actor, it seemed to me. After a few moments he hung up.
He immediately looked toward the fish-eye lens of the camera and calmly said, “Talk to me people. What’s going on?”
Backus used the mobile phone to call the store and fill Thorson in on the near miss. I watched on the video as Thorson balled his hand into a fist and lightly bounced it once on the desk. I couldn’t tell if it was a sign of disappointment that the arrest had not gone down or maybe a sign of thanks that he would now get the chance to come face to face with the Poet.
Most of the next four hours was spent in the car with Backus and Carter. At least I had the backseat so I could stretch. The only break came when they sent me around the corner to a deli on Pico to pick up sandwiches and coffee. I went quickly and missed nothing.
It was a long day, even with the hourly drive-bys Carter made of the store and the arrival of several customers at different times, which always proved to be tense moments until they were identified as real customers, not Gladden.
By four, Backus was already talking over plans for the next day with Carter, not giving in to the thought that maybe Gladden wasn’t coming, that maybe he knew something was amiss and had outsmarted the bureau. He told Carter that he had decided he wanted to open a two-way mike so that he didn’t have to use one of the phone lines to communicate with Thorson in the store.
“I want that fixed by tomorrow,” he said.
“You got it,” Carter answered. “After we close this down, I’ll go in with technical and get it all fixed up.”
The car dropped into silence again. I could tell Backus and Carter, the veterans of too many stakeouts to recall, were used to long stretches of silent company. To me, though, it made the time pass all the more slowly. Occasionally I attempted conversation but they never carried it further than a few words.
Shortly after four a car pulled to the curb behind us. I turned around to look and saw it was Rachel. She got out and got into our car next to me.
“Well, well,” Backus said. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t stay away for long, Rachel. Are you sure you covered everything you needed to cover in Florida?”
He was being even but I sensed that he was annoyed that she had rushed back. I think he wanted her in Florida.
“Everything’s fine, Bob. Anything happening here?”
“Nope, it’s been slow.”
When Backus turned back around, she reached over and squeezed my hand on the seat and made a curious face at me. It took me a few moments to realize why.
“Did you check the mail drop, Rachel?”
She broke her look away from me and looked at the back of Backus’s head. He had not turned around and she was sitting directly behind him.
“Yes, Bob, I did,” she said in a voice slightly tinged with exasperation. “It was a dead end. There was nothing in the box. The owner said that he believed a woman, an older woman, came in every month or so and cleaned it out. He said the only mail that ever came looked like bank statements. I think it was Gladden’s mother. She’s probably living somewhere around there but I couldn’t find a listing and there was nothing from Florida DMV.”
“Maybe you should’ve stayed a little longer and looked a little harder.”
She was silent a moment. I knew she was still confused by the way Backus was now treating her.
“Maybe,” she said. “But I think that’s something the agents in Florida can handle. I’m the lead agent on this case. Remember, Bob?”
“Yes, I remember.”
The car was silent for a few minutes after that. I spent most of that time staring out my window. When I sensed the tension had dissipated a bit I looked over at Rachel and raised my eyebrows. She raised her hand to reach to my face but then thought better of it and put it down.
“You shaved.”
“Yeah.”
Backus turned around and looked at me, then returned to his normal position.
“I thought something was different,” he said.
“How come?” Rachel asked.
I hiked my shoulders.
“I don’t know.”
A voice crackled over the radio.
“Customer.”
Carter picked up the mike and said, “What’ve we got?”
“White male, twenties, blond hair, carrying a box. No vehicle observed. He’s either going in Data or next door for a haircut. He could use