Sean's Predicament

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

“This should be a good place to try our luck,” Sean said to Pax as they drove along the highway through a city several hundred miles and seven hours from where they had been. To his right, he saw the towers of downtown buildings. To his left, off in the distance, a lake as large as the one across from the house he’d burglarized barely twenty-four hours ago.

Pulling off the highway, he stopped at a gas station to fill up and ask the attendant if he knew of any motels that allowed pets. The attendant suggested two. “One’s pretty pricy, the other one’s cheap, but…”

“Cheap works,” Sean said, thanking him. He got directions and fifteen minutes later was parking in the lot next to a seven-story hotel in what was, he determined, a hospital zone. He took one of the large duffle bags from the trunk, as well as Pax’s small one, then got the laptop, slung his messenger bag over his shoulder, and set the security on the car. Anyone who tampered with it would be in for a big surprise. Going into the motel, he rented a room for three nights, paying with a credit card that was not in his legal name.

“This should give us time to take a look around, once we find out where the upscale neighborhoods are,” he told Pax while unpacking. “But first, dinner. I’m starving and I know you are.” He fed Pax, then, much to the dog’s disgust, left him in the room while going in search of somewhere to eat.

When he got back to the room, he took Pax for a long walk and then settled down at the laptop to research the best areas to look for what he wanted—high-end houses with the possibility of good returns from a midnight foray.

For the next two days, Pax got as much walking as he wanted while they scouted various neighborhoods. Sean found a home belonging to—according to a chatty gardener two doors down—a man and wife who were on an extended vacation in the Bahamas. In another part of town, he decided a mansion set well back off the street would be a good place to check out.

First things first, however. He went apartment hunting in the heart of a depressed area of the city, quickly finding one which suited his needs. The owner, a man who had to be at least seventy if he was a day, willingly rented Sean one the several available apartments in the building, without being in the least concerned about checking Sean’s references.

“Now that we’re settled in,” Sean told Pax, “let’s see if we can make back the rent and then some.”

He decided to hit the house with the vacationing couple first, once he found out husband was an avid watch collector. They had been featured in a local antiques magazine, with pictures of the room created especially to showcase them.

“Gotta love the idle rich,” Sean murmured under his breath after spending two days and nights casing the house, learning the routines of the security company who regularly checked the house, and the times the police drove by. On the third day, he arrived in the early afternoon when the neighborhood was quiet. He was in and out of the house in less than two hours, successfully taking the watches and several other items of value. To anyone watching from another house, if they could see past the trees, he was just an employee of the security company doing an extra check of the place. He had the uniform to prove it, thanks to a visit to the cleaners where one of the men had left several of them to be laundered.

With time on his hands before he planned to hit the other house on his to-do list, Sean decided to check out an area of the city well off the beaten track. From what he found out about it, the homes were owned by some of the real movers-and-shakers. The area was primarily forest, as he thought of it, with mansions tucked away behind high brick walls, at the ends of long driveways off two-lane paved roads.

“If nothing else,” he told Pax after parking on a pull-off on one of the roads, “we’ll get some fresh air and sunshine.”

Pax trotted along, checking out everything, occasionally pausing when he spotted a squirrel or chipmunk, and then tugging the leash, wanting to give chase—or climb a tree if the squirrel was above him.

“Lots of luck, pup,” Sean said after Pax’s third attempt. He pulled the leash, before checking the map on his phone to see where the next driveway was before walking to it. The first gate was no deterrent, since he and Pax were on foot. The second one, further up, was, as it was set in a tall brick wall. Sean eyed the box on the wall at one side of the gate. It had a keypad, obviously for the use of whoever lived in the large house he could see up ahead, and a callbox.

At the next place, he found essentially the same setup, only this time the wall was of fieldstone, and there were night-vision cameras on each corner. He suspected there were also motion detectors but he wasn’t about to scale the wall to find out. He did make note of the address, as he had at the previous house, in order to do research on the owners.

“Might be good pickings here, Pax,” Sean commented as he and the dog went farther down the road. According to his phone map, the next driveway should be half a mile from where they were—which it was. By then he was beginning to get tired of walking. Only the fact that the map said the road ended in another half mile kept him going. It began to narrow, then curved and became what appeared to be a driveway.

Interesting. This isn’t on the map. He checked the satellite view. Nothing. But then that’s probably because the trees are so dense here.

He continued walking, curious to see where the driveway led. Finally, approximately a quarter mile ahead of him, he saw a large house.

And no walls to protect it. He frowned, carefully scanning the trees. I don’t believe it’s way out here and unprotected. That means there must be motion sensors at the edge of the property, or even inside the tree line.

“Pax, heel,” he said softly. The dog immediately did as ordered. Then Sean began walking the perimeter of the grounds, staying well back in the trees. Nothing happened. No alarms went off, no lights flashed, but he had the distinct feeling whoever owned the house probably knew he was there. Instinct? Yes. And his instincts were rarely wrong. He returned to the driveway after circling the house. Tonight, I’m doing recon. But for now, it’s time to get back to the apartment and do some intensive research.

* * * *

“Jonah, we may have a problem,” Ken said.

Jonah turned from the computer he was using in the operations room to look at Ken. “Of what sort?”

Ken beckoned him over, pointing to the monitor. “This is the third time in the last two days someone has been checking out the house. Whoever it is, he’s smart and knows what he’s doing. He’s obviously aware we must have a security setup along the edge of the grounds. He doesn’t know there’s more to it than what he’d expect.” Ken tapped a moving blip on the screen. It was red, with a blue halo around it.

“Have you been able to get any shots of whoever it is?”

“Nope. He’s staying just out of camera range, as if he knows they must be there somewhere. The first time I picked up on him, he had an animal, presumably a dog, with him. But not since then.”

“Doing recon for a burglary, or something more?” Jonah asked pensively. “The Feldman mansion was robbed three nights ago.”

“Yeah, I saw that on the news.”

“According to my contacts, the MO closely resembled burglaries that have been happening with some regularity across the country. If it is the same man, he settles in a city, hits three or four homes belonging to wealthy families, and then moves on.”

“No clue who he is?”

“Not that I’ve heard, and I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground. Whoever he is, he’s damned good.”

Ken chortled. “Meaning you’d like to get your hands on him for C21.”

“That thought had crossed my mind, and Alistair’s. Of course the chances the man outside at the moment is him are probably one in a hundred. Still…” Jonah watched as the blip moved around the screen.

“We wait and see if he decides to break in.”

“Yes.”