Fugitive Justice Read Online Free PDF

never expected to get caught, anyway, and it was because of his own carelessness he was now under suspicion.
    Jake unzipped the sports bag that lay on the passenger seat and pulled out the pair of binoculars and the camera. He laid the camera on the seat beside him and scanned the front of the house with the glasses. There was no visible movement through the limited view he had of the front window.
    Setting the binoculars down, he took the camera and got out of the car, crossed the street, and walked toward the front of the house. He glanced around and then strode boldly up the driveway and around to the side of the garage.
    Pushing open a wooden gate, he went down a stone pathway between the garage and a high cedar hedge bordering the property. He peeked in the small window of an entrance door and frowned.
    A bright red Lexus sat in the nearest bay. The other one was empty.
    Niles Overstone was home.
    Was Jake already too late? Was the girl in there with him, or would she be coming later, if indeed they had a rendezvous planned for that morning?
    Jake snapped a few pictures of the inside of the garage, then strode back down the driveway, crossed over the street, and got into the Toyota. He laid the camera on the seat beside him and picked up the binoculars. He’d have to wait until they left.
    Annie had insisted on tinted windows in her new car, making it harder than normal to see through binoculars or take photos through the glass. He wound down the driver-side window, stuck his elbow out, and trained the glasses on the house.
    Though a handful of cars had eased up the quiet street, so far he hadn’t seen any pedestrians. Among the area’s residents, like the Overstones, both partners likely worked to maintain their lifestyle in this neighborhood. If they had any children at all, they would be at school or perhaps grown up and moved on.
    He settled in, stretched, and yawned. It wasn’t necessarily the stakeout itself he didn’t like; it was the waiting. Sure, he got paid for sitting in a car doing nothing, but it was boring beyond belief. It was all part of the job, though. He moved the seat all the way back, propped his sunglasses on his nose, then slouched down and waited.
    Ten minutes of inaction later, he bolted upright, pulled off his sunglasses, and squinted through the binoculars. A man had been strolling up the street from the opposite direction. Jake hadn’t paid him more than a casual glance, but as the man turned and went up the pathway toward the house, he’d caught Jake’s attention.
    He grabbed the camera and snapped a dozen photos as the man climbed the steps, opened the front door, and disappeared inside.
    Jake wondered if the man was Niles, who’d gone up the street for some reason and was now returning. But the sloppy clothes and ragged baseball cap the newcomer was wearing didn’t look like the casual dress of a real estate agent. He had zoomed the lens in, but he hadn’t been able to get much of a glimpse of the man’s face.
    Jake squinted at the small monitor and looked through the pictures, one at a time, zooming in on the head of the man. Even though the subject was wearing a baseball cap, making it hard to be sure, the man in the picture appeared to have short hair. Jake decided it wasn’t Niles.
    The strange thing was that even though Niles was inside, he’d left the door unlocked. There seemed no doubt he was expecting a visitor.
    And if Niles hadn’t intended to stay long, why’d he bothered to park his car in the garage?
    Something was definitely fishy about this whole thing, and it sure didn’t look like there was any kind of an affair going on. At least, not a love affair or a sexual liaison. Unless Niles was bisexual. That was a distinct possibility, although Merrilla hadn’t so much as hinted in that direction.
    Merrilla might be able to identify the man once Jake had a chance to show her the photos. When one or both men left the house, Jake hoped he could get some clearer