Don Bruns - Stuff to spy for

He could use the mirror when he needed to.

“And, Skip, about six cars back there’s another one of those bastards. It’s a gray Honda Accord.”

“A re you sure you’ve got it installed properly?”

“Hey, you want to try it?”

James already knew that was the worst suggestion in the world. While my roommate was no whiz at the technology of computers, he could at least use the machine once it was hooked up. I’ve already pointed out that he was a whiz at Google, and the boy could kill at about a dozen online games. Texas Hold ’Em wasn’t one of them, however. He’d gotten into some real cash games, and I had to help bail him out once or twice.

“No. But if you followed all of the directions, we should be able to pick up Em’s car.”

“Don’t call her yet.”

James wanted to call Em and announce her location. I already knew her location. She was almost assuredly home. Probably working on Daddy’s books, and listening to the Flight of the Concords album.

“I’ll figure this out.” He punched in some numbers, referring again to the directions. “Okay, I’ll bet this does it.”

“Anything?” I was on the couch, my feet up, watching a Jerry Springer rerun.

“No.”

“You did something wrong.” Two heavy blonde women were trying to tackle each other as the guards kept them apart.

“Or didn’t do something right.”

“Yeah.” God forbid James would do something wrong.

“Where do you think she is?”

“Home.”

“Mmmm.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing. Where does she park when she’s home?”

“Condo has a garage.”

“Well, damn it. Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“What?”

“GPS works off a satellite. If the vehicle isn’t outside, there’s no way we can tell where it is.”

“So, should I call her?”

“Ask her to move the car outside.”

She was going to love this. I dialed her cell.

“Em. You parked in the garage, right?”

“Sure.”

“And the GPS works off-”

“A satellite. Skip, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Do you mind moving the-”

“Car outside? No. Tell James I’ll do it in the next five minutes.”

Em was full of surprises. We waited.

“James-”

“Yeah?”

“The people you are trying to follow-”

“What about them?”

“Are you going to call them and tell them to move their cars outside so you can find them?”

He sighed. I was apparently his burden to bear. James came over and gazed at Springer for a while. “Where do they get these strange people, Skip? It’s tough enough dealing with problems in private or with two or three of your friends. But to take it to Springer or weird Doctor Phil or Oprah? For God’s sake, what are they thinking?”

What had I been thinking, letting James take charge of this case?

The phone rang.

“Skip? The car is outside.”

James was already at the computer. He hit keys, dragged on the mouse, and I don’t know what all. Thirty seconds later he had a huge smile on his face. “Give me the phone, amigo.”

I handed him the phone.

“Em, you are at 1717 North Bayshore Drive.”

There was silence as she apparently said something to him, then he handed the phone back to me.

“Em?”

“Call me if you need me, Skip.” And she was gone.

“Congratulations, James. You got it to work.”

“I did. I proved your girlfriend was right where she was supposed to be. And, I proved that she thinks I’m extremely intelligent.”

I knew Emily well enough to know that she would never accuse James of being smart. “So what exactly did she say?”

“She verified the address.”

“And? How did you extrapolate the fact that she thought you had a brain?”

“It was the way she said it, pard. She came on the phone and said, congrats, Einstein. That’s where I live. Where the hell did you think I would be?”

I was glad to hear that Em and James were still getting along. It’s important that children play well together.

I pulled in early, right around seven a.m., not sure what to expect. One of our installation trucks was already there, unloading heavy boxes. There would be wiring, lots of wiring. And contacts, and motion detectors-real motion detectors-not like the secret camera we’d seen yesterday. We included smoke detectors in our package even though they had some installed. There would be control pads with secret passwords and codes for all kinds of things.

I’m surprised that things go as well as they usually do after we install a system. There are panic codes, breaking-and-entering codes, remote phone codes, fire codes, and more, and I figure somebody is going to screw up and all the whistles, bells, and alarms will go crazy because someone forgot to punch in a number. It happens, but not as often as you might think.

“Hey, Skip. This your gig?”

Andy Wireman was one of the senior installers. Honest to God, that’s his name. Wireman.

“It is.”

“Who’s doing the running?”

Runners. That’s what the installers called them. Michael called them supervisors. It was easier to hire someone part-time if you gave them the title of supervisor. “One guy who says he’s done it before. Name’s Jim Jobs. The other guy is my roommate, James Lessor.”

“You’ve got a lot of contacts going in. What is it, forty windows, every office door, seven outside doors?”

“Plus all the smoke detectors and the remote camera equipment.”

“Four cameras that can be accessed from a remote computer. This is going to be some operation.”

Select people could access the cameras and monitor every movement in the company from thousands of miles away. Why they would want to escaped me, but they could. “So, Andy, this is going to make all of us some good money.”

“Good job, Skip. The boys were excited from the get-go. And you, you’ll make a nice commission on this.”

I agreed. A nice hefty commission operation. “They’re running a pretty important project inside. I guess they just want to take the extra precaution.”

Wireman nodded and picked up two of the boxes, one under each arm. “You tell the runners we’re going to keep ’em running. Michael said he wanted us done and out in three days. I think that’s a little optimistic, but we’ll give it a go. Give me a hand.”

“Michael is a bottom-line lackey, Andy. He’d squeeze anyone to get his profit.” I picked up two more boxes, and we walked into the building. A lone secretary manned the reception desk, eyeing us with a furtive glance.

“Are you part of the security system people?”

“We are.”

“Do you have identification?”

We both pulled out our wallets and gave her identification. I’d met the woman two other times, but I’d been with Sarah both times and apparently that was a different story. Sarah had pull.

She eyed the photo IDs and looked up at us. I even knew her name. Amanda. However, she acted like we’d never met. “Well, I guess you can go on in, but you’ll pass another checkpoint before you get to the main plant. I should send someone with you.”

“I’ve been here before, Amanda. I can show Andy the way.”

She frowned, but nodded for us to go ahead.

Down the hall, past another desk where we showed our IDs, then into what appeared to be an assembly room. It was too early for the workers to be there, and I was surprised they’d left us alone.

“So this is where the big project is being designed?”

“It is.” I remembered the first time I’d been inside. With workers at all the benches, silently punching computer keys and making whatever it was they made. And office number five, with a very dead body inside. I shuddered.