Читать книгу Five-minute Mysteries 5 - Ken Weber - Страница 13
Оглавление7. Getting to the Front Door
“That’s the only way in. Through the gate there.”
“You sure? The wall’s not all that high.”
“Yea, but they got motion sensor beams all along the top. Random too so y’never know just where they are. Can’t go under. Over neither for that matter. Gotta go through the gate.”
“Yet there’s no live security on the gate. How come?”
“Right now it’s seven — what — seven-twenty. They’re live on the gate during the day. Just one guy but he’s off at six. Unless they got a party on at the house or something like that. Then they leave the gate open but there’s guards out here then. Otherwise on regular nights the guards patrol. Do rounds. Two of ’em — guards I mean — but they never change their round times so that’ll be easy.”
“What about a gate at the back? People with this kind of money don’t want stuff coming in the front.”
“No good. There’s two of ’em — gates I mean — but both are manual and they’re shut down at six.”
“And you can’t interrupt the perimeter system, the motion sensor?”
“Wireless. Main control’s in the house.”
“Okay, so first entry is through the gate here. I assume the keypad is under the flap on the left there?”
“No, above it. In that little hole at the end of the wall.”
“It’s called a niche. Why up so high?”
“Kids. So they can’t reach it and fool around. The others are up just as high.”
“Others. More than one keypad?”
“There’s three.” “There are three. Two in addition to this one, I assume?”
“Yea. Pull ahead a bit and y’can see the next one closer to the house.”
“There’s a hydrant just ahead. Why do you think I parked here?”
“We’re gonna heist a couple million bucks in diamonds and you’re afraid of a parking ticket?”
“Use your head! We don’t need the attention! Besides, I don’t need to see the — ooh! Dobermans! Two — no, three of them!”
“I was going to get to that.”
“My God, they’re big! I suppose they run loose on the grounds until morning too. That could be a complication.”
“Not on a warm night. Not for me anyway. They’re somethin’ else, those dogs. I mean, talk about training. They don’t bark!”
“Probably had their larynxes surgically removed. I’ve heard of that.” “No, no, nothin’ like that! They’re really trained not to bark.
It’s for the neighbors, the noise thing. And they don’t bite neither!”
“Either. And next you’re going to tell me they play chess in their down time.”
“No, no! They grab onto your clothes and hold on till the handler comes. Like, one of the guards.”
“What then? They sign a release?”
“You don’t get it! They bite somebody it’s a big hassle for the owners. Some swell over on another street — he got sued big time.”
“Well, if nothing else you appear to have integrated yourself into the neighborhood effectively. At least into the gossip.”
“Hey, nobody sees me no more. Like you said, become like part of the whatsit.”
“Vegetation.”
“Yea, part of the vegetation. Worked too. That’s how I got the code for the keypads.”
“Keypads? All three?”
“Yea. Talk about dumb. These people, they put in all this high price security and they got guards full time ... ”
“And dogs that play chess ... ”
“Whatever. And then they code all the pads the same! So’s nobody’s got to remember three different codes!”
“And you’re sure you have the codes, or rather, the code, singular?”
“No sweat. Like, that keypad you don’t want to see — your parking ticket keypad — it’s closer to the house on this side of the fancy landscaping. That’s where we spend most of our time, by the way, workin’ on that part. They got more cedar than Yellowstone in there. Anyways, this pad controls the security around the house itself. More motion sensors, broken window detectors, that kinda stuff. Wireless like on the wall.”
“That’s not what I asked. Do you have the code?” “One number to go. Well, really, one number to be sure. It’s a five or a six. I just gotta watch the crew chief punch it one more time and like I said, it’s no sweat. I can almost stand right beside him now when he puts it in. Part of the ve ... vegetation.”
“The third keypad ... it must be at the main door. You sure it has the same code as the others?”
“Well ... yea, I see where you’re comin’ from. They don’t exactly invite us into the house for tea but I seen one of the inside staff use it just yesterday, and it’s the same.”
“It better be, or the whole operation stops at the door.”
“There’s, uh, one thing. Don’t mind me askin’ but they gotta have big time security inside. How’re you gonna ...?”
“Not your concern. Your job is to get us to the front door.”
“Count on it. I suppose you wanna wait for a warm night?”
“Naturally.”
Why do the jewel thieves want to wait for a warm night?
