"They thought of everything," he said finally. "They thought of most things." Marcus corrected. "They did not think of the boy." Richard's phone buzzed on the table. He looked down. The screen showed Vivian. He let it ring twice. Then he picked it up. "Vivian, Richard, where are you?" Her voice was no longer warm. It was not yet alarmed, but the warmth was gone. "The driver called me. He says you walked past the car. He says you got into another car at the corner. What is going on?"
"There was a problem with the car," Richard said calmly. "I noticed something was off. A different driver, a different plate. I called the company and they had no record of the change. I thought it was safer to leave. I am with Marcus now. We are sorting it out." There was a small silence. Richard could almost hear her mind working on the other end of the line. He could almost see the small calculations she was making.
The same calculations she had probably made a hundred times in the past year. Weighing what she could say against what she could not, what she could explain against what would expose her. "That is very strange," she said. "Are you all right?" "I am fine." "Do you want me to call the police?" "Not yet. Marcus is handling it. The company is investigating. I will be home this afternoon." Richard Her voice softened, became careful and tender in the way that he now understood was a kind of weapon.
"I am worried. Please come home. Whatever this is, we can figure it out together." "I know we can," he said. "I will see you soon." He ended the call and set the phone face down on the table. He looked at Marcus. "She does not know yet," Marcus said. "No, she knows the plan failed. She does not know I heard the recording." "Good. Keep it that way for as long as you can." "The longer she believes you suspect only the driver and not her, the more time we have to gather what we need."
Richard nodded slowly. Then he looked toward the window of the coffee shop at Anthony standing patiently by the door. "There is a boy," he said, "at the house, the one who told me." "Yes." "He went to his room. I told him to stay there, but his mother works in the house." "The man I saw on the patio is gone now, but he will come back and Vivian will tell him what happened and they will start looking for reasons. They will start looking for how the plan went wrong. They will look at the staff. They will look at the boy."