Ockham's Razor: A Deductive Riddle

Chapter 50

The rehearsal of the stop with Kate acting as Gillies went off without a hitch. That gave the six of them the confidence to go the next morning and execute the job.

Ian and Rab were sitting in their car in a strip mall parking lot. They were to wait for the word from Lauren and Moussa that Gillies was on the move. Then, they would wait for the triplet of vehicles to pass and Rab would then swing them into position.

While waiting, Ian started thinking about how he and Rab had constantly been chomping at each other throughout this whole ordeal. Rab seemed decent. It was unfortunate that conflict existed between them. Ian recalled that Kate had told him that he was an amateur stock car racer originally from Lebanon. He had nothing in common with stock car racing, so trying to connect over that would seem forced, so he went with the Lebanon angle.

"Your name, Rab. Is that from the Middle East?"

"Yeah," replied Rab blandly. "My parents are from Lebanon. I'm named after the town where they are from. Rab Thalathine. Thalathine is not my last name, so, you can't Google me. They missed their home during the occupation, so it prompted my parents to give me an unusual first name."

"My Dad named me Ian because the last letters in the word Indian, are I-A-N."

"Ian, I really don't care. I will tolerate you until we finish with the Benefactor, then I hope to never see you again."

That shut down conversation pretty quickly. In an attempt to swing the moment away from the tension between him and Rab, he decided to do a communications check with everyone on the Bluetooth.

"Hello everyone, this is Ian. Are we all online?"

"Lauren, here."

"Moussa is present."

From beside him "Rab is listening."

"Bill and Dean are here." It was Dean. Bill was driving, so Dean probably answered for both.

"Good. Dean and Lauren, confirm you are in position."

"Bill and Dean are in position. We have eyes on the car. No movement yet."

Lauren replied immediately afterwards, "We are in place. Awaiting the word."

Ian looked at his watch. Bill said that Gillies left the house daily between 8:10 and 8:15. It was 8:03, they had a few minutes to spare.

Instead of again attempting any form of conversation with Rab, Ian thought about Kate. Ian really wished that she would take part in this, but she was adamant in refusing. She was fearful for her safety if the Benefactor found out that she had been seeing Ian, or hanging out with the gang. It was not a fight, but she stressed that she was really getting tired of being pressured into their actions. Ian did not want to admit it, but perhaps there were some cracks forming already in their nascent relationship.

Ian's earpiece crackled with Lauren's voice "Gillies is out of the house. He's heading to the car."

Immediately, thoughts of Kate dropped from Ian's mind. The adrenaline started pumping and Rab and Ian both sat up and repositioned themselves in the seats. From their estimates, it would be three minutes, give or take, from the time that Gillies pulled out of his driveway until he passed the strip mall where they were parked.

"He's on his way, we are taking up a position behind him." Lauren sounded calm. Ian wondered if she was feeling the adrenaline too.

Three minutes seemed to take forever.

Dean's voice crackled over the headset, "Bill did not make the turn, Gillies is past us. Bill would not pull into traffic."

Krap. Ian started doing some rapid-fire thinking. If they pulled out now, could they get Gillies to slow down and stop? He was about to tell Rab to get on the road when Lauren's voice came over the headset, "We are passing him, we'll take the front position. Dean can you take the back?"