Sean rubbed the kinks out of his neck, slapped himself a few times in the face to come fully awake, and then leaned back against the seat. “Half of me says we’re idiots for not doing exactly that.”
“And the other half?”
“I haven’t figured the other half out yet.”
“Here he comes.”
They both slid down in their seats as Jenkins’s garage door rolled up and his car backed out. He passed by them and headed out of the neighborhood.
“Hey, you have your pick gun?” Sean asked.
“I have a pocket, so I have my pick gun.”
“Hit the house, see what you can find. I’ll tail Jenkins and then we’ll hook back up.”
“Okay, but how do I get back?”
“Call a cab.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“And don’t get caught. Breaking and entering is very bad. It’s a felony, in fact.”
Michelle climbed out of the Land Cruiser and watched for a moment as Sean sped off in pursuit of the other vehicle. She looked both ways and was pleased that the morning was gloomy and ill lit, with even tendrils of fog drifting through the trees that were spaced in between the houses. She walked up to the front stoop of Jenkins’s house and knocked, just in case anyone was watching her.
She gazed through one of the side windows next to the door and saw the alarm pad on an interior wall. It was blinking red, which meant it was engaged.
It can never be easy, can it?
She slipped around the back, keeping to the shadows thrown by the house.
Because of the alarm system the front and rear doors were out. Her pick gun was useless.
That left one alternative.
She eyed a small window that was reachable by the rear deck.
Bathroom, she deduced.
She looked behind her. No homes here. There were just stands of trees dense enough to provide good cover.
Her knife made short work of the window lock. She slid it open, praying that the windows weren’t wired to the alarm system, and clambered inside, dropping quietly to the floor next to the toilet. She closed the window behind her and went to the doorway, peering out. She eyed the ceiling and the corners of the hallway, looking for motion detectors.
Seeing none, she moved carefully out into the hall. She froze when she heard scurrying feet.
The little dog scooted around the corner and came to a stop in front of her, yapping. Then it rolled over onto its belly and she knelt down to scratch its stomach.
“Okay, little guy, want to tell me where all the deep, dark secrets are hidden?”
She quickly searched the rooms on the main level and found nothing.
It was on her search of the top floor that she found Jenkins’s home office.
It was small, with a desk and chair and a shelf filled with books, mostly on planes and FAA requirements.
An Apple computer sat on the desk. She sat and hit some keys but a password was required and she didn’t have one. She tried half a dozen based on Jenkins’s birth date and other personal data, which she had gotten from the DMV records. None of them worked, which didn’t surprise her.
She tapped her fingers on the desktop. If she had her truck she could just sneak the whole computer out and let Edgar break into it. But she couldn’t walk down the street with a twenty-four-inch Apple computer under her arm and hail a cab.