the house one street over.
He’d been doing it regularly for weeks now. The first time he’d gone over, he met the resident of that home, a man who went by “Rick” and who just happened to be a dead ringer for Kyle. They even took measurements to be sure.
Rick was slightly smaller than Kyle. At six foot one and 210 pounds, he was an inch shorter and five pounds lighter. But he had the same muscular build and their subtle physical differences would be lost on almost everyone. Their facial bone structure was similar, though Kyle’s nose was slightly more petite. The folks in Monterrey had considered having Rick get a nose job but decided the recovery time would be a complication, a risk not worth taking.
He had dyed his hair the same shade of blond as Kyle’s and shaved it to the same length so that both men were growing it back at the same rate. Rick had brown eyes but wore blue contacts outside the house just to be safe, even though he usually wore sunglasses everywhere.
He’d purchased the same wardrobe as Kyle and made sure to get sizes that gave the same snug fit. On the several occasions when Rick took the tunnel to Kyle’s house and left in his car, the outings had gone without incident. He made sure to wave at the agents as he left, though he always tried to pull out of the driveway in the opposite direction from them so they couldn’t get too good a look at him.
On this day, Rick was off to run a series of errands that wouldn’t require him to interact with many folks. He had Kyle’s regular phone so the FBI could keep tabs on his location. He was going to the nearby Claremont Colleges Honnold/Mudd Library to “read” a few textbooks to bone up on new finance regulations. Then he would make stops for gas and to the grocery store. Depending on what Kyle needed to do and how long it might take, Rick could make the trip plausibly last between two and four hours.
In the bathroom of the other townhouse, Kyle changed into appropriate attire for his planned outing, hopped in the Toyota 4Runner in Rick’s garage, put on his cap and sunglasses, and pulled out of the driveway, past the front house, which was also owned by the cartel and currently unoccupied.
He looked both ways for safety and to confirm that there were no FBI agents on that street. When he felt comfortable, he pulled out of the driveway and headed toward his intended destination, confident that he was free to do what was needed.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kelly Martindale was pissed.
She had spent a good ten minutes circling the streets of downtown Manhattan Beach, looking for anywhere to park. Exclusively residential streets needed permits. All the public lots were full. And there were no available meters other than the twenty-four-minute ones. She needed a lot more than twenty-four minutes.
Finally she saw a woman walking out of a boutique with both hands holding shopping bags and followed her slowly, basically stalking the chick until she got to her car, three blocks south of the main drag. She was pretty sure the woman took an extra-long time loading up just to spite her.
When she left, Kelly pulled in, paid the meter up to the two-hour maximum, and hurried down to Carl’s place. When she got to his massive mansion on the Strand, three blocks south of the pier, she was torn.
It was only six minutes until their planned meeting time and she wanted to be ready when he arrived. He’d been in New York since last week and was returning today. He’d told her he wanted to ravish her as soon as he got home.
But she also needed to be discreet. After all, Carl Landingham was married and Kelly was his mistress, not his wife. It was true that Mrs. Landingham—or Mrs. Landinghag, as Kelly called her—was out of town all week. But that didn’t mean the neighbors wouldn’t talk if they saw something juicy.
So despite both her urge to rush in and the sultry afternoon weather, Kelly pulled the hoodie on her sweatshirt over her head, strolled casually to the house’s side door, and used her spare key to get in. Once in the house, she moved fast.
She hurried up to one of the three guest rooms, where she changed. It was safer to do it in a rarely visited room, in case someone unexpectedly came