by Don Bruns
I turned and looked at James. “There’s a Chinese group involved.”
“And what does that have to do with stepping up the timetable on codes?”
“Damned if I know.”
James stayed over my shoulder, and I could almost feel his eyes boring into Conroy’s computer screen. “How do you see this, Skip?”
“It seems that the Department of Defense is going to do the same thing Synco Systems is doing with our security system. Right now, while we’re installing the system, things are a little loose. As soon as we activate the controls and Synco changes all the codes, it will be very hard to get into this facility.” I sat back in the chair, rereading the first page.
“And when Synco Systems gets the codes for the Defense Department computer system, things will be a little loose over at the DOD.” James was tapping his fingers on the desk again. “Then, when Synco finishes the install, the department will change all the codes and it will be next to impossible to break into their computer system, right?”
“Right.”
“We waltzed in here tonight because things are loose.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Only temporarily, James. But you’re right. They’re very loose.”
“So someone could conceivably waltz into the Defense Department during that lapse between security systems.”
“They could. Their computer system will be vulnerable.”
“How about Feng? Chen?”
“You think—”
I jumped when I heard the sharp rap on the door.
“What?”
James bolted from behind the desk and had the door open in two seconds.
“A car pulled up. Yellow Lotus or something very fancy.” Em’s eyes were opened wide and she was short of breath.
“It’s Conroy. What the hell is he doing here at this hour of the morning?”
“What the hell are we doing here?”
“Em, is he coming in?”
“Skip, I don’t think he pulled into the lot to stargaze.” I hit the shutdown button and watched the flickering light go dark. This time I was thankful for the blackout.
“Where do we go, amigo?”
I grabbed my laptop, and the three of us walked out of the office, carefully closing the door behind us.
“The rear hallway, behind the offices. It leads to an emergency exit. We can hide back there.”
“If he—”
“He won’t. There’s no reason for him to go back there.” My heart was racing as I led the way.
“If it’s an exit, why don’t we—”
“Because I don’t have the code.”
Em put her hand on my arm. “What happens if we just push it open and walk out? Do you need a code to exit?”
I thought about it for a second. “I don’t know. But if we try that,” I glanced over my shoulder as we hustled toward the rear of the building, no sign yet of anyone entering the building, “there’s a good chance that an alarm would go off.”
“We don’t need that to happen on top of everything else.” James shook his head.
“Right here. He’ll never come back this far.”
“You’re sure?”
“Won’t happen.”
We were quiet, the only noise that I could hear was that of the air-conditioning system and our heavy breathing.
Then came the footsteps, slapping on the tile floor. More than one person. And laughter. A woman’s high-pitched giggle.
In a whisper James said, “Sarah’s with him.”
I considered the possibilities. Conroy had forgotten something from his office and Sarah had been with him when he remembered. Or maybe they had a room here. Maybe one of the offices I hadn’t seen yet. A love nest. At this level of money and power, anything was possible.
Their muffled conversation echoed as they entered the work area. And then as if someone flipped a switch, their voices were crystal clear.
“So I had the one kid in here tonight.” Conroy’s voice. “That smoke detector they put in my office went off for no reason. Scared the crap out of me. Thing must have had a short in it or something. It wasn’t his fault, but I chewed his ass out anyway. This whole project has got me on edge.”
I waited for a response, but no one else spoke. Maybe he was on his cell phone, telling someone else the story.
He started again. “If DOD hadn’t demanded the system be updated, we wouldn’t have to worry about these bozos. They’re idiots. The other kid runs into the parking lot thinking he’s got a bomb in his hands? What was with that?”
Then the female voice. “They’ll be out of here in two days. And when this all comes down, they’ll be part of the confusion. They won’t have a clue, but they’ll be up to their necks in this. Trust me. This will work.”
James frowned, looking at me as we pressed our backs to the wall. He shook his head back and forth, and I knew exactly what he was getting at. Conroy wasn’t with Sarah. The woman’s voice belonged to his wife, Carol Conroy.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“I have a bad feeling about those two.”
“If you hadn’t had Feng put the GPS unit under their truck, nothing would have happened.”
The room was cool, but there was a cold sweat on my forehead. I wiped it with my hand, and listened intently to the movement of the voices. I was guessing they were now in Conroy’s office with the door open. Maybe only twenty feet from where we stood, but around the corner and inside the office. We could still make out the conversation, but it was more distant now.
“He didn’t trust them.”
“He didn’t trust me either. Trying to put a GPS on my car in the middle of Miami.” She laughed again. “He almost got caught.”
“Yeah. And what were you doing with the kid? At some dive like the Red Derby?”
“Setting him up, Sandy. I told you. When it all shakes out, you’re going to be very pleased. Just get the codes, get the passwords, and get out of the way.”
“Setting him up?”
“I don’t know how to say this any other way. Get out of the way and just do your job. Understood? After everything you’ve done, I don’t think I have to explain myself to you.”
Silence. I figured they walked out of hearing range. Then Conroy spoke up. “You’ve got it all worked out with Chen and his group?”
“Honey, stay out of the way.”
“Your dad is not going to go down easy.”
“My father isn’t going to know what hit him.”
“Carol, tell me there won’t be anymore like Ralph Walters or Tony Quatman.”
Everything was still, and I wiped my brow again. Em just stood there, bathed in the eerie security lights, and James was chewing on his bottom lip.
“There’s over seventy-five million dollars at stake here, Sandy. I’m not promising anything.”
I saw James whip his head around and stare in my direction. Almost as if he thought I knew about the money. I’d never in my life heard figures like that being tossed around. $75,000,000?
“Babe, I’ve got this feeling that the two kids—” He paused, and I knew he was talking about James and me. “Those two punks are keeping an eye on me.”
“You’re imagining things.” She was quick with the comeback. Almost too quick.
“Am I?”
“They’re not bright enough to keep an eye on anybody. And after what happened to them tonight, I don’t think they’re going to give us any trouble.”
“What happened?”
“There was a little warning.”
“Oh, man. What kind of warning?”
“Trust me, they’re going to go about their business very quietly from this point on. They’ll finish the installation, and we won’t hear from them again. When the entire plan unfolds, they’ll appear to be right in the thick of it. Just drop it, okay? All I want you to worry about is getting those damned codes. I trust you haven’t told anyone anything they didn’t need to know?”
“For your eyes only kind of
stuff, yeah. Feng is the only one, and since he’s our main contact—”
“And sweet little Sarah? She’s none the wiser?”
Now the voices were traveling, more and more distant and muffled as if they were headed for the exit.
“She knows there’s a bonus and that I’m taking her away from all of this.”
“You were a fool to ever get involved.”
“We’ve been through this—”
“I know. But I’m not going to forget that it happened. I will never forgive you for that. Never. Regardless, your Sarah will be the easiest one to take a fall. I wish I could—I wish we could be here to see it.”
I was straining to hear their words.
“The damndest part of this is we’re ready to start making the software, and we can have it installed within two weeks. Two weeks, Carol. If it wasn’t for Jason Riley and the government watchdogs, we never would have had to put in this useless security system. By the time they actually activate it, we won’t even need it.”
“We never needed it. But the two boys play right into our strategy. I told you, don’t worry about it.”
Just before we lost their conversation altogether I heard Conroy say, “If Sarah is the easiest one to take down, who’s the second easiest to take a fall?”
Carol Conroy’s harsh laugh rolled down the hallway.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
We waited a good two minutes. If they were still in the building there was no sign of it. “I think we can give the all-clear sign.”
“Jesus.”
“Being the religious man that you are, James, you can say a prayer of thanks that we didn’t get caught.”
“The Lord’s will, Skip. It was the Lord’s will.” This time I think he meant it, and I wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Obviously, you guys know a whole lot more about this than you’ve told me.” Em was miffed. Big time. “Maybe we should share a little bit more.”
She’s a turn-on even when she’s mad. None of us spoke again until we were in the truck and rolling home.
“I’m not sure we know enough to piece it all together.” James kept his eyes straight ahead, staring into the inky blackness as the potholes in the asphalt jolted our truck’s suspension system, shaking us down to our molars.
“Em, we really don’t know what’s going on.”
“Well, I can tell you something about that conversation back there. Carol Conroy is high maintenance and a total control freak. What a bitch.” Em could certainly call them.
We bounced out of a hole or crack and it felt like the bottom had dropped from the truck.
“I don’t want to believe that Carol Conroy orchestrated the death of Walters, but Sandy hinted that—”
“James. There were a lot of things I don’t want to believe about that conversation. They’re going to try to surprise her father—”
“And not in a good way.”
“They’re going to take down Sarah.”
“And somehow implicate us? And we’re still not sure what we’re going to be implicated in.” I needed a beer. Or a deep sleep.
“You keep saying they.” Em rested her hand gently on my thigh. “Skip, it’s not they.”
James gave her a brief look, a frown visible by the dashboard lights. “There were two of them in the building, Em. I was there.”
“There were two of them James, but you and I must have heard two different conversations.”
“Okay,” he gripped the steering wheel, “you tell me your version.”
“Sandy Conroy said ‘those two punks are keeping an eye on me.’”
How were we ever going to forget that statement?
“So far we heard the same conversation.”
“And Carol Conroy responded with ‘You’re imagining things. They’re not bright enough to keep an eye on anyone.’”
“A slam. We heard it, Em.”
“Don’t you get it James? Skip? She’s the one who asked you to spy on him. And then she gives him that answer?”
“And your point is?”
“She’s telling him that you’re not bright enough to pull it off. She jumped right in and said it could never happen. After she knew it had already happened. She has the proof. She has the transcript you took off the computer card.”
“You’re right.” James was shaking his head up and down.
“Why would she say that? Why wouldn’t she tell him that you had put up the bogus smoke detector? I don’t think they are going to take down Sarah. They are not going to surprise her father. They are not going to involve you guys.”
“She said they were. Why would she say that?”
“She lied to him, Skip. Don’t you get it? She’s planning on pulling something off by herself. She’s going to do the dirty work. She’s not going to involve him.”
“Why not? Why not involve Sandler Conroy? The philandering husband? What’s going to happen to him? Is he going to be left out in the cold?”
“When he said ‘please tell me there won’t be anymore like Ralph Walters or Tony Quatman,’ do you remember what she said?”
I did. I’d practically memorized that short conversation. “She said she couldn’t promise that. There was seventy-five million dollars at stake.”
“I definitely remember the seventy-five million dollars.” We had James’s attention. “What could be worth that kind of money?”
“Well, if it was murder, if somebody killed Ralph Walters or maybe Tony Quatman, too, the next person to be murdered isn’t going to be Carol Conroy.”
James braked for the stoplight. At this hour of the morning, there was no one except us on the street, and with our bad brakes he should have just coasted through the intersection. The screech of brakes grinding metal on metal sent shivers through my body.
“The whole reason we’re involved in this spy thing is because Carol Conroy is concerned for her life.” She’d told me that at the Red Derby.
“That’s what she told you. But think about the conversation you just heard.”
Damn. Em was right. After what we’d heard tonight, it all made perfect sense. “It’s going to be Sandy Conroy. That’s what you’re getting at isn’t it? She’s setting him up to be killed. It has to be him. He knows too much.”
“My guess.” There was a self–satisfied tone in her voice. Almost like a vocal smirk.
“Too much about what?” James pulled into our parking lot and his headlights hit the plywood window covers of our apartment. “What information does Conroy have? We don’t have a clue, do we?”
“It has to do with codes and passwords. It has to do with Feng and Chen. It has to do with Walters and Conroy and Sarah and Carol Conroy. That’s what it’s about.” I was suddenly very tired, and very pissed off. This entire day seemed like a really bad dream.
“Want to spend what’s left of the night together?” I put my arm around her, half hoping she’d say yes, and half hoping she’d say no.
Em gave me a brief hug, then pushed off. “No offense, but this isn’t the safest place to be right now. I think I’ll just drive home.”
I totally understood. I wasn’t sure even James and I should be sleeping here tonight. Somewhere nearby there was a shooter on the loose. “Be careful.” I kissed her.
“You be careful.”
“We’ll be fine.” Bluff and bravado. Always trying to be a little more macho than I really felt.
“Skip,” she leaned in again and gave me one more tight hug, “I’m serious. Watch yourself because I seriously think that lady may be planning on taking care of you and James, too.”
She didn’t have to explain what taking care of meant.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“We’ll clean up the broken glass in the morning, pard.”
The we would be me. Splinters of sharp-edged glass littered the cheap gray carpet and vinyl kitchen floor, and I didn’t want to think about it.
“Do you think Carol Conroy is a killer?” James opened the refrigerator.
“They’re all gone.” We’d finished the last cold beer before our little adventure. “We’re going to have to drink it warm, man.”
He reached down into the case I’d just purchased and pulled out two bottles. Pitching one to me he popped the top on his and took a long swallow. “Warm, cold, it’s still better than water.”
“What the hell was that all about tonight? It’s like we should be calling the cops, but we don’t know what to tell them. Is Carol Conroy a killer? That’s not possible.”
“Compadre, you told your girlfriend that you thought Mrs. Conroy might kill Sandy Conroy. Your girlfriend thinks Mrs. C. may be out to kill us.”
“There’s that.”
The pounding on the door made me almost drop my beer. I glanced at James and he shrugged his shoulders. Three in the morning. Nobody stops by for a social visit at three a.m. Well, in college you stopped by twenty-four hours a day. For a cigarette, a beer, or a shoulder to lean on. But in the adult world—
James pulled the door open and I half expected someone with a gun. Or a cop. Or maybe Carol Conroy. Or Em.
“Hi, guys. Sorry to bother you so late, but I couldn’t sleep and I thought I should share some information with you.” Jim Jobs, in his boxer shorts and a sleeveless undershirt, walked into our apartment.
“Watch your feet, dude.” James was looking at the floor where J.J.’s bare feet were walking through the slivers of window glass and pieces of blown-up computer.
“I saw the car.”
“You want a beer?” James stood by the cardboard case, ready to serve my beverages at this ungodly hour of the morning.
“Sure.”
“It’s warm.”
“Still better than water.”
James tossed him a bottle.
I couldn’t believe it. Better than water? “You saw what car? You mean the truck?”
“No. The car. The two guys pulled in, parked across the lot, and took four shots at your apartment. I saw it.”
It occurred to me that I’d seen a car pull in just before the shots. The one with no headlights. “Did you see what kind it was?”
