Fourteen Years Ago
“Another hurricane?” Garrett asks. He holds his phone up toshow Janine across the car. “Are we hurricane experts now?”
“You’ll get used to it.” She doesn’t take her eyes off the road. The sky has darkened since they crossed from Georgia to Florida, but they haven’t hit the rain yet.
He runs his thumb over the screen of his phone, scrolling past emails from restaurants and clothing stores to get to the ones about his newest work assignments. The assignments populate on his calendar at the same time he receives an email with the details. Janine says the best thing to do with questions about those details is to forget them. Whatever the system doesn’t handle, your gut will. Garrett has learned to keep moving forward, no matter what the situation is. In fact, he tries to know as little about the situation as possible. The end result would be the same either way.
“Don’t think too far ahead,” Janine says. “We’ve got a few to handle before we get there.” She takes the next exit for Lake City and follows her GPS to the parking lot of an Aldi.
“An Aldi, really?”
“More of a Whole Foods guy?”
“No,” he says, thinking of the dark chocolate peanut butter cups at Trader Joe’s. “I just think it will be…a scene.”
“It’s always a scene. That’s the job.”
“What are we looking for this time?”
She turns around in the Ford Focus they rented to look out the back windshield. “A red Camry and a black coat.”
They both watch the parking lot for a few moments before a red Camry pulls into the lot and parks farther down the aisle. A woman gets out of the car, trying to keep her purse strap in place on the shoulder of her black coat. Her blond hair is twisted up into a clip on the back of her head.
“She’s young,” Garrett says.
“Forty-two. That’s something we forget.” She examines her Rolex. “Two minutes.”
Garrett drums his fingertips against the door handle, waiting for the word.
“You can try one on your own tomorrow.”
“Really? By myself?”
“I think you’re ready,” Janine says. She has found that people take up whatever container she gives them. If she says he’s ready, he will be ready. “Now, what do we need to remember?” She gestures at the front door of the Aldi, where a man and two children are trying to get their coin into the slot on the shopping cart.
“The bystanders.”
Janine nods.
Both of their phone alarms sound at the same time.
“Follow my lead.”