“Feng. He’s head of Sandy’s security.”
I looked back at Sandy, Andy, Sarah, and J.J. They weren’t paying any attention to us. Feng probably was. “You and Sandy are such good buddies that he told you about his security arrangements?” I was pissed. I’d gotten James the job, and he knew more about it than I did.
“Hey, settle down, pard. He just mentioned that he should probably walk me into the assembly room or his chief of security, Feng, would have a fit. That’s it, pal.”
“Well, he’s right.” I took a deep breath. Then another, letting it slowly escape. I could have used a cigarette, but I quit smoking. “Anyway, as a runner, you have-”
“A what?”
“Andy calls you a runner. As a supervisor you have free run of the place.”
“Except there has to be a guard with any of us at any time.”
“Exactly. So, my friend, I’d like to know if Feng drives a gray Honda Accord. If you can time your lunch break with Feng’s, you could get him to walk you to the parking lot. Then, you could see what kind of car he drives. What do you say?”
“You think Feng is-”
“I recognize him from somewhere, James.”
“It’s a great plan, amigo.”
I smiled. James didn’t hand out compliments too often.
“But unnecessary.”
“James, call me crazy, but I’d like to know if there’s any chance Feng is the Asian gentleman who was fooling around with Carol Conroy’s Lexus.”
James nodded, brushing back his unruly hair with his hand. “And the same guy who drove the gray Honda in Delray Beach. Skip, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you. I got here about half an hour early. I sat out in the parking lot, waiting for you to show up.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You parked all the way across the lot. I yelled, but you didn’t hear me. Then I got caught up with Sandy when I finally came in and-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s your point?”
“Very simply, I saw Feng pull in. Didn’t know who he was at the time, but I saw him get out of the car.”
“What kind of car, James. Don’t play games with me.”
“Foreign. Not one of ours.”
I should have hit the son of a bitch. “What kind of car, James?”
“Honda, Skip. Gray Accord.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“I t’s too easy.” Nothing came together like that.
“Some things are easy, Skip.”
“So this Feng guy has been following Carol Conroy and you and me?”
“No guarantee that it’s the same guy. And if it is, maybe he’s just checking up, pally. Could be a logical explanation.”
“Maybe.”
“But,” he hesitated, “if you’re up for it, we can turn the tables.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can follow him.”
“James, we have a job to do. Neither you nor I have the time to follow someone.”
“Yeah. What is your job, exactly? I mean, the installers are installing, J.J. and I are, as you so effectively put it, we’re running. What do you do?”
“I make sure everything gets handled.” Actually, I had the easiest job of the bunch. But I’d sold the project. The hard part was done. Unless of course there was a problem. There was always that possibility.
“How?”
“How what?”
“How do you take care of your end? What exactly do you do?”
“Look. My title is-”
“You’ve got a title?”
Never should have mentioned it. “It’s not important.”
“Skip, pal, come on. What is it?”
“Michael said that I was Person in Charge of the Project.”
James laughed out loud. “Did you major in that?”
“Shut up.”
He did.
“Look, as to what I do? I’ll have the laptop with me at all times and coordinate the-”
“The laptop? What laptop?”
“Jaystone Security has a-”
“We’ve got that slow piece of crap at the apartment, that piece of junk from another century, and now I find out you’ve got a laptop?”
“Settle down, James.” I checked over my shoulder as he raised his voice. I was hoping for a quiet conversation. “It’s a company laptop.” We did have a couple laptops that the sales staff shared. “I can only use it when we’re on a job.”
“Hooked to the Internet?”
“Of course. We’ve got one of those plug-ins with an antenna. You just plug it in and you’re online. From anywhere.”
James put his index finger on my breastbone, pushing. “You never told me, Pancho. But, if you’ve got a laptop with mobile Internet, I’ve got it all figured out.”
“Yeah?”
“I got the GPS back from Em last night. It’s in the car. Battery should be good for two days.”
“And what are you suggesting?”
“Simple, Skip. We put the GPS on Feng’s car.”
It was simple. Simple and brilliant. Simple but illegal. Of course I didn’t expect James to recall that part of the deal. “Do you remember what Jody said before we left his office?”
“Refresh my memory.” James’s eyes shifted as he watched the other installers walking into the room.
I put my arm on his shoulder, and we walked farther from the group, across the clean white tiled ceramic floor. In a hushed tone I said, “Jody told us that unless the vehicle had the user’s name on the registration, it was against the law.” A wife could track her husband, as long as her name was on the vehicle he was driving. But if it was someone else’s vehicle, she is out of luck.
“Jody said a lot of things that he had to say. And what I heard, Skip, was blah blah blah blah blah.”
“Listen, man-”
“Skip, we’re not hurting anyone. We’re just trying to see what he’s up to. This guy may have been following you, Mrs. Conroy, and now both of us.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence.”
“Maybe it’s not.”
“Man, it’s illegal to attach one of those things.”
“Dude, we’ll need another unit.”
“What?”
“I told you. They only last for a short time. Battery has to be changed out. We’ll switch ’em back and forth.”
“Are you listening to anything I’m saying?”
