model.
“See anybody watching us?” Lee asked. Faith shook her head.
He walked over to the car and held the tennis ball against the key
lock, the hole in the ball facing the lock’s opening.
Faith looked at him as if he were insane. “What are you doing?” In
response, he slammed his fist against the tennis ball, driving all the
air out of the ball and into the key lock. Faith watched in amazement
as all four door locks popped open.
“How did you do that?”
“Get in.”
Lee slid into the car, and Faith did the same.
He poked his head under the steering column and found the wires he
needed.
“You can’t hot-wire these new cars. The technology-” Faith stopped
talking when the car started.
Lee sat up, put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. He
looked at Faith. “What?”
“All right, so how did the tennis ball unlock the car?”
“I’ve got my professional secrets.”
While Lee waited in the car with his eyes sharply on the lookout, Faith
entered her bank, explained what she wanted to the assistant manager
and managed to sign her name, all without falling over in a dead faint.
Steady, girl, one step at a time. Fortunately, she knew the man.
The assistant manager looked curiously at her new appearance. “Midlife
crisis,” she said, responding to his stare. “Decided to go for the
youthful, streamlined look.”
“It’s very becoming, Ms. Lockhart,” he said gallantly.
She closely watched him as he took her key, inserted it and the bank’s
duplicate key into the lock and pulled out her box. They left the
vault and he set the box inside the private booth across from the vault
reserved for safe-deposit box tenants. As he walked away, Faith
continued to watch him.
Was he one of them? Was he going to slip away and call the police or
the FBI or whoever was running around killing people? Instead he sat
down at his desk, opened a white bag, extracted a glazed donut and
proceeded to devour it.
Satisfied for the moment, Faith closed and locked the door. She opened
the box and stared at the contents for a moment. Then she swept it all
into her bag and closed the box. The young man put the safe-deposit
box back in the vault and Faith walked out as calmly as she could.
Back in the car, Faith and Lee headed down Interstate 395, where they
exited on to the GW Parkway and headed south to Reagan National
Airport. Going against the morning rush hour, they made good time.
Faith looked over at Lee, who stared straight ahead, lost in thought.
“You did really well back there,” she said.
“Actually, we cut it closer than I would have liked.” He paused and
shook his head. “I’m really worried about Max, as stupid as that
sounds under the circumstances.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid.”
“Max and I have been together a long time. For years it’s been only me
and that old dog.”
“I doubt they would have done anything to him with all those people
around.”
“Yeah, you’d like to think so, wouldn’t you? But the fact is if
they’ll kill a man, a dog doesn’t have a chance.”
“I’m sorry you had to do that for me.”
He sat up straight. “Well, a dog is still a dog, Faith. And we’ve got
other things to worry about, don’t we?”
Faith found herself nodding. “Yes.”
“I guess my magnet trick didn’t work so well. They must have
identified me through the video. Still, that was awfully fast.” He
shook his head, his expression a mix of admiration and fear. “Like
scary fast.”
Faith felt her spirits sink. If Lee was scared, at what level of sheer
terror should she be operating? “Not very encouraging, is it?” she
said.
“I might be a little better prepared if you tell me what’s going on.”
After the man’s heroics, Faith found herself wanting to confide in him.
But then the phone call from Buchanan came flashing back, ringing in
her ears, like the shots last night.
“When we get to North Carolina, we’ll have it all out. Both sides,”