John Miller - Too Far Gone

As she squatted there she had an idea. Moving slowly to avoid making noise, she pocketed the bug and backed into the bushes. Swiftly she made her way back around the house, avoiding the other cameras, and the sensors that would turn on floodlights as she went. She made it to the door she had come out through, and slipped into the utility room, and from there, through the kitchen.

As she sneaked up the hallway, she noticed that her uncle and Ken Decell were still in the den, sitting together on a couch, Decell busily making diagrams and both men talking in hushed voices-exactly as they had been when she’d gone out to get the bugs. She moved farther up the hall and slipped into Unko’s office, where she went to a cabinet and opened the door to expose her uncle’s safe. He hadn’t changed the combination since she was a teenager and had found the combination while snooping in his office.

Once the heavy door swung open, she smiled as she saw the briefcase. She had guessed correctly that her uncle would have put the bonds there for safekeeping until it was time to take them on his errand.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked.

Casey quickly straightened up, her heart pounding. Her aunt stood in the doorway.

“Are you looking for candy?” Sarah asked.

“Yes,” Casey lied.

“It will make you fat,” Sarah said.

“Dancers have to watch their weight,” Casey replied. “You gain one ounce and you’re not a ballerina any longer.”

“Have you seen me dance?” her aunt asked.

“I love to see you dance,” Casey said.

“Watch this,” her aunt said, waving her arms wildly and moving her feet in what could only be described as an amazingly poor imitation of a tap routine.

Casey heard footsteps coming up the marble hall, and turned and slipped out the door she had come in through, just as her uncle’s voice boomed behind her. She didn’t dare close it for fear he’d hear the sound.

“Sarah, what in the world are you doing in my office?”

Casey listened, poised to retreat if she had to.

“Out of bounds,” he finished.

“Candy makes you fat,” she said. “We weren’t looking for candy.”

“We?” William asked. “Who’s we, Sarah?”

“The lady that comes here wasn’t looking for candy either.”

“What lady?”

“You know perfectly well. That lady from the audience,” Sarah said. “You’re being silly, aren’t you? You know her as well as I do. Rebecca.”

“Rebecca’s dead,” LePointe said.

“Was somebody really in here?” Decell’s voice asked.

“I am not telling you anything, Mister Redhead Man. Or you either, white-haired man!”

“It’s all right, darling. You don’t have to tell us anything. Where’s Angela? Angela!”

Casey heard the night maid’s voice. “Sorry, Dr. LePointe. I’m here. Miz LePointe, you best come on with me. She left out of the room while I had my back turned. I’ll take her back up to her room.”

“No harm done,” LePointe said.

Casey fled back to the kitchen, poured herself a cup of coffee, and exhaled for the first time since she left the office. “Mission accomplished,” she whispered. Then she smiled.

From her vantage point across St. Charles Avenue, Alexa could see the LePointe mansion illuminated by floodlights, the front gate, and, parked beyond the intersection, Manseur’s Crown Victoria. She looked down at her passenger’s seat, at the scuffed-up NOPD laptop, which was set to the frequency of the trackers. She had turned the brightness down so the glow wouldn’t be apparent to the guard in the gatehouse. Alexa felt the familiar sense of excitement and anticipation growing inside her that she always got when the payoff was in sight-like a hunter watching a deer moving in the deep woods, making its way slowly to an exposed space in the trees.

Manseur’s computer had the same views of both tracker frequencies, and he and Larry Bond would be able to follow whichever vehicle Decell used. They had lucked out by having Casey plant the trackers, and Alexa just hoped their luck would hold awhile longer. In the event that both vehicles left, Alexa would follow LePointe. Decell would certainly follow LePointe somehow, and would be pissed that the cops were covering the transaction, because there was obviously something going on that his employer wanted to keep quiet. If the police timed their appearance, they’d have unfettered access to a diary, hopefully detailing LePointe’s crime-if such a diary indeed existed.

Alexa was startled by a sudden movement and turned to see Casey pulling open the passenger door.

“What’s going on?” Alexa asked.

“I sneaked out. I had to talk to you.”

“You could have phoned me. What if they miss you?”

“Relax, they won’t even know I’m gone. I didn’t get to put one of those bugs on the Bentley. A guard came. I had to go back inside.”

“Did you get one on Decell’s car?”

“I sure did,” Casey said, smiling.

“One is a lot better than none. Good work.”

“The other one is inside, in a much better place.”

Inside is better? Might the house move? Alexa’s phone rang and she saw it was a call from Manseur’s cell. “Yeah?”

“Is that Casey in your car?”

“It is. She only rigged Decell’s car.”

“Well, then it’s Decell who’s on the move. Let’s give him thirty seconds and trail him.”

Alexa looked at the screen and saw a dot moving on the line. “You have to get out, Casey. I have to go. Decell’s car is moving. Probably LePointe’s will be leaving soon too.”

“What about the other bug? Is it moving?”

Alexa looked at her screen again. She saw that the other dot, denoting the second bug, was stationary. “It’s not,” she said.

“Just watch it,” Casey said.

“Decell’s on his way out,” Alexa said, pointing at the headlights approaching the front gate.

“He’s not taking the bonds. Not unless the second signal shows movement,” Casey said.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I planted the other bug in the briefcase containing the ransom bonds,” Casey told her. “Unko’s going to make the exchange personally. Decell will probably circle around to be there to cover him. That isn’t Unko. I’m certain.”

Alexa told Manseur what Casey had said.

“Damn it,” Manseur growled. “I’m tailing Decell. I’ll tell Bond to break off and follow the Bentley.”

“No, I’m on LePointe,” Alexa said, watching the gate open and the Bentley pull out onto St. Charles Avenue. “Casey, they must have put the bonds in another valise.”

“No, they don’t have any reason to do that.”

“The other bug is in the valise with the bonds,” Alexa said to Manseur.

“Both cars are leaving,” Manseur said.

“Unko is not in the Bentley,” Casey insisted again. “It’s got to be that extra guard Decell had come to the house.”

“I think you’re wrong,” Alexa said. “My gut says the bonds are in the Bentley.”

“I trust you, why can’t you trust me?” Casey demanded, placing her hand on Alexa’s wrist. “I know Unko. I think they’re making sure they aren’t being watched. They’re very cunning.”

Alexa lifted the phone and told Manseur, “Tell Larry to stick on the Bentley. I’m going to stay here to see if there’s something else going on. If the valise doesn’t move in ten minutes, I’ll catch up.”

“Hell, knowing Decell, he might not even have the bonds. He could be planning not to give them anything and take what they have by force. Decell probably thinks he’s got the upper hand on a bunch of amateurs.”

Alexa looked at her watch and back at the immobile flashing dot positioned inside the mansion. She prayed Casey was right and the caravan was a ruse.