Day Four
July 24, 1952
Thursday Morning
Mid-morning, River noticed something in his peripheral vision, way off in the distance, on top of one of those abandoned buildings over in the old warehouse district. It was a motion up on the roof.
He didn’t stare at it.
Instead he headed inside, got behind the window covering and pulled the area in with a pair of binoculars. The parapet came into view, distinguishable from the side of the building, but nothing moved. It hadn’t been his imagination. He stayed with the scene, expecting Vaughn Spencer’s face to pop up.
A minute passed.
Then a head appeared.
The face belonged to a woman.
She looked familiar.
Where had he seen her before?
Was she working with Spencer?
She brought binoculars up to her eyes and shifted them around until she got her bearings on the boxcar. River dropped back, stepped outside and stretched. Then he picked up a rock and threw it at a pigeon. January came out of the adjacent boxcar zipping her pants.
“I need that asshole to come for us,” she said. “Sitting around and waiting for him is driving me nuts.”
“Don’t turn your head,” River said. “To the north there’s an old industrial area. A woman’s up there on one of the roofs watching us with binoculars.”
January started to turn.
“Don’t look,” River said.
She obeyed.
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know but I’m going to find out.”
“How?”
“Sneak up from behind.”
“I’m coming with you.”
River considered it.
“One of us needs to stay here,” he said. “If we both leave she might too.”
“You stay here,” she said. “You’re the target. Let me go get her.”
River studied her.
“Are you up for it, after last night?”
She nodded.
“I’m fine.”
River frowned.
“It’s too risky,” he said. “Spencer might be there.”
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
January put her arms around River’s neck, brought her mouth up to his ear and nibbled on it. “I’ll take the car and head the opposite way,” she said. “After I’m good and gone and out of sight, I’ll swing around to the back and park way off where she won’t see or hear anything. Then I’ll close in by foot. You stay here and keep her focused on the prize.”
River ran his fingers down her back.
It was risky.
Still, there was no way everything was going to come to a resolution without risk.
“Okay but be careful,” he said.
They stepped back inside.
January slipped River’s gun into her jeans and draped the T-shirt over it.
“When you get her, signal me from the roof,” River said. “I’ll head over on foot. Bring her down to the ground level but stay in the building. Once I get there, you can tell me where the car is. I’ll go get it and bring it over. Then we’ll get her in the trunk.”
January kissed him.
“Deal,” she said.