Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
Ryder pulled out of the supplier’s lot and started down the street. They passed Cascadia and continued through blocks of warehouses and repair shops. Contractor vans moved in and out of the driveways. Ahead of them, a delivery truck slowed to make a turn, and Ryder left space behind it.
A dark sport-utility vehicle came up fast behind them. It crossed into the opposite lane to pass a contractor van, then cut back in directly behind the Suburban as the delivery truck cleared the road.
Nell turned to look through the rear window. “What’s he doing?”
“Maybe he wants to pass?”
Ryder took the next right. The sport-utility vehicle followed, accelerating through the turn and closing again.
It had room to pass. Instead, it stayed behind them.
Orange signs appeared ahead, followed by barrels that narrowed the road.
Two lanes continued past a line of concrete barriers.
Ryder moved with the traffic into the right lane.
“It’s coming up on my side,” Nell said, pulling out her phone. “I’ll get a photo of the plate.”
Ryder checked the mirror, the open road ahead, and the cars beyond the construction zone.
The sport-utility vehicle drew even with the rear door.
It held there, matching his speed. Nell twisted, pointing her phone at the plate.
The lane ahead remained clear through the next intersection.
Ryder watched the dark hood beside him creep closer.
“Got it.”
He accelerated away from the construction route, took the next available turn, and moved behind a delivery truck. The sport-utility vehicle didn’t appear at the corner.
“I think we lost him,” Nell said.
When Ryder reached Nell’s building, he parked in the space beside Nell’s car and grabbed the drone. Upstairs in the apartment, they locked the door behind them.
“What do you think that SUV wanted? Do you think it was from Cascadia?” Nell asked.
Ryder set the drone case on the dining table. “I don’t know. Some people in the warehouse saw the drone, but I don’t know how they would’ve connected it to us.”
“It really seemed like that SUV was after us.”
“Yeah. But maybe we just ran into an asshole driver at exactly the wrong time.”
Nell put her purse on the table and stood beside him while he opened the case. Her shirt was still crooked where she’d thrown it on in the back seat.
“Let’s see what footage we got.”
He powered on the controller. The recording loaded, and he skipped ahead to the last minute and pressed play. The recording showed the blue Cascadia panel bowing away from the truck’s white door before the worker carried it beneath the loading cover.
Ryder paused the video.
“I caught them changing the company names,” he said.
Nell leaned over the table. “Good.”
Ryder opened the photograph Axel had sent with the text message about the connection between Northline and Cascadia. The photograph of Marla Pike looked as if it had been taken for Northline’s website.
“I need to call Dom,” he said.
After Dom answered, Ryder explained what happened with the van that had followed them that morning and how Axel had traced it to Cascadia.
He told Dom what they had seen at the warehouse, what Nell had found beneath the loading cover, and how Axel had connected Cascadia and the warehouse to Marla Pike and Northline.
He also told him that the workers had spotted the drone. He finished with the SUV.
“I want to watch the warehouse again. They changed the company name on the vehicles for a reason. I want to find out why.”
“All right,” Dom said. “Keep Axel in the loop.”
The call ended.