“It would be better for me if you stayed where you are,” he said. “But I leave it to you. It’s a step back, though, you know that.”

“I don’t see it that way.”

“You should start seeing it that way.”

Mobley didn’t say anything, but I could see him watching me in the rearview mirror. He was trying to tell me something, the way he was staring at me, but I didn’t pay attention. I was surprised he didn’t wreck the car, as much as he had his eyes on me.

“I need you to make the most out of this arrangement,” Froehmer said. “the way your dad always did. I want what’s best for you, the way he would’ve wanted it. And I think it works best the way we’re going, for now. But I’m willing to make changes if you’re willing to help me out first.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“I know you will. I need you to do two jobs for me, two small jobs, and then, after that, if you still want to go back to construction work, that’s what we’ll do. How about that?”

I agreed and Mobley drove us back to the diner parking lot, right where we’d started.

—

Froehmer had sent me to get some soldiers. Twelve of them, and their horses. They were lead toys, all ready to go in a red cardboard box sitting on a coffee table in some guy’s den. I sat around and watched the house for a couple of days, the usual deal. All I had to do was walk in and get the box and walk out, but the guy had a lot of toys. Alarms, cameras, and other sophisticated gizmos, on the perimeter, around the windows and doors, and some inside. I wasn’t sure I could disable them or get around them on my own. That was Frank’s adeptness. I did what I could but wasn’t sure I had done enough. I texted Frank and gave him a list of the tech I could identify on the house.

I didn’t hear back.

I didn’t have time to wait. I thought I had disabled the alarms, scrambled the cameras, interrupted the wifi, and a few other tricks Frank had tried to teach me. Some of the devices would only be offline for a few minutes. I had done things in the wrong order, I knew that. I should have texted Frank before I started pulling the plugs. Now I had to go. So I went.