Dog Tags

CHAPTER 89

WILLIE SET A WAKE-UP CALL FOR SIX O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

He figured that would be early enough to keep track of Greer, unless Greer was in Everett to do dairy farming. Not being used to tailing people, he was faced with a dilemma. If he waited inside the hotel to see him, then he might not be able to get to his car in time to follow Greer wherever he might go. If he waited outside, then he was worried that he’d have no idea at all where Greer was.

Willie solved the problem by giving the valet fifty bucks to let him park his car on the hotel driveway, where he could get to it quickly. He then waited in the lobby near the only elevator bank that stopped at the ninth floor. If Greer came down, Willie would see him and be able to get to his car in time.

At around eight o’clock Willie realized that he had left his cell phone in the room. He debated whether or not to go get it, and came down on the negative. If he did, he could miss Greer, and then wind up spending the rest of the day waiting for someone who was already gone.

By noon Willie was bored and starving, not necessarily in that order. He saw a room-service waiter pushing a cart, and asked if he would consider bringing him food there. The waiter seemed generally okay with it, and his enthusiasm increased when Willie gave him another fifty dollars as an incentive.

Willie ordered just about everything he could think of, and ate quickly, since he knew that sitting in the lobby with all those trays looked weird. He finished and called for the trays to be picked up, and that was accomplished by one o’clock.

One hour later, Geer came off the elevator and went outside. Willie followed him and watched him walk to the self-service parking lot. Willie then went to his own car, and when Greer came out driving a van, Willie followed after him at a decent distance. Fortunately for Willie, the van was large and therefore distinctive and easy to pick out in the traffic.

Greer drove north for about a mile and a half, and then east toward the water. He drove slowly and carefully, so Willie had no trouble following him.

But losing him wasn’t what Willie was worried about; he was trying to figure out where Greer was going and why he was going there. And in the back of his mind was the very real possibility that it wasn’t Greer at all; that he’d been mistaken all along.

But every instinct Willie had told him he was right.

Greer reached an area above the water, and then turned onto a winding road that led downward, past a sign that said NO THROUGH STREET. Willie decided not to follow him; since it was a dead end he would be easily noticed at best, and a sitting duck at worst.

Instead he parked along the road at a spot from which he could see the rest of the road below. He watched as Greer parked his van almost directly below Willie. Both of them overlooked the pier and had a view of the water, though Willie’s was from a higher elevation. Off to the left was a huge industrial plant with enormous tanks, though Willie did not know exactly what its purpose was.

This seemed to Willie to be suspicious behavior, and reaffirmed his feeling that it was, in fact, Greer. But it didn’t tell him what to do, and worst of all, he had no way to call anyone for advice or backup.

So he waited, by himself, without even a room-service guy to provide sustenance.