Chapter 7: The Grey Sedan
Tommy had the car running by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs.
Gabriel put Hannah in the back seat and took the front.
Tommy pulled out without being told, heading west, away from the grey sedan.
"They're moving," Tommy said, checking the mirror.
"How many cars?"
"Just the one so far."
"Take the county road north.
Let's see if they follow or if they call it in."
Tommy turned at the next intersection.
The grey sedan followed two blocks back, keeping its distance — professional distance, the kind that meant they were not planning to act yet.
They were reporting.
"They're not Crane's local muscle," Gabriel said.
"He sent people who know what they're doing."
"Should I lose them?"
"Not yet.
I want to know if there's a second car."
Hannah was looking out the rear window.
Her face was calm in a way that Gabriel recognized now — not the absence of fear, but fear that had been lived with for so long it had become ordinary.
"There's a second car," she said quietly.
"Blue pickup.
It's been behind us since the hardware store."
Tommy checked the mirror.
"She's right."
"They boxed us in before we even came downstairs," Gabriel said.
"They were already here."
"How?" Tommy said.
Gabriel looked at Hannah.
She was already reaching into the duffel bag.
She pulled out the phone — the one that had received the text — and held it up.
"They tracked the SIM," she said.
"I should have thrown it out when I got here.
I kept it because it was the only number my mother had." Her jaw tightened.
"That was stupid."
"It was human," Gabriel said.
He took the phone from her hand, lowered his window two inches, and dropped it onto the road.
"That buys us a few minutes of confusion," he said.
"Tommy, there's a state police barracks on Route 9 about eight miles north.
Head there."
Tommy glanced at him.
"You want to walk into a police barracks?"
"I want Crane's men to watch us walk into a police barracks.
They won't follow us inside.
And they won't move on us in the parking lot."
Tommy understood.
He accelerated.
The grey sedan slowed.
The blue pickup fell back further.
By the time they pulled into the state police parking lot, both vehicles had turned off onto a side road and disappeared.
Tommy parked near the entrance but did not get out.
The three of them sat in silence for a moment.
"They'll regroup," Gabriel said.
"We have maybe two hours before Crane knows the phone is gone and adjusts.
I need to make some calls."
He turned to look at Hannah in the back seat.
"The documents," he said.
"Is everything you have on Crane in that bag?"
"Yes."
"Is there anything else?
Anything stored somewhere else?
Anything digital?"
She hesitated.
Gabriel waited.
"There's one more thing," she said.
"I didn't bring it with me when I left Pittsburgh because I was afraid of what would happen if Crane's men found it on me." She paused.
"It's at my mother's sister's house in Ohio.
In a shoebox under the bed in the spare room."
"What is it?"
"A voice recording," Hannah said.
"Crane, talking to one of the county officials.
Explicit.
Specific.
Dates, amounts, instructions." She looked at Gabriel steadily.
"It's the kind of recording that ends careers and opens federal investigations.
It's the reason he wants me back so badly."
Gabriel looked at her for a long moment.
"Why didn't you tell me this upstairs?"
"Because I didn't know yet whether I could trust you," she said.
"I still don't know.
But I'm running out of options, and you're the only person sitting in this car who isn't afraid of Victor Crane."
Gabriel held her gaze.
"Call your aunt," he said.
"Tell her not to touch the shoebox and not to open the door for anyone she doesn't know.
Tell her someone is coming to collect it."
"Who?"
"Someone I trust." He picked up his own phone.
"And Hannah — I need you to understand something.
What you're carrying is enough to take Crane apart completely.
But it only works if you're alive and willing to stand behind it."
"I know that."
"Are you willing?"
She didn't hesitate.
"I've been willing for fourteen months," she said.
"I just didn't have anyone standing next to me."
Gabriel nodded once.
Then he dialed.
Outside the state police barracks, the parking lot was quiet and bright.
A trooper walked past the front entrance without looking at them.
May you like
Crane's men were somewhere on a side road two miles back, waiting.
They were going to wait a long time.
