Checkmate_The Bowers Files by Steven James

Author:Steven James [James, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9780451467348
Amazon: B00JJXHKP2
Goodreads: 21911713
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

37

I showed my ID to the attendant working the parking garage that lay beneath the apartment building where Danny Everhart lived. Then I found a parking space near the exterior wall, which was not completely closed in, allowing my cell phone to have two bars—but at least it still worked. Before leaving the car, I used it to pull up the background Ralph had run on Everhart.

I didn’t recognize his DMV photo and I couldn’t tell if he was the guy who’d been at the NCAVC earlier this week. Single. Brown hair. Brown eyes. The healing wounds from his car accident were visible in the photo on his driver’s license.

So the photo’s recent, taken since the accident.

Find out more about that accident.

Timing.

Location.

Through the Federal Digital Database, I sent out a national law enforcement inquiry into moving-vehicle accidents that involved anyone named Everhart.

I was hanging up when I saw a text from Lien-hua that Corrine’s friend Isabelle Brittain had been on the phone with her Monday evening from 10:26 to 10:32 p.m. Traffic-camera footage down the block caught a white van entering the neighborhood about forty minutes earlier. It left the area Tuesday morning.

Checking Everhart’s records, I saw that a white 2004 Chevrolet van was registered in his name. A recent purchase.

Oh, this was good.

Exiting my car, I started toward the elevators. Slightly distracted, I noticed how poorly lit the parking garage was and I was thinking about how lighting is such an easy step in crime prevention, when movement caught my attention.

A van, pulling around the bend.

White.

Yes.

An older-model Chevy.

The plate number matched.

The van turned before I could see who the driver was, but it was Everhart’s vehicle, alright.

So—follow it or continue up to the apartment?

There wasn’t enough evidence to allow us to bring him in for questioning, but there was certainly enough for me to follow his van and have a little talk with him, and if that was him driving, then going to his apartment wasn’t going to do me any good.

I needed to make a decision fast because the driver was approaching the exit and I might lose him if I hesitated.

Go.

Quickly, I returned to my car and saw the van angle left out of the exit. Recalling the 3-D hologram and Guido’s tour, I reviewed the street layout in my mind. There were a lot of one-way streets in Charlotte and that would affect the route the driver would need to take.

I hopped in, left the garage, made the turn, and caught sight of the van up ahead of me at the end of the block.

As I merged with traffic, the thrill of the hunt caught hold of me.

And it felt good.

Whether or not this turned out to be a dead end, I was making my way deeper into the labyrinth. And right now that’s exactly where I needed to be.

+ + +

Out of instinctive modesty, Corrine kept on her bra and panties, but set her shoes, shirt, and jeans beside the water, shoved against the wall.

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