own the house. But the gun range and the bright day had his blood racing for something better than caulking. He glanced around the parking lot. “Hm. That Ford Ram is Sam’s truck. I didn’t see him inside.”
“In the back of the store, maybe?”
“Maybe. I want to try and plant something.”
“What?”
“Luger’s tracker collar.” He’d been carrying it around in case an opportunity came along.
Charlie nodded. “Whose truck? Reggie’s is there too.”
“Sam’s. Less suspicious, more likely to screw up, truck bed is a junkyard to hide it.” He fingered it in his pocket.
Charlie turned as they reached Nick’s car and leaned on the bumper, raising his foot like he needed to fix his boot. “I’m watching the door. Go for it.”
Nick made his way between the cars to the front. Pretending to watch something in the woods, he picked his way along the fronts of the parked trucks. When he reached the front of the Ram, he paused, then shrugged and came back alongside it. At the right moment, he stumbled, put a hand on the side of the load bed for balance, and let the collar— which he’d scuffed and rubbed till it looked old— slip down. A fast glance showed the collar had vanished into a jumble of wire, tools, and tarps in the bed. He straightened and continued back to his own car.
Charlie tugged his boot lace one last time, and headed for the passenger side. Nick got in and started the engine.
“Planted?” Charlie asked, fastening his seatbelt.
“Yep.” Nick secured his gun under the seat, then looked over his shoulder as he backed out of the space. “Hopefully he won’t decide to clean out his truck.”
“Scanner in the glove compartment?”
“Yeah. Let’s get a bit farther out first.”
Charlie waited until they’d pulled out on the road before getting the monitor out and turning it on. The light came on, green, quickly going yellow as they drove away, then red. “You know that’s legally dodgy. What’s your plan?”
“I want to see where Sam goes. Who he meets up with. I want to track him at night, since that’s when the vandalism happens.” Nick slowed down, made a turn into a side road and pulled over, out of sight from the main road.
Charlie said, “That’s a big job. You want to split it up?”
“Yeah. Two vehicles and two faces are better than one. Reggie’s seen you, but Sam hasn’t yet.”
“A pity Lori’s as big as a house. She’d be a great undercover agent.”
“If we could trust her.”
“She’s not that bad. But she’d be damned hard to miss in a crowd.”
Nick shrugged. Charlie might say “not that bad” but Nick still didn’t trust her farther than he could throw her. “I guess it’s the two of us.”
“And Brian?”
Yeah, what about Brian? Nick really didn’t want Brian’s soft heart in the middle of a case, but he’d made that mistake once already. “I’ll ask him.” Maybe he’s too tired from the farm work to want to spend his nights chasing creeps. He had a sinking suspicion Brian would want to help, even though it was totally not his thing.
“You know, the rednecks are gonna find out you’re gay and dump your ass.”
“We’ll still have the tracker.”
Charlie chuckled. “You don’t ever give up, do you?” Before Nick could answer, the red on the tracker went yellow. Charlie tapped it. “Heads up.”
“I see it. Give me directions.”
“Yep. I’ll pull up a bigger map.” Charlie pulled out his cell, turned it on, and juggled the devices on his lap. “Getting closer.” The light flashed green for a moment, then went yellow again. “Went by us. Heading north.”
“Got it. Let’s give him a minute.” Nick put the car in gear, counted to a hundred, did a three-point turn and drove back to the main road. Following Charlie’s commands, he headed north, then west. The tracker let them tag along well back out of sight.
After about fifteen minutes, Charlie said, “Slowed and turned, it looks like. Go easy.”
Nick dropped his speed on the two-lane blacktop. They passed a few driveways marked by mailboxes, then the tracker’s light flickered yellow to green, then went yellow and back to red.
“One of those two sloping driveways, I bet,” Charlie said.
“I’ll swing back around.”
“Not too soon.”
“I’m not a rookie.” Nick took a nice long wander around a couple of right turns, then back to the road the other way. He didn’t get to ease off the speed this direction either, but they confirmed one of two gravel drives with side-by-side mailboxes.
Charlie noted