Page 19 of Under His Protection
The young blonde working behind the sales counter smiles at me. “Oooh, you’re a good boyfriend.”
“Oh, yeah? What makes you say that?”
“I saw you in here earlier with your girlfriend,” she continues. “I saw how she gushed over these books. Frankly, I was surprised when she walked out without them.”
I shrug. “They’re a bit pricey, and she’s just starting college.”
The sales girl wraps the books carefully in plain brown paper and ties the bundle with a string. “She’s going to love these, andyoufor getting them for her.” She shakes her head. “This is totally swoonworthy, bro.”
I hand her my credit card, and she runs the transaction.
“Thanks,” I say when she hands me the wrapped bundle.
As I carry them out to my truck, I’m calculating how long it will be before I see Haley again. Probably not before our date Friday night.
I’ll just have to manage to keep them a secret until then.
* * *
Tuesday morning, as I’m sitting here in my pickup doing surveillance on a suspected corporate embezzler, I have a lot of time to think. That’s not necessarily a good thing. I’m twenty-seven years old, and I think my biological clock has started ticking. How else can I explain this preoccupation with wanting to settle down, get married, and start a family? The problem is the only girl I want to do all those things with is just starting college. She’s got years of schooling ahead of her before she’ll be ready to even think about this kind of stuff.
I suppose I could find someone closer to my own age, a woman who’s ready for these things, but I know that’s not going to happen. I’ll wait for Haley as long as it takes. When I picture my future, I picture her in it. No one else.
We’ve talked about the future and what we want, and we’re on the same page as far as marriage and kids go. It’s just a timing issue for us.
She’ll be an undergraduate for four years, and then law school is another three years. That’s seven years of schooling. Then she’ll be starting her law career, and she probably won’t want to rush into having kids right away. So maybe in ten years she’ll be ready to start thinking about kids. She’ll only be twenty-eight then, still plenty of time for her, right?
I’ll be thirty-seven by then. That’s certainly not too old for me to become a dad. It just means I have a good while to wait.
And I will wait. As long as it takes. As long as she needs. Because when I close my eyes and picture my future, Haley’s at the center of it.
My attention perks up when I see my subject, Gerald Kramer, walk out of the bank where he’s a comptroller. What a surprise—the money guy is suspected of embezzling money from the bank.
I watch as he gets into his shiny black Mercedes and pulls out into traffic. After giving him a decent head start, I start my engine and ease into traffic, following him at a safe distance.
I text my boss, Jake McIntyre, to give him a heads up. This could turn out to be nothing, or it could be the break we’ve been waiting for.
Me – Kramer just left the bank. I’m following
Jake texts me back instantly.
Jake – Thx. Report back.
I continue to follow the suspect at a fair distance. My work pickup isn’t likely to attract attention. It’s designed to look like a contractor’s truck, complete with a fake painting company logo on the side panel.
When Kramer pulls into the parking lot of a seedy motel—one of those types where you rent the rooms by the hour—I hang back and pull into the parking lot of the diner adjacent to the motel.
Me – He pulled into The Moody Blue Motel.
Jake – Film everything.
Me – Roger
My dash camera is positioned perfectly to catch Kramer’s car. I watch through a pair of binoculars as Kramer sits in his car for a good twenty minutes. He picks up his phone a few times, but other than that, nothing happens. There’s no chance he’s here at this rat-infested motel for legitimate business. He has to be up to something sketchy.
A moment later, someone pulls up next to him and gets out of a sleek black SUV.Holy shit!It’s Karen Meachum, the company’s CIO.
Meachum, who’s dressed in a sharp business suit, walks right past Kramer’s car without even acknowledging him. She heads directly to one of the rooms, pulls a keycard out of herpocket, opens the door, and disappears inside, leaving the door ajar.
