Finding her address hadn’t been a problem. He’d been prepared to call in a favor from one of his remaining friends at the Dallas PD, but a simple internet search had yielded the necessary results. He’d packed a small cooler and grabbed some snacks before heading into town, and now he settled down with a bag of peanuts as he kept his eyes peeled for curious neighbors.
One hour went by and then two. He drove around the block and changed parking spaces, finding an inconspicuous spot between two other vehicles that he hoped would offer some cover. It was starting to get uncomfortably warm in the car. Adam grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and tossed out the last of the peanuts. A flock of blackbirds descended from the power lines to gobble up his leftovers.
Around ten, Dr. Wingate came down the walkway to collect the newspaper at the curb. She scanned the street and then quickly retreated to the shade of the porch to peruse the headlines. Adam zeroed in on her with his binoculars. She looked as if she were dressed to go out. Smart black slacks, sleeveless white blouse. Sandals. Gold jewelry. Classy and expensive, he thought. He tried to imagine her luring Dr. Nance out on the lake and then pushing his head underwater, but the visual didn’t click with the fastidious woman he observed through the lenses.
She took a call while outside. The conversation seemed to upset her. She paced the length of the veranda as she talked, pausing at one point to search the street. He slumped down in the seat as she glanced his way. Her gaze lingered for a second too long before she whirled abruptly and paced to the other end of the porch. She ended the call and went back inside, leaving the newspaper pages to flutter in the breeze.
Another hour went by, and as boredom set in, Adam was reminded of how much he hated surveillance. By noon, the neighborhood had become more active with weekend gardeners, dog walkers and people returning home from church. He took a break and drove a few blocks over for some takeout, returning a little while later to yet a different parking space and a different view of the house. All seemed quiet.
He ate his burger and sipped his Coke while he decided what to do next. The stakeout had been a long shot. Surveillance sometimes took days if not weeks or months to yield results. If she really was concealing nefarious behavior, she wasn’t likely to tip her hand on a single Sunday morning. Still, beneath that reserved demeanor, Adam had sensed desperation the night before. Whatever was in those files, she seemed anxious to recover and shred the information before anyone else saw it. If he’d read her right, she wouldn’t wait long to make her next move.
He was sitting there contemplating what that next move might be when the garage door lifted and a dark blue BMW backed down the driveway and out into the street. Quickly, he stuffed his food wrappers in the take-out bag, started his engine and then waited until Dr. Wingate had made the first turn before he pulled away from the curb.
The neighborhood was basically a large circle with a series of shorter streets connecting the two sides. With only one way in and one way out, Adam gave her plenty of time to exit before he followed her onto a busier thoroughfare. She made two stops in town, one at a coffee shop with a drive-through window and the second at an ATM machine.
It was early afternoon by this time. The hot sun streamed in through the windshield. He adjusted his cap and cranked up the AC as he kept a safe distance. Tailing someone without being detected was a lot harder than the movies made it seem, especially in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon. The lighter traffic didn’t afford much coverage. He dropped back even farther, taking a chance on losing her rather than being spotted.
She drove all the way through town and turned onto the highway, heading toward the lake. Adam thought at first she might be going back out to Dr. Nance’s cabin, but she didn’t make the turn onto Lake Road. Instead she kept going, picking up speed on the two-lane blacktop until he had no choice but to fall back out of sight. If he tried to keep pace, she would surely pick him up in the rearview mirror.
Ten miles out of town, he was certain he’d lost her. He accelerated, passing an elderly couple in a sedan and a pickup truck emitting black smoke from the tailpipe. He had no idea where she might be going. There wasn’t much to see out this way except for pine trees and swampland. They were literally in the middle of nowhere. Maybe she had relatives in the area. Didn’t seem likely, but Adam doubted she was out for a casual Sunday afternoon drive.
He slowed, contemplating whether to turn around and head back toward town or keep going. He still had plenty of time to touch base with Nikki. He’d been looking forward to their next meeting all morning. Maybe his anticipation was a little too keen, he thought.
His attraction to the coroner unnecessarily complicated things. He wasn’t the type to drift from one romance into another. Until Stephanie Chambers came along, he hadn’t considered himself the relationship type at all, could never have pictured himself settling down with a wife, kids and a house in the burbs. She’d been his one exception, a risk he’d felt was worth taking, and
