Hot Mahogany

19

Stone drove into town to the Washington Supply and walked around, filling Holly’s order. He picked up a small screwdriver set, needle-nose pliers, wire cutters, electrical tape, a small roll of wire, an electrical meter, some alligator clips, two tiny flashlights and lithium batteries and, of course, a roll of duct tape. He also bought her a nylon tool belt with a pouch, and three pairs of paper socks that workmen wore over their boots to keep from tracking up nice houses. As an afterthought, he grabbed a box of latex gloves, then he went to the cashier’s counter.

“Stocking up, huh, Mr. Barrington?” the man at the counter asked.

“Yeah, just a few things for around the house, do a few repairs.” He charged the goods to his account and left. Half an hour later, he turned off the dirt road and through the opened gate onto an almost grown-over lane. It was getting dark, and he switched off his lights to avoid being seen from the house. The lane ended in a little clearing, perhaps a hundred yards from the house. He stuffed all his purchases into the tool belt and its pouch, then, carrying the socks and the latex gloves, he followed Holly’s and Barton’s tracks through some fairly tall grass until he found them behind the barn.

“Hey,” Holly whispered. “Did you get absolutely everything?”

“Of course. That and a bit more.” He handed her the tool belt and issued everybody latex gloves and paper socks. “Wait until we’re inside the house before you put on the socks over your shoes,” he reminded them.

A vehicle door slammed, and they peeked around a corner of the barn.

“The painters are packing up,” Holly said.

“Hey, Randy!” somebody yelled.

A door opened at the caretaker’s house, and a man stepped out. “Yeah?”

“We’re done for the day; you can lock up and do the security thing.”

“Okay, as soon as I finish dinner. See you guys on Monday.” He went back inside and closed the door. The van drove away.

“Holy shit,” Holly said. “The house is wide open, and the alarm hasn’t been set. Let’s go!”

“I’ll wait here,” Stone said.

“Oh, come on. I don’t even have to do the burglary thing.”

“Oh, all right.” He followed along behind Holly and Barton, keeping low behind the stone wall. All the lights in the caretaker’s house seemed to be on, and there were one or two, probably night-lights, on in the big house. Holly led them straight to the back door, and they simply opened it and walked inside. They were in a mudroom, and half a dozen pairs of gumboots were lined up against the wall under a row of pegs holding various outerwear.

“Okay, socks and gloves on,” Holly said, and they all slipped the paper things over their shoes and pulled on the latex gloves. “There’s the security box,” Holly said, pointing, “and I’ll bet the backup batteries are in that cabinet below. You lead the way, Barton; you’ve been here before.”

Barton led them through the mudroom into the butler’s pantry, then through the kitchen and into the dining room.

“Hey, some table,” Stone said, as they walked through.

“Sheraton. It seats sixteen,” Barton said. “I authenticated the chairs for him.”

They continued into the living room. Practically everything was covered in painters’ drop cloths. The pictures had been removed from the walls, stacked along one side of the room and covered. Barton was looking under drop cloths, identifying furniture.

“There’s nothing big enough in here to be the secretary,” Stone said, looking around.

“It’s in two pieces,” Barton said, “desk and bookcase, which rests on top of the desk. It will look smaller under a cloth.”

The three of them spread out in the very large living room and began looking under drop cloths.

“Not here,” Barton said finally. “Let’s try the study.” He led the way into the next room. It was completely dark outside now, but a rising moon offered some light. Holly gave him one of the little flashlights.

They repeated the process from the previous room. “Not here,” Barton said.

“But look at that,” Stone said, pointing.

“What?” Holly said. “I don’t see anything.”

“Exactly. It’s an empty space in a room otherwise stuffed with furniture. What goes there?”

“The secretary,” Holly said.

“It’s the right size and the right place in the room for it,” Barton said. “It’s where I’d put it.”

Then, from the back of the house, they heard a noise.

“Back door,” Holly said.

They froze in their tracks, then a few seconds later tiny lights began to flash around the corners of the ceiling, and a steady beeping, every second, started. They heard the back door slam.

“The security system is booting up,” Holly said. “We’ve got maybe thirty seconds to get out of the house. Let’s go!!”

She ran out of the study, through the living room and into the dining room. More tiny lights were flashing. “Cameras and motion detectors,” she said. “Hurry!”

They made it to the mudroom and Holly tried the back door. Locked. She reached into her tool kit and began fiddling with the door.

“The thirty seconds has to be up,” Stone said.

“If we’re lucky, it’s set for sixty instead,” Holly replied.

The door came open, they all stepped outside and Holly closed the door behind them. “Run!” she said.

The three of them sprinted back along the path they had come, and as they ducked behind the stone wall, spotlights came on around the eaves of the house, and there were three short sharp blasts from a loud horn.

They huddled behind the wall, panting.

“That noise means the system is now fully armed,” Holly said. “Another second and the exterior motion detectors would have caught us.”

“Why didn’t you disarm the system as soon as we were inside?” Stone asked, panting.

“How could I know the caretaker is a fast eater?” she replied.

“Anyway, it’s lucky I didn’t, or he would have found the system inop and called the cops.”

“Well,” Barton said, “that’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

“Stone, lead the way to the car,” Holly said, handing him a flashlight. “And don’t use that any more than you have to.”

Half an hour later they were back on the main highway, headed for Barton’s house.

“He doesn’t have the secretary,” Barton said. “It’s not in the house.”

“Maybe it’s upstairs in a bedroom,” Stone said.

“No, he’d never put it there; he’d want it on display, for all to see.”

“Well,” Holly said, “he’s made a space for it. My guess is it’ll be here as soon as the painting’s done.”

“It could still be in New York,” Stone said.

“Probably is,” Barton agreed. “There’s nowhere around here he could store it without causing comment.”

“Barton,” Stone said, “we could just wait for his paint to dry, wait for him to move it up here, then report it stolen, get a search warrant and go get the thing.”

“No,” Barton said. “If the police get into this and it makes the press – and it will – then everything will be ruined.”

Stone wondered what he meant by everything.