The Car That Kept Pace

“They’re still behind him.”

Rusk stood in the doorway with his phone in one hand. Dyer had already moved from the hall to the front room, where the curtains were drawn. Merrit stayed beside the kitchen table, one hand on the back of a chair.

“Jory?” she asked.

“Jory is in the transfer vehicle. Two marked cars are with him. The car behind them has matched three turns.” Rusk kept his voice level. “We’re changing the route now.”

Merrit looked at the dark window. Dyer had explained the house’s rules that morning: don’t answer the door, don’t open the curtains, call her before moving from one room to another. They had sounded like sensible precautions then. Now she heard the thinness in them.

“Can the driver see Jory?”

“We don’t know. The transfer vehicle is screened.”

“Then he’s following the police.”

“That’s what we’re testing.” Rusk glanced down at his screen. “I’ll tell you when I have something certain.”

He left the kitchen, taking his call into the hall. Merrit watched Dyer listen at the front window without touching the curtain. She wanted to ask what would happen if the car turned toward this house. The answer would be that they would respond. It would not tell her whether they could respond in time.

Rusk returned several minutes later. “The transfer vehicle has taken the north road. The car followed. Our other unit is going to take Jory away from it.”

“Is that safe for him?”

“It’s safer than carrying on with a tail that knows the route.” He paused. “We’re using the car to see who’s driving.”

The plan left Jory in the middle of it. Merrit could picture him sitting still in the back, his hands folded because he had no useful tool to reach for. She also remembered how carefully he had chosen each word in his statement. If he could have kept quiet and stayed safe, he might have. He had spoken anyway.

Her phone sat in a clear evidence bag on the counter, useless and close enough to catch her eye. She looked away.

“Does he know?” she asked.

“Jory agreed to the route change.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

Rusk’s expression shifted by a fraction. “He knows they’re trying to identify the car. He knows we can’t promise what the driver will do.”

Dyer came into the kitchen. “They’re moving him to a different vehicle now.”

Rusk listened to his phone. Nobody spoke for a moment. The faint sound of a door shutting came from the hall, then his shoes crossed back toward them.