Twice she worried that he had spotted her, given the sharp lane changes he made, but he never stopped and he never seemed to glance in his rearview mirror.
She concluded he was simply a lousy driver, allergic to his turn signal. Twenty minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in a modest neighborhood. Knight got out of his car, walked over to a black Toyota Avalon, and got in on the passenger side.
THIRTY-ONE
Derek debated makinga quick detour to strangle Reese first, but decided he really wanted to get this Delco case indicted before he was jailed for murder.
Once his blood had redistributed to his brain from his cock, Derek had known almost immediately Reese was following him. But after two efforts to lose her, where she had displayed a frightening ability to weave in and out of high-speed traffic, he had decided it was better just to let her follow him.
The woman was nuts enough to get herself plowed over by a semi trying to keep up with him, and he really didn’t like the idea of her flat as a pancake on the highway.
If she stayed in her car, parked three spots away, everything would be fine. Reese was reckless, but she wasn’t stupid. She would know to stay out of sight.
“Hi, Stan,” Derek said when he had closed the car door and looked over at his CW.
“Hey. Hey there, Derek. How are you?”
Derek took the opening, studying Stan. The man looked as he always did—thin, pale, dressed in an expensive suit, his glasses slipping a little down his nose. He fidgeted, as was his usualcustom, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel, a thin sheen of sweat on his upper lip.
“Well, Stan, I’m not so great. My boss is getting antsy. You’ve been helping us out for months, now, and that’s great, but the anti-trust lawyers say we don’t have enough.”
Markson sputtered. “But I gave you everything! I risked getting caught and gave you all the patents, all the agreements, all the numbers. I have emails from Chatterton. I’ve risked my job. I have a wife and two kids, Derek. What more do you guys want?”
Derek tried to soothe him. “I know, I know. And you’ve done great. But it’s still your word, and your word won’t hold up in court. We need recordings, Stan.”
Stan’s eyes darted around nervously. “I can’t do that. I just can’t. These are my coworkers.”
“Who are doing something illegal, that affects hundreds of thousands of people every day by charging them more for drugs than they should be paying.” Derek kept his voice low, calm, not wanting to spook Stan.
“Explain to me again why you need recordings.”
Derek tried not to sigh. They had been over this dozens of times. Leaning against the car door, he settled in for a long, persuasive chat with his cooperating witness who wasn’t being very cooperative these days.
THIRTY-TWO
Reese tried notto fall asleep. This was about as exciting as watching grass grow. Knight had been in that car jabbering for over an hour.
She couldn’t even see the witness, and now that she’d rushed to get herself here, it occurred to her that seeing the guy wasn’t going to do her a damn bit of good. She still didn’t know his name.
What a great investigative reporter she had turned out to be. She couldn’t investigate her way out of a paper bag.
Feeling grumpy and unsure of what to do, she stared at a flower bed attempting to camouflage the Dumpster. The marigolds and petunias were hanging tough despite the chilly fall nights, and the leaves on the burning bushes were just starting to turn red.
Wondering how her single green plant was doing without water in her apartment back in New York, she wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to Knight in the black car.
When her passenger door suddenly jerked open, she jumped, hitting her head on the ceiling of the rental car. Clutching her chest with one hand, she fumbled for the doorknob, ready to throw herself out into the night and escape the intruder.
“You know, if you’re going to follow me, you should at leasttryto be discreet.”
She knew that voice. Crap, Knight had caught her. Swallowing the scream in her throat that she’d been about to unleash, she turned to see Knight climbing in beside her.
“Oh, hi,” she managed to choke out. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Dragging in a huge breath, she whacked his arm. “Yeesh, you scared me! I’ve probably got half a dozen gray hairs now.”
He stared at her without blinking, running his eyes over her chest, taking in her tank top and PJ pants. His head went slowly back and forth. “My God, I do not understand how I can feel this way. ”
There were so many ways that could go, she decided to nudge him in the right direction. “Wowed by my beauty?”