, fellas," he said very politely. "I'm perfectly capable of getting dressed by myself, and of having a quick bowl of cereal, alone, the way I've done it for many years. And I like to open my office here no earlier than nine. Since it's my office, we'll open at nine, and not a minute sooner.You're welcome to be here at that unholy hour, but not at eight fifty-nine. Stay away from my house, and stay away from this office until nine. Understood?"
"Sure;" one of them said, and they were gone. It didn't really matter to them. They had bugs crawling all over the office, the house, the car, even the briefcase now. They knew where he bought his toothpaste.
Trevor drank the entire pot of coffee and sobered up. Then he began his movements, all carefully planned. He'd started preparing the moment he left Trumble. He assumed they were watching, back there with the boys from the white van. They had the gadgets and the toys, the mikes and the bugs, and Wes and Chap certainly knew how to use them. Money was no object. He told himself to believe they knew everything, just let his imagination run wild and assume they heard every word, followed every turn, and knew exactly where he was at all times.
The more paranoid he was, the better his chances of escape.
He drove to a mall sixteen miles away near Orange Park, in the sprawl south of Jacksonville. He roamed and window-shopped and ate pizza in a near-empty food court. It was difficult not to dart behind a rack of clothes in a store and wait for the shadows to walk by. But he resisted. In a Radio Shack, he bought a small cell phone. One month of long distance with a local service came with the package, and Trevor had what he needed.
He returned home after nine, certain that they were watching. He turned the television on full volume, and made more coffee. In the bathroom he stuffed his cash into pockets.
At midnight, with the house dark and quiet and Trevor evidently asleep, he slipped out the back door and into the night. The air was brisk, the moon full, and he tried his best to look as though he was simply going for a walk on the beach. He wore baggy cargo pants with pockets from the waist down, two denim shirts, and an oversized windbreaker with money stuffed inside the liner. In all, Trevor had $80,000 hidden on himself as he wandered aimlessly south, along the edge of the water, just another beachcomber out for a midnight stroll.
After a mile his pace quickened. When he'd gone three miles he was exhausted, but he was in a desperate hurry. Sleep and rest would have to wait.
He left the beach and walked into the grungy lobby of a run-down motel. There was no traffic along Highway AlA; nothing was open except for the motel and a convenience store in the distance.
The door rattled enough for the clerk to come to life. A television was on somewhere in the back. A chubby young man of no more than twenty emerged and said, "Good evening. Need a room?"
"No sir"Trevor said, as he slowly drew a hand from a pocket and produced a thick roll of bills. He began peeling them off and placing them in a neat row on the counter. "I need a favor."
The clerk stared at the money, then rolled his eyes. The beach attracted all kinds. "These rooms ain't that expensive;" he said.
"What's your name?"Trevor asked.
"Oh, I don't know. Let's say it's Sammy Sosa:'
"All right, Sammy. There's a thousand bucks. It's yours if you'll drive me to Daytona Beach. Take you ninety minutes."
"It'll take me three hours because I have to drive back."
"Whatever. That's more than three hundred bucks an hour. When's the last time you made three hundred bucks an hour?"
"It's been a while. I can't do it. I run the night shift, you see. My job is to be on duty from ten until eight."
"Who's the boss?"
"He's in Atlanta."
"When's the last time he stopped by?"
"I've never met him."
"Of course you haven't. If you owned a dump like this, would you stop by?"
"It's not that bad. We have free color TV's and most of the air-conditioning works."
"It's a dump, Sammy You can lock that door, drive away, and come back three hours later, and no one will ever know it."
Sammy looked at the money again. "You runnin from the law or something?"
"No. And I'm not armed. I'm just in a hurry."
"So what's up?"
"A bad divorce, Sammy. I have a little money. My wife wants it all and she has some pretty nasty lawyers. I gotta get out of town."
"You got money, but no car?"
"Look, Sammy.You want the deal or not? If you say no, then I'll walk down the street to the convenience store and find somebody smart enough to take my cash."
"Two thousand."
"You'll do it for two thousand?"
"Yep"
The car was worse than Trevor had expected. It was an old Honda, uncleaned by Sammy or any of the previous five owners. But AlA was deserted, and the trip to Daytona Beach took exactly ninety-eight minutes.
At 3:20 a.m., the Honda stopped in front of an allnight waffle grill, and Trevor got out. He thanked Sammy, said good-bye, and watched him drive away. Inside, he drank coffee and chatted with the waitress long enough to persuade her to go fetch a local phone directory. He ordered pancakes and used his new Radio Shack cell phone to find his way around town.
The nearest airport was Daytona Beach International. A few minutes after four, his cab stopped at the general aviation terminal. Dozens of small planes sat in neat rows on the tarmac. He stared at them as the cab drove away. Surely, he told himself, one of them was available for a quick charter. He just needed one, preferably a twin-engine.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The back bedroom of the rental had been converted into the meeting room, with four folding tables pushed together to make one large one. It was covered with newspapers, magazines, and doughnut boxes: Every morning at seven-thirty Klockner and his team met over coffee and pastries to review the night and plan the day. Wes and Chap were always there, and six or seven others joined them, depending on who was in town from Langley. The technicians from the front room sometimes sat in, though Klockner did not require their attendance. Now that Trevor was on their side, they needed fewer people to track him.