Page 33 of Silent Watch
"Journalist."
She hesitated a beat too long.
"Thought so."He put the truck in gear."I worked with a few journalists overseas.Embedded reporters, that kind of thing.You've got the same look.Always watching, always calculating, always three steps ahead of the conversation."
"Is that a problem?"
"Depends."He pulled out onto the dirt road."Are the people you're investigating likely to come after you with lawyers, or with something more direct?"
Harper thought about Isak in a parking garage.Daniel Bennett's heart.Nova Boone's stairs.
"I don't know," she said honestly."It could go either way."
"Then we plan for both."His voice was matter-of-fact, the tone of a man who had planned for worse."I'll adjust my rates accordingly.Hazard pay."
"I can afford it."
"Good."He glanced at her as he drove."For what it's worth, I hope you get them.Whoever they are.Marsh back there—he had the look of a man who got ground up by something bigger than himself.I've seen that look before.Never liked it."
"You believed him?You could hear what we were saying?"
"Couldn't hear a word.Didn't need to.The way he carried himself when he opened the door.The way you carried yourself when you came back out."Mitch shrugged."Some things you don't need to hear to understand."
They drove in silence for a while.The dirt road gave way to pavement.The scattered houses thickened into neighborhoods.Blossom Springs assembled itself around them, piece by piece—the park, the shops, the families walking dogs and pushing strollers.
"Where to?"Mitch asked.
"Back to Sarge's.I need to make some calls."
He nodded and turned toward the water.
Harper watched through the windshield as the town slid past.Charming.Peaceful.The kind of place you'd see on a postcard.
Marsh's voice echoed in her head.Trying isn't enough.
Chapter 9
The motion alert pulsed in the corner of his screen—camera three, Geri Crane's house.
Caleb's hand went flat on the desk.The same flat-hand tell Harper had started reading.He pulled up the feed before the alert finished its cycle.
The black SUV rolled slowly past the house on Inlet Drive, the same vehicle from two nights ago, same tinted windows, same deliberate pace.
It circled the block twice, then parked at the end of the street with a clear sightline to Geri's front door.The headlights cut off.The engine kept running.
He reached for his phone.
SUV is back.Parked on Inlet.They're watching her.
Harper's response came fast.
On my way.
He kept the feed running while he waited.The SUV didn't move.No one got out.They were just sitting there, making sure Geri knew she was being observed.
Psychological pressure.The kind that worked best on people who'd already spent thirty years afraid.
Harper camethrough the door forty minutes later, still in the clothes she'd been wearing when he dropped her at Sarge's that morning.She'd changed her shoes—running shoes now, laced tight.Ready to move.
