“I’ll get you a hotel and a car.” He took out his pencil and wrote the name of the hotel and an address. “It’s a small job. But I’ll make it worth your while. Double the usual.”

“Okay.”

“A quick trip. Be back by Friday.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Froehmer said. “It’s a small thing. It’s easy.”

“If it’s so easy why do you need me?”

Froehmer patted me on the back. “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll give you the details.”

“I know.”

“Be back no later than Friday.”

Maybe he was anxious, I don’t know. He seemed anxious. Or I should say that now, remembering it, he seemed anxious. At the time, I didn’t notice anything, or ignored it when I should have been paying attention. None of it was usual – going out of town, a tighter schedule than normal, extra money – so why should Froehmer be his usual self? Why should I be? None of it mattered, of course, until it did. None of it should have mattered. Froehmer was right; it was easy. The job was always easy. It was everything else that turned out to be the problem.

—

We had wasted Wednesday, or Frank had, but we were ready; we could still make it back to Froehmer on time. Frank would have to accept the prep I’d done without him, and I wasn’t sure he would. He let me know early how well he thought I’d done without him.

We woke up and were over at the address before the sun was up. We sat in the car and watched the house. Frank did a sweep for cameras with a homemade device he’d always used. It always worked.

“You walked around?” he said.

“There’s a window near the back door we can use,” I said.

“There’s a camera over the back door,” he said.

I hadn’t noticed. That’s why I had Frank. If he’d been around the day before, if he’d been paying attention to what he was getting paid to do…

“It’s not operational,” Frank said.

“Now or yesterday?”

“Both,” Frank said. That was his way of reminding me that I should have already scanned the place. I knew how to do it; Frank had taught me. But I hadn’t done it. It had been a mistake and even if it was inconsequential it was still important.

—