Michael Connelly - Void Moon

Having decided on the installation plan, she went back to searching the suite, looking in drawers and on shelves for any weapons or other protection devices that Hernandez might have brought with him. On a shelf above the wet bar in the living room she found a doorknob alarm – a cheap electronic gizmo that is hooked on a doorknob and sounds an ear-splitting alarm if a clip squeezed into the doorjamb is disturbed.

Cassie knew that the alarm was so painfully loud that most users of the device never checked them before inserting the clip into the doorjamb. Instead, they relied on the red signal light that indicates a battery has juice. She used a small screwdriver to remove one screw and then unsnap the outer casing. With pliers she snipped the conductor and ground wires, then pruned a quarter inch of rubber sleeve off each wire and wound them together, closing the circuit usually closed by the clip when it was slid into the doorjamb.

She turned the device on and the signal light came on, indicating good battery. No alarm sounded although the clip was not in place. She turned it off and returned it to the place she had found it on the wet bar shelf.

Cassie went back to the suite's entrance hallway and sat down on the floor. From her backpack she pulled the pair of knee pads, which she strapped on over her black jeans. She then knelt in front of the door and went to work. She picked the drill up off the tool display, put in a Phillips bit and began removing the screws from the cover plate of the interior door handle and deadbolt. The homemade drill cowling dampened its sound considerably. Cassie figured someone would have to actually be listening on the other side of the door to notice the noise.

When she had the cover plate off she put a penlight in her mouth and pointed it into the interior of the lock apparatus while she used a screwdriver to pop the lock washer off the bolt axle. She then gripped the bolt switch with a pair of rubber-tipped pliers and pulled it out of the apparatus, using both hands. She leaned in and looked closely at the interior mechanism.

Cassie took the light out of her mouth and exhaled in a low whistle of relief. Leo had called it correctly. The lock mechanism relied on a half gear to drive the bolt home. Despite knowing this was a problem six years ago, the managers and security providers of the hotel had chosen to avoid the expense of changing every deadbolt in the 3,000 -room hotel. The decision made back then would allow Cassie to stay in the room and complete the installation. If a full gear had been installed in the lock's mechanism, she would have had to remove it and take it someplace – maybe the bathtub in the room across the hall – and cut it with the acetylene torch. It was only at that moment of relief that she realized how lucky she was not to have to use the torch; she had forgotten about it and left it in the trunk of the Boxster back at the Aces and Eights.

Cassie put the penlight back in her mouth. She pushed the screwdriver into the barrel slot and used it to turn the half gear forward, to the right, a quarter turn. She then checked her work with the flashlight and slid the bolt axle back into place. She turned the lock and looked into the doorjamb. The bolt extended outward but came just shy of the receiver plate on the other side of the jamb. By turning the half gear forward she had reduced the number of gear teeth driving the bolt home by half. Therefore it crossed the half-inch space of the doorjamb but did not lock the door. The only way for Hernandez to realize this would be to get down on his knees and look into the doorjamb crack. That was unlikely.

Cassie got up and looked through the peephole to make sure the hall was empty. She then opened the door. The bolt barely scraped the jamb but still made a slight noise. She looked out into the hallway to make sure it was empty and then quickly went back to her tools. She grabbed the steel file and quickly ran it back and forth along the scrape line the bolt had made in the jamb plate. She then dropped the file, checked the hall again and once more closed and reopened the door. There was no scraping sound this time.

After closing the door she went to work on the flip-over lock. She used the drill to remove the four screws that attached the flip-over arm to the doorjamb. Once the arm was removed she changed bits and ran the drill into each of the screw holes to widen them. She dug the tub of earthquake wax out of her bag and used a dab of it on the back of the lock's anchor plate to glue it back into place. She then used more of the quick-drying wax to hold the screws back in place in the loosened screw holes.

Cassie sat back on her heels and looked at the door. There was no outward sign that she had tampered with the locks. Yet with the card key she had in her back pocket she would be able to enter the room despite Hernandez's use of the additional locks and his portable alarm.

The first step toward preparing the suite was completed. Cassie checked her watch and saw that it was almost nine-thirty. She rolled her tool satchel up and carried it along with her black bags into the bedroom. She placed everything down in the middle of the floor and set to work. She removed the Conduct-O tape and the ALI camera, snapping the latter into place inside one of the smoke detector cowling shells. She then connected a battery to it, closed it and removed the adhesive backing. She pulled the chair out from the desk and used it to step up and reach the wall over the entry to the closet and bathroom alcove. She pressed the smoke detector camera onto the wall, about a foot below the ceiling line.

The roll of Conduct-O was as small as a roll of household tape. It was clear, with two thin copper wires embedded in the adhesive and running the length of the tape. She wrapped one end of the tape on the connector posts and then closed the detector cover. She ran the tape down the wall to the lower alcove ceiling and then ran the tape along the ceiling to the wall over the closet. She then ran it down over the door frame and into the closet, where she ran it straight down to the floor alongside the door and then along the baseboard to a position behind the safe.

Cassie removed the transmitter from one of the bags and put it in place behind the safe, where it was unlikely Hernandez would have reason to look. She cut the Conduct-O tape and wrapped it around one of the transmitter's receiving terminals. Cassie turned on the transmitter and went back out to her equipment. She pulled out the receiver/recorder and opened it on the floor. She turned it on and studied the strip of masking tape Paltz had placed below a line of frequency buttons. She pushed the button marked ALI (1) and a view of the room, herself sitting on the floor, appeared on the monitor screen. The image was clear and took in almost the entire room. The important thing was the bed. She had a full view of the bed. She got up and went to the door and turned off the lights, dropping the room into darkness except for the bleed of exterior light – the spotlights thrown on the Cleopatra's towers at night – from around the curtains.

She came back and looked closely at the screen. The outline of the bed was barely visible in the green-tinged image. It wasn't as good as Paltz had claimed it would be but she knew it would have to do. She got up again and went to the curtains, pulling them open just an inch or so and letting a sliver of light into the center of the room.

The added light was enough. The details of the room took on a more defined look on the screen. Cassie now had to hope that Hernandez wouldn't notice the slight opening in the curtains and close them before going to bed.

Cassie turned the light back on and returned quickly to the closet. She had to first make sure that during the hot prowl she would be able to get into the closet where the safe was without the interior light automatically going on and possibly waking the mark and exposing her. She could not simply loosen the bulb in the ceiling of the closet. Hernandez might notice that and have it replaced or, worse yet, become suspicious. She also needed the light working for the cameras she planned to set inside the closet to record Hernandez opening the safe.