maybe I can come up with something.”
I arrived at the Cobens’ house about half an hour later. I pulled up to the gate and pressed the button. A friendly but cautious voice sounded over the intercom. “Hello, Mr. Barnes. I’m sorry, but we’ve been told you aren’t allowed to come on the property, sir.”
Poor Benji. I’d met him when I was staying here, and he was a nice kid. And as frustrated as I was, I refused to take it out on him. “Hey, Benji. That’s fine. I don’t need to come on the property. I just wanted to talk to the Senator. Can you let him know I’m here?”
“I would, sir, but no one is here right now. Senator and Mrs. Coben are out for the day, and Rebecca was gone when I got here on shift.”
“Okay, I’ll get with the Senator later on then. Thank you, Benji, you have a good rest of your day.”
I backed the car up and parked in the driveway of the house a few doors down. Like quite a few of the riverfront houses, this one was a vacation house, so odds were I could sit here all day. I thought about going around the fence and up the waterside to see if I could find anything out about where they were, but I didn’t want to miss seeing them arrive, so I stayed put.
I’d done many a stakeout in my day, and I’d always hated the waiting. Just sitting wasn’t one of my strengths, and because this involved Trey, it was ten times worse, but I spent the time on my laptop trying to untangle this whole mess. We did get one bit of good news. Felix heard back from one of the Cobens’ neighbors. There were two houses, in particular, he thought had a really good view of the river, and he hoped to get some security footage that included the boat from the day someone took shots at Trey. But like the owners of the house where I was parked, they weren’t full-time residents, so he’d had to track them down. They were going to have the property manager they employed send over any footage.
Time crawled by, but after a couple of hours, the black town car turned the corner. I watched as the car pulled up to the gate and waited for it to open. I couldn’t tell who all was in the car, but it looked like Gerald was driving and two people were in the back. I picked up my phone and dialed while I watched the car drive through the gate. It rang once, and Fredrick picked up.
“Is he back?”
“No, I would’ve called you right away if he was.”
“I just wanted to check. The Senator’s wife’s car is here. I can’t tell who is in it, but Gerald is driving. No second guard, and only two people in the back. So if the Senator is with her—”
“Then we’ve lost track of one guard.”
“And Trey. Have you found anything that might help locate him?”
“No, nothing yet. I’m still searching, though.”
“Okay, if you find anything, let me know. I’m going to go talk to the Senator.”
“Be careful, Roman. The Senator holds you responsible for Trey coming out, so you won’t get a welcome reception.”
“Yeah, when I got here earlier, Benji told me I wasn’t allowed on the property.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Like I said, watch yourself.”
“I will.”
I was relieved to see the gate didn’t close behind the Senator’s car. I’d been worried I might have to go down to the water so I could make my way back up to the house, but B-n-E on a Senator’s property wouldn’t look good on my record.
I didn’t bother to drive over. I got out of the car, walked over to the gate, and up to the house. I didn’t try to hide that I was there, but no one came out to stop me. I knocked on the door, rang the bell, and waited. Then I did it again. I saw the curtains move in the foyer, and then a voice came over the speaker under the bell.
“Mr. Barnes, the Senator has asked me to tell you to leave, please.” I laid on the bell. I could hear it ringing in the house. “Mr. Barnes, I think you should leave.” Poor Benji. He was a good kid, too bad he had to be on shift today.
“Benji. Is Trey on the property?”
There was a pause, and then it was the Senator’s