“You see her?”

“She’s lighting a cigarette and walking toward the rear of the building,” Nathan said. “I’ve lost sight of her. Can you pick her up?”

“No, she might make us.”

“Can you make it look like you’re using the bathroom?”

“No,” Grangeland replied, “it’s the wrong direction.”

“Okay, go through the convenience store in case Janey’s watching. Go the opposite way around the building. Watch yourself, Ernie might be back there.”

“Copy.”

Nathan watched Grangeland exit the convenience store and turn right. She disappeared from his line of sight. “Grangeland, report.”

Five seconds went by. Silence.

“Grangeland, do you copy?”

A few seconds later, her whispered voice came through the radio. “She’s leaning against the rear wall smoking. She’s alone.”

“Okay, hang back and stay in the shadow of the building.”

“If anyone pulls in the main driveway, their headlights will light me up.”

“Get out of there then. Harv will take over from this side. He can use the landscaping and block wall for cover. Wait thirty seconds, then head back into the restaurant.”

“Copy,” she said.

Nathan estimated the light fog had reduced visibility to just under two hundred yards. It was thinner in some areas and thicker in others. He knew as the dew point and temperature closed in on each other, it would only get worse.

Harv slid out of the passenger seat and stayed low amid the parked cars. Nathan peered out just above the passenger windowsill and watched his friend work his way to the north edge of the property and dash across the driveway, where he vanished in the shadows of a head-high concrete block wall screened by mature oleander bushes.

“Harv, report,” Nathan said.

“I can smell her cigarette, wait one.”

Nathan waited through a long fifteen seconds of silence.

“She’s leaning against the rear wall of the restaurant with her arms crossed, smoking. She keeps looking left and right.”

“Okay Harv, stay with her. Grangeland?”

“I’m back inside with Ferris. Her daughter hasn’t moved.”

“Copy,” Nathan said.

“She’s on her way back,” Harvey reported. “Grangeland, I’ll lose sight of her as she rounds the corner. Let me know if you don’t see her within the next five seconds.”

“Copy,” Grangeland confirmed. “I’ve got her. She’s reentering the restaurant through the convenience store.”

Using field glasses, Nathan watched Grangeland approach the convenience-store checkout counter. She was purchasing something to cover her absence from the table, a DVD or paperback book, he couldn’t tell which.