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still going to try to make the pickup?”
    “ If they’re greedy enough,
sure. They’ll try to shake us and give it a shot. That’s what I’d
do.”
    “ I don’t know if I’m that
greedy.”
    “ I think you have to be. We
just have to follow them the old-fashioned way.”
    “ That’s going to be
hard.”
    “ Gee, you really
think?”
    “ I don’t like the way you’ve
been talking to me.”
    Danny’s hard edge of sarcasm had come
on suddenly.
    “ A lot of times when you
want to make a few hundred thousand dollars you have to put in an
honest day’s work.”
    “ They know we’re following
them and the girl has a gun.”
    “ Obstacles, yes. But we’re
still going to do this.”
    It looked like the man had
given up on removing the tracker. Soon after he and the woman
started scanning the lot, clearly worried that someone was
watching. Well, guess what, you’re
right .
    “ They’re scared,” Marcus
said.
    “ They’ll make
mistakes.”
    “ I want a bigger
share.”
    “ Dog, that’s all been
settled.”
    “ No, now there’s a girl with
a gun, looking around like she wants to shoot someone. You want me
to jump her. I should get more money.”
    “ I thought we were friends,”
Danny said.
    “ I want half.”
    “ You can’t have half—Luis
gets half.”
    “ I want half of what’s
left.”
    “ Fifty percent of fifty percent—that’s
twenty-five percent.”
    “ Then that’s what I
want.”
    Danny looked at the bigger man. This
was no time to fight. If necessary, he could figure something out
later.
    “ You said it would be easy.
You lied to me.”
    The man and the woman went back into
the room.
    “ What now? Don’t they know
it’s time to run?” Danny said. “Unless they really need to make
just a little more love.”
    Danny pressed his ear to the
wall. The man and woman were talking again. He even thought he
heard the words Your
People . After about two minutes, they came
out of the room and took off at a quick walk, out of the parking
lot and to the shoulder of the road that led back toward the
town.
    “ Give it a minute, then you
follow in the car and I’ll follow on foot,” Danny said. “Keep your
phone on, okay?”
    “ Where are they
going?”
    “ Probably to her car.”
    Danny started to fill his water bottle
with soap and tap water.
    “ What are you
doing?”
    “ We’ll need the tracker too.
Get the car, count to a hundred, and then drive past them. Don’t
slow or look at them.”
    “ Don’t look at
them?”
    “ Well, see them, but don’t act like you are
checking them out. Park when you get closer to Main Street. Keep
your eyes open and we’ll figure things from there.”
    Danny shook the bottle until he had
bubble mixture. Marcus probably didn’t have enough money to get
home on his own. If he bailed, he’d have to hitchhike back to Saida
and return even more broke than he’d been.
    They walked out to the parking lot and
Danny tossed soapy water on the tracker then hacked it off with a
screwdriver. Marcus got behind the wheel of the car and started the
engine. Danny ran over, waved his arms, and mimed rolling down the
window.
    “ Okay, first of all, you did
not count to a hundred,” he said.
    “ Yes, I did.”
    “ Then you count really fast.
More important, you take this.”
    Danny handed Marcus the tracker—it was
still a little wet.
    “ What do I do with
it?”
    “ Look for out of state
plates—back east probably, most likely more New York
plates.”
    “ And I just slap it on a car
with New York plates?”
    “ Call me if you find a car
like that and we’ll talk it out.”
    “ Okay. What are you going to
do?”
    “ I’m going to follow on
foot. If I see them get in a car, I’ll call you.”
    “ Okay. Should I go
yet?”
    “ 97, 98, 99, 100. Okay,
let’s go.”

CHAPTER 14
     
    Inez had a little trouble with the
front door key.
    “ Need a hand?” Duane
asked.
    “ No, I can open a
door.”
    They walked up to the third floor, and
Inez opened