I went about it like any other job, except it wasn’t like any other job. I had to try to think like Frank, to remember all the things he did, a lot of them I could never do, not as well as he could anyway. I sat in the car, by myself for the first time in a long time, and tried to use Frank’s equipment to check the house for cameras, security, access their systems, try to take down their internet if possible. Some of it worked, I guess. I wasn’t going to need any of that anyway; I was going to sit and watch and wait and get in and out and be done with it. The rest was just practice, and something to do while I sat alone for hours. It was busywork, the same as the job. Froehmer had practically said as much. I wondered if he had someone else taking over for the trophy after all. I wondered if he had someone taking over for the jobs we used to do. I wondered if I’d been demoted. Maybe I wouldn’t be back on the better gigs. Maybe I didn’t care. I’d have to do whatever Froehmer said, for a while anyway, a long while, until he figured I’d paid him back for his help with Frank and the funeral and all that. I was back in a hole with him and would have to work it off. It was going to take a while with jobs like this, I thought.

—

I sat and watched the house and noticed a car parked about halfway down the block behind me. No one got out of it and it stayed parked for about an hour, then drove off. A few minutes later another car came and parked almost in the same spot and no one got out of it either. I was being watched.

I had taught Frank to always get out of the car when you park. Just in case someone is watching. Whoever was driving would get out and walk away, usually to the back of our target house to get a good overview (it had to be done anyway), and then, when the area seemed secure, the other one would text for him to come back to the car. Sometimes we’d both walk away, just like anyone else would after they park. You don’t just sit there. Unless you want to be obvious. The guys behind me were obvious. Cops on the job, I thought. Who else would be that lazy?