See Me (48 page)

“A couple of things. I called my detective friend in Charlotte and left a message for him to see what he can scrounge up on Atkinson, either with his mom or at Atkinson’s place, so that part is now in motion. More importantly, I also wanted to let you know the Fifty-C was granted. I’m waiting for the paperwork now.”

“Thank you,” she said, leaving the obvious unspoken; that they still needed to find Lester to serve it. And maybe get a second one for Atkinson. When she hung up, she called Colin to tell him, then updated her parents as well. It took a few minutes to get her worried mother off the phone, and when she finally hung up, she realized again how worn out she felt. Like she’d been running nonstop for days, which, in a way, she realized, she had been.

She closed her eyes again, but sleep didn’t come right away. The call with Margolis, as short as it was, had triggered another round of questions. In the end, though, exhaustion eventually won out and she felt herself finally, thankfully, drifting off.

A
fter hanging up with Maria, Colin grabbed her bags from the car, slid in his earbuds, and got some music going while he brought her computer to the dining room table. There was something he wanted to check, and while he could have mentioned the idea to Maria or Margolis while they’d been having coffee, he’d decided against it. It was a long shot, but now that the 50C was in place, he figured there was no harm in checking it out. And whether or not Atkinson was involved was beside the point; right now, finding Lester was a priority.

It had come to him that morning. He’d kissed Maria good-bye and on the way to his car, he’d tried to make sense of the facts at hand: that the court order would do no good unless they could find Lester; that time was of the essence; that Lester was dangerous; that he’d shown up with a gun and left Maria terrified; and, of course, that he’d taken her phone…

Her phone
…
 

And with that, a memory clicked into place, a memory that took him back to the night he’d first met Maria. When it had been storming and he’d pulled over… she’d been skittish because of the way he’d looked after the fight… and she’d asked to borrow his phone because she’d misplaced hers. She’d been rambling a bit, but what had she said?

He’d paused at his car, trying to remember.

“I didn’t
lose
lose it
…
It’s either at the office or I left it at my parents’, but I won’t know for sure until I get to my MacBook
…
I use that Find My iPhone thing
…
I can track my phone because it’s synced with the computer.”

Which meant, of course, he could track the phone, too.

It surprised him that Margolis hadn’t thought of it. Or maybe Margolis had and he’d already checked, and it had amounted to nothing because Lester had either discarded the phone or turned it off, or the battery had gone dead. Or maybe that constituted information Margolis wasn’t allowed to share. At the same time, there’d been so much else going on, it wasn’t completely out of the question that the idea had been temporarily overlooked.

Colin didn’t want to get his hopes up – the odds were slim that it would work and he knew it – but a couple of clicks of the cursor later, his heart hammered hard when he understood what he was seeing. The phone was still on and the battery had enough juice to let him know that it was located at a house on Robins Lane in Shallotte, a small town southwest of Wilmington, near Holden Beach. Shallotte was a good forty-five minutes away, and Colin stared at the location, watching to see whether the phone was still on the move.

It wasn’t. The site allowed him to track the phone’s previous movements as well, and a couple of clicks later, he learned that the phone had been carried from the Sanchez home to the house on Robins Lane without any detours.

Interesting. Definitely interesting, but still not proof. Maybe Lester had known the phone could be tracked, and he’d tossed it into someone’s car or into the bed of a pickup as he was fleeing. Or maybe he’d dropped it and someone had happened to find it.

Or maybe Lester was too delusional to even think along those lines.

No way to know for sure, but worth checking out…

He debated whether to call Margolis before thinking that it would probably be better to be certain before he did. Shallotte wasn’t even in the same county, and he didn’t want to waste Margolis’s time if it would amount to nothing…

He felt a tap on his shoulder and flinched automatically. When he turned, Evan was standing behind him. Colin pulled out the earbuds.

“You’re not planning to do what I think you are, are you?” Evan asked.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I knocked, but you didn’t answer. Peeked in. Saw you with Maria’s computer. Wondered if you were planning to do something stupid. Figured I would ask, just in case you were.”

“It wasn’t stupid. I was tracking Maria’s phone,” he said.

“I know,” Evan said, motioning to the computer. “I can see the screen. When did you figure out to do that?”

“This morning. When I left Maria’s parents’ house.”

“Pretty slick,” Evan said. “Have you called Margolis yet?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you walked in. I haven’t had the chance.”

“So call him now,” Evan said. When Colin didn’t reach for his phone, Evan let out a breath. “That’s what I meant when I wondered if you were planning to do something stupid. Because you weren’t planning to call him, were you? You were going to check it out yourself, before you call him.”

“It might not be Lester.”

“So? Let Margolis check it out. At the very least, Maria’s phone is there and he’d get it back. And do I need to remind you again that this is police business? You need to let Margolis do his job. You need to call him.”

“I will. When I know one way or the other.”

“You know what I think?” Evan asked. “You’re lying.”

“I don’t lie.”

“Maybe not to me. But right now, I think you’re lying to yourself. This has nothing to do with wasting Margolis’s time. The truth is, I think you want to be front and center in this whole thing. I think you want to see Lester and put a face to a name. I think you’re pissed off and you’ve gotten used to handling things your own way. And I think you want to be the hero, like taking pictures from the roof or last night when you kicked through Maria’s parents’ door, even though the police were already there.”

Colin admitted to himself that Evan might be right. “And?”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“If I find out it’s Lester, I’ll call Margolis.”

“And how are you going to do that? Are you going to knock on the door and ask if Lester’s home? Sneak up and try to peek through the windows? Hope he comes out to wash his car? Slip a note under the door?”

“I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

“Oh, that’s a good plan,” Evan snapped. “Because when you wing things, it
always
turns out for the best, huh? Did you happen to remember that Lester has a
gun
? And that you might get sucked into some sort of situation you could have avoided? Or that you might make things even worse? And what if Lester spots you? He might sneak out the back and then it’ll be even harder to find him in the future.”

“Or maybe he’s planning to run already, and I’ll be able to follow him.”

Evan put his hands on the back of Colin’s chair. “I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”

“No.”

“Then wait until I bring Lily home and I’ll go with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s no reason for you to come.”

Evan let go of the chair, standing straight again. “Don’t do it,” he finally said. “For your own good, call Margolis.” No doubt trying to emphasize the point, he reached for Maria’s computer, and near the door he stuffed it back into her bag. He grabbed Maria’s other things and left Colin’s apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Colin watched him go without a word.

 

 

In the car fifteen minutes later on his way to Shallotte, Colin thought about the things Evan had said.

Why was he going alone? Why hadn’t he called Margolis? What did he hope to achieve?

Because, as Evan had implied, the situation had become personal. He wanted to finally put a face to a name; he wanted to see with his own eyes what the guy was like. He wanted to watch Lester get served by Margolis, and then, in the aftermath, find a way to keep an eye on him, even if he didn’t tell Margolis about that, either. It was time, he thought, for Lester to begin looking over his shoulder, instead of the other way around.

If it even was Lester, of course…

And yet, Evan had reminded Colin of the risks if the hunch turned out to be correct. Evan was good for things like that, and Colin knew he had to be careful. He was a single mistake away from heading to prison, and he promised himself that all he was going to do was watch. Even if Lester strolled by the car, he wasn’t going to so much as touch him. And yet Colin still felt on edge, the adrenaline already beginning to flow.

He forced himself to take long, steady breaths.

He navigated through Wilmington, hitting one red light after another and eventually reaching Highway 17. He had punched the Robins Lane address into his phone, and he watched as the directions appeared. He followed the verbal commands, and at a little after two in the afternoon, he was making the final turns, through a quiet blue-collar neighborhood that on the surface reminded him of the one where Maria’s parents lived. But only on the surface. The homes were smaller and not as well kept; more than a few had overgrown lawns, and here and there, he saw
FOR
RENT
signs, making the area feel transient. The kind of neighborhood where people kept to themselves and didn’t stay long.

Or wanted to hide?

Maybe.

He parked in front of a small bungalow two doors down from the address he was looking for, one of the rentals, behind an old station wagon that had seen better days. There was a small porch out front and he could see the door and one side of the house, where a window with curtains drawn faced a neighboring house. Peeking out from the far side of the house, he could see the nose of a blue car but couldn’t make out the type.

Someone home?

Had to be. Atkinson’s car was at the park. Or, at least according to Margolis, it had been a few hours ago.

He wished he’d somehow been able to keep Maria’s computer with him. It would have been helpful to make sure the phone was still here. He wondered whether he should call Evan and ask, but Evan would use the opportunity to lecture him again, and he wasn’t in the mood for that. Besides, more than likely, Evan and Lily were already headed to Lily’s condo with Maria’s things. Which meant that all he could do was watch with the hope that Lester would eventually venture outside.

Then again, as Evan had reminded him, Colin still wasn’t sure what Lester even looked like.

 

 

Glancing at his phone, Colin saw it was coming up on three o’clock now. He’d been watching for an hour. There’d been no signs of movement beyond the curtains of the bungalow; no one had come outside. The blue car remained in place.

On the plus side, none of the neighbors had seemed to notice him, and the street itself had been quiet. A couple of people had walked past his car; a few kids had run by kicking a soccer ball. The mailman had come by and Colin had temporarily gotten his hopes up – he could, perhaps, catch the name of whoever lived in the house by checking the mailbox – but the mailman passed the house, making no deliveries at all.

That was odd. He’d stopped at every other home on the block.

It might mean nothing at all.

Or it might mean that whoever was living at the house didn’t generally receive mail, because their mail was sent elsewhere.

It made him wonder.