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Kate left the house for the first time in weeks. It was four p.m. and the day’s overcast light was fading fast. She’d dressed hurriedly in sweats, her winter jacket, and ankle-high snow boots. She grabbed her bag containing Marco’s binoculars and stumbled across the snow-packed driveway to Marco’s Mustang. It wasn’t her preferred vehicle, but the police still had not yet released her SUV.
As she backed out of the driveway, a sense of uncertainty clawed at her nerves. Her heart pounded and her adrenaline raced as she found herself driving at a pace too fast for the neighborhood. She was unsure why she’d felt a sudden urge to check out Fortunato’s, but she guessed it was because Eddie and his flunkies had begun to consume her thoughts.
She slowed her pace and drove down the quiet side streets, though she barely paused for stop signs, until she got to Payne Avenue. She turned right, watching the activity at the restaurant up ahead.
As she approached, Kate saw a man leaving the restaurant. She sat up, straining through the low light to see if it was Sal. The man got into a car before she could really tell. She hit the steering wheel with her gloved hand.
“Damnit!”
She turned left into the overflow parking lot across from the restaurant and maneuvered the Mustang around until it faced the restaurant’s front doors. She parked and scanned the area before pulling the binoculars out of her bag and slumping low in her seat.
Surveillance: Day One.
Kate sat there for two hours and saw Eddie just once, through the window. No one else of interest had come or gone. Her frustration only led to a stronger determination to prove that Eddie and his crew killed her family. Despite the car’s heat pumping through the vents, she grew cold and uncomfortable. She decided that had been enough for her first night.
She returned each day, adjusting the time, and watching the restaurant through the binoculars from the safety of her car across the street.
On her third day, it was early after lunch when she saw Detective Steber pull up a few spots away from the front door. Seeing him made Kate’s heart skip. He must have been there to talk to Eddie about Marco and Renzo’s murders. This gave her a slight sense of satisfaction knowing the police were indeed working on her family’s case.
She ducked as the detective emerged from his beige sedan. He looked around, his gaze passing her direction, but he seemed unaware of her vehicle. It made her realize the black Mustang was too conspicuous. She’d have to rent a car. As the detective walked to the door of the restaurant, she sat up and homed in on him through the binoculars. She wished she were a fly on the wall. She would have loved listening to him interrogate Eddie.
After about thirty minutes, Detective Steber left the restaurant. He casually walked back to his car and drove off. Satisfied with her surveillance for the day, she put the car in drive and returned home.
Once inside, she put on the kettle for tea. When it began to hiss, she poured the boiling water over her tea bag and walked to the living room. She sat there quietly sipping it as she imagined Detective Steber’s visit with Eddie.
Her phone rang. She looked at the screen.
Eddie.
She let it go to voicemail.
She then turned her thoughts to her budding plan.
