Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Author:Vera Kurian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-06T20:31:29+00:00

33

“Shh,” Chloe hissed. “You look suspicious.”

Andre threw up his hands innocently. On a crowded street of pedestrians, they were walking down 7th Street like any other two preoccupied students—Chloe with her phone, Andre with the camera he wore around his neck. A full block ahead of them walked Leonard Wyman, wearing a long black coat and carrying a briefcase. Andre’s stakeout idea hadn’t led to any real developments, and neither, at least so far, had Chloe’s befriending of one of the program’s RAs. Investigations took time, but Chloe was impatient. Andre had only reluctantly agreed with her to follow Wyman after work; all it took was him turning around and they would be spotted.

“He’s texting—I think he’s going to meet someone,” Andre said.

Chloe jabbed her elbow into his side—Wyman had abruptly slowed down, looking with confusion at the door to a restaurant. Andre huddled next to Chloe, pretending to adjust his camera, praying that the man wouldn’t turn around. Charles had never said if there had been any consequences to his attempt at following Wyman home. “He’s got the restaurant confused—look, he’s going into that other one,” Chloe said as she turned to him, the look on her face urgent. “Wait sixty seconds and go in there after him and take a picture of whoever he’s with.”

“What! He’ll see me!”

“Then make up an excuse! I’ll get them from the outside through the window.” It was too late to try to refuse—she didn’t understand that he couldn’t make up excuses as glibly as her, that he was, understandably, reasonably scared, that the place was a wine and cheese and charcuterie place that he was wildly out of place in—let alone his being underage—but also considering that wine and cheese and charcuterie places were not intended for people like him. But then there he was, standing in one, aware that Wyman was to his left, thankfully his back to Andre. Andre edged to the bar, which was half-full of patrons—the bartender was busy giving a long-winded explanation to a couple at the end.

There was a girl sitting across from Wyman. His heart pounding, Andre tried to size her up without it looking like that’s what he was doing. She was college-aged. She had nothing-color hair and an indistinct face and wore jeans and a pale sweater that was strangely too close in shade to her skin. She had her hands curled around a mug, her expression riveted on Wyman, who was talking. Who was she? One of his grad students?

Andre held up the wine menu, pretending to examine it as he fumbled to turn his camera on. People took pictures of menus, didn’t they? He had to act quickly before anyone noticed. He zoomed in on the girl and opted to snap a short video rather than photos. He wondered if he could get close enough to hear what they were saying.

“Can I get you a taste of anything?”

Andre jumped. The bartender, clad in all black, was now directly in front of him, smiling.

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