Assumed Identity

10

On his tilted mattress in the rear of the van, Duncan Bradley kept watch on the television screen that showed the magnified area in front of the Mendez house two blocks away. Simultaneously he listened to his earphones, although the audio transmissions from the target area had stopped thirty minutes ago, shortly after the man who called himself Jeff Walker had been forced from the Mendez house. The wife had argued with the husband about what he had done, about how the stranger might have been able to help find their daughter. The husband had told her to shut up, that the stranger was obviously no different from the other imposters who had asked about Juana. They’d gone to bed in sullen silence.

While he listened, Duncan kept trying to telephone his partner. Twice now, he’d let the phone ring ten times before canceling the attempted call. Tucker’s failure to answer troubled him. Granted, there might be a reasonable, nonthreatening explanation. Tucker might have followed Jeff Walker into a hotel, for example. But Duncan’s unease prompted him to pick up the cellular phone yet again and press the button that would automatically dial Tucker’s number.

He never had a chance to press the number, however, because movement attracted his gaze toward the second television and green-tinted night-vision images of what was going on behind the van. The movement he’d seen was Tucker’s Jeep Cherokee stopping behind him. The Jeep’s headlights went off. Duncan exhaled. Something must have gone wrong with Tucker’s car phone. That was why he’d come back to tell him in person what he’d learned about Jeff Walker.

As the monitor showed Tucker getting out of his Jeep and approaching the rear door of the van, Duncan raised himself off the mattress, crawled on his hands and knees toward the back, heard Tucker’s knock, and opened the door.

“What happened to your phone? I’ve been trying to-” Duncan’s throat clamped shut. His mouth hung open in stunned surprise as he saw a man next to Tucker. The man must have been hiding in the Jeep. The man was Jeff Walker.

The man had a gun.

Oh, shit, Duncan thought.