The man in the dark raincoat closed the van door and turned, slipping the gun back into his pocket. “There’s just her,” he informed the newcomer. “The gear inside is switched on. I’ve left it all as it was.”
“Who else was with you?” the man in the hat demanded. “You weren’t running this on your own?” Michelle glared at him and said nothing. He turned to the one wearing the raincoat. “We need to get her off the street. Take her back to Andy for now. I need to check out the office.”
“Okay, put her in the car,” the man in the raincoat told the two who were holding Michelle, then threw some keys to one of the other two by the van, who caught them. “Ollie, bring the van and follow us. Royal, you go with Phil to check out the office. We’ll see you back at the firm.”
The mustached man in the camel-hair coat began walking back to the Cadillac with Royal. Phil? Michelle forced the two who were steering her toward the Lincoln to halt. “Garsten?” she fired at the mustached man. He stopped and looked back. “You’re Phillip Garsten. Just what in hell do you people think you’re doing? Don’t you realize you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do?”
He didn’t seem unduly perturbed. “Ms. Lang, I assume, is it? No, you’re the one who’s going to be doing some explaining.” He turned and walked away.
One of the men holding her opened the door of the Lincoln, and then went around to the far side while the other followed her in. The man in the dark raincoat got in up front. Doors slammed in quick succession. The car moved forward a few yards to make room, and then waited for the van to back out behind.
Michelle, wedged between two sets of broad shoulders in the rear seat, wondered how the driver had come to be in possession of keys to the van. As the Lincoln pulled away again, the thought came to her suddenly that Vanessa had to be involved. Guns? Abductions in broad daylight? Just exactly what was going on? A sinking premonition gripped her that she had gotten herself into something that could have consequences a lot more serious than breaking into offices. She shivered, drew her coat closer around herself and slid her hands into the pockets.
Inside one of them was something irregularly shaped and hard. It felt like a little metal bug. And as her fingertip traced over it, it moved. A mec! It could only be from the van—the one that Kevin had been operating. In the few moments while she was turning in the seat, before she got out, he must have seen what was happening and scrambled off the console and into her pocket. Michelle wasn’t sure how much use that might be. She was still scared. But at least, she no longer felt totally on her own.
As Corfe came around the corner onto the street leading back to the parking lot, the first thing he saw was that the van wasn’t in the slot where he had left it. A moment later he spotted it moving behind a black Lincoln that was coming out through the gate. The Lincoln turned away in the opposite direction, and the van followed it. Corfe came to a halt on the sidewalk, stunned. Then he realized that a beige Cadillac that had come out behind the van was turning the other way and coming in his direction. Something told him that he had seen that car before, causing him to retreat back around the corner and stand out of sight against the wall. Moments later the car passed, and he recognized Phillip Garsten at the wheel, accompanied by another man. Then he remembered: He had seen that car yesterday, parked in one of the “Private” slots outside Garsten’s office. From the direction it was going, that could well be where it was heading for now.
He stood for what seemed a stupidly long time, unable to fathom what it meant, utterly without a clue of what to do next. What was there to do? He didn’t even know which direction to head. There was no point in going on the way he had been, since Michelle and the van were gone. And there was nothing to accomplish by going back to Garsten’s office except to get apprehended himself too. Now he didn’t even have a way of getting back, or anywhere else—even if he knew where he wanted to go.