Listen by Rene Gutteridge Page A

always suspected it was Natalie who influenced Jenna’s style. For the worse. She’d have to keep an eye out for more problems.
    She’d have to keep an eye out, period.

 
10
    “What, um, are we doing?” Gavin stared at Frank like he might radio in.
    “I’m just looking into something. Don’t have a cow.” Frank got out of the cruiser, and within seconds, Gavin was right by his side. They both looked up at the large black sign hanging over the strip mall store. Spies Are Us. “Ever been in here?”
    “Why are we going in here?” Gavin scurried after Frank, who opened the front door and walked inside. “What are you doing?” He took a moment to glance from wall to wall.
    “Cool stuff in here,” Frank said.
    Gavin’s face twitched. “Um, I’m not trying to be . . . It’s just that—well, the whole thing with your ex-wife. The captain said I’m supposed to . . . you’re not supposed to do that thing anymore.”
    “What thing?” Frank asked, his hand gliding along a glass shelf piled high with spyware. He really loved messing with this kid.
    “Be around her and stuff.”
    Frank stopped and turned to him. “I don’t see Angela here. Do you?”
    Gavin actually glanced around as if she might suddenly appear.
    “Well? Do you?”
    “Um, no,” Gavin said. “But we are at the spy store.”
    “So?” Frank picked up a pair of night-vision goggles.
    “Look, Officer Merret, you can’t do this, okay? You’re not supposed to be around her.”
    “I’m not around her.”
    “But,” he said, dropping his voice to a whisper, “you’re going to spy on her?”
    Frank only smiled at him—a long, prideful smile that caused Gavin’s eyes to widen. Then he continued to the next wall, where they sold the small listening devices one could plant underneath a coffee table.
    “You need to just leave it alone or you’re going to get in trouble.”
    “Trouble? By who? You? You going to rat me out, Jenkins?”
    Gavin tried to maintain a stoic expression. “The captain asked me to report anything to him.”
    “You know what happens to rats in the department, don’t you?”
    Gavin’s expression wouldn’t hold. Fear flitted across his face. “He gave me the orders.”
    “Uh-huh. And what you do with those says a lot. You’re going to rat to a guy that sits behind a desk all day, or are you going to cover for the guy that could keep you from getting killed. The guy that would risk his life to save you if he had to.”
    Gavin scratched his cheek, seemingly thinking this over. He followed Frank as he moved to another part of the store. “Okay, fine. I won’t say anything. But don’t you think you’re taking this a little far? Spying on your ex-wife? What makes you think she’s not going to wig out again?”
    “Well, the very idea of spying is that you don’t get caught.”
    A man, skinny and pale, came around the checkout counter. “Hi. I’m Corbin. What can I help you with, Officers?”
    Frank said, “I’m looking for a sweeper. I need something that’s at a professional level, something with a high RF sensitivity.”
    “All right. We keep that kind of thing in the back. Give me a second and I’ll bring a few models out.”
    Gavin turned to Frank. “What do you need that for?”
    “Look, I’m done messing with you. This isn’t about Angela. It’s about that Web site.”
    “Listen to Yourself.”
    “That’s the one.”
    “So what are you doing?”
    “I read the Web site last night. Lots of posts but it’s hard to know exactly who is speaking. Except we know for sure that the Shaws’ conversation was recorded because Mr. Shaw admitted that he’d said everything that was put onto the Web site. I’m going to ask if the Shaws will let me do a sweep, see if we can find some hidden transmitter or something.”
    Gavin seemed interested. “So you think that someone is going around planting these things and then listening in on the conversations?”
    “I don’t know. But we’ve got to