He listened, but all was quiet. Maybe Aaron or Ryan or even this Mr. Andrews hadn’t turned the light off when they’d left.
That thought had barely passed through his mind when he heard the very distinct sound of a toilet flushing.
Nothing happened for several seconds, then the light switched off, and a man moved into the hallway. He was tall and lanky, and though mostly in shadow, he reminded Logan very much of Elyse’s neighbor, Ryan.
Logan pulled back out of sight as the guy started walking toward the family room. Five seconds later, a light came on.
Repositioning himself further out in the backyard, out of the halo of light, Logan looked through the glass door again.
It was Ryan, all right.
He plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. For several minutes, he barely moved. Suddenly he jumped, then raised a phone to his ear a second later. The conversation was a short one. As soon as he was through, he leaned to his side, and grabbed something. When he stood up, he had a large duffle bag in his hand. He strapped it over his shoulder, turned off the light, then disappeared off to the left.
Logan backtracked to the window of the empty bedroom he’d first seen. Light was now filtering in from the hallway beyond the room’s open door. It stayed on for about ten more seconds, then switched off. This was followed almost immediately by the thunk of a heavy door shutting.
The heaviest doors in most homes were the ones that led to the outside. But Ryan wasn’t at the front door or the back, and there wasn’t any door along this part of the house that opened onto the yard. Then what had that—
The garage, Logan thought as he glanced to the left.
He ran to the fence, and climbed back over. As he landed, he heard two things: the roar of an engine, and the sound of an automatic opener pulling up the garage door.
He sprinted to the sidewalk, glancing over his shoulder as he did. The door was up just enough for him to see the taillights of a Lexus SUV.
Forty-five seconds later, Logan was in his El Camino, driving back by the house. The garage door was all the way open now, and the Lexus was nowhere in sight. He raced to the end of the block and looked both ways. Nothing.
Continuing through the neighborhood, he headed toward La Tijera Boulevard. It was the closest main road, and the most logical place Ryan would have gone. Logan’s instinct turned out to be right. He spotted Ryan two streets shy of the main intersection.
Now that Logan had him in his sights, following Ryan was easy. Unlike the guy who’d been chasing him earlier, Ryan had no idea anyone was behind him.
They popped onto the 405 north, following the route Logan and Angie had taken earlier. But when they reached the 10, instead of going east, they went west toward the beach, getting off barely a mile later at Bundy Drive.
From there they went south, and very shortly the Santa Monica Airport came into view. Logan was hoping Ryan was just going to drive right by, but no such luck. On cue, the Lexus turned down Airport Avenue.
Logan stopped at the corner so Ryan wouldn’t see his headlights following immediately after him, not at all liking what this might mean.
Santa Monica Airport was located right in the middle of the city, with a single runway long enough to accommodate most business jets. This made it a favorite of Hollywood celebrities who could fly in and avoid the mess at the larger, commercial airports, and be wherever they needed to be thirty minutes later. In other words, a person could get almost anywhere from there with a ton less hassle.
Logan waited until Ryan was nearing the first of the hangers, before turning down the road.
Off to his right, he could see a small aircraft coming in for a landing, but overall the airport itself seemed pretty quiet. Checking his watch, he saw that it was a quarter after nine, and was willing to bet the airport had a curfew that probably went into effect in the next couple of hours. He looked back at Ryan’s vehicle.
“So are you flying somewhere?” he said out loud. “Or are you here for some other reason?”
Brake lights flashed ahead, then Ryan’s SUV turned into a parking lot. Logan immediately did the