CHAPTER 91
AT ONE OF THE BRONZE-AND-BEVELED-GLASS French doors that looked out on the half-acre of patio, the fountains, and the swimming pool, Corky Laputa used the security guard?s keys to let himself into the grand drawing room.
With the fine brocade drapes, he toweled himself as dry as he could. When he began moving through the house along limestone-floored hallways, he must not leave a betraying trail that Truman might find before he found Truman.
He switched on the lights.
He had no fear of being noticed. Only three of them were afoot in a house larger than some shopping centers. They were not likely to blunder into one another by accident.
A magnificently decorated Christmas tree graced the room. He was tempted to poke around until he found the string-light switch, to see this spruce beauty in its full twinkling glory. But chaos could at times be a tough taskmaster, and he had to remain focused on the plot that had brought him here by blimp and bluster.
Crossing the enormous room, he squinched his feet back and forth in the antique Persian carpets with each step, thoroughly drying his boots.
[559] Two widely separated sets of double doors led to the north hall. Beside one of these exits, a Crestron touch-control unit was mounted flush in the wall.
He touched the dead gray screen. The panel at once came to life, presenting him with three columns of icons.
Mick Sachatone had given Corky basic instructions in its use. Mick hadn?t made him an absolute master of the system, but he knew enough to get by.
He fingered the icon for the interior motion detectors, and a list of ninety-six locations appeared. Per Ned Hokenberry, no motion detectors had been installed in bedrooms and bathrooms, or in any rooms of Charming Manheim?s third-floor suite.
At the bottom of the list was the word SCAN, which he pressed. This gave him the option of scanning for movement on the third floor, the second floor, the ground floor, the first subterranean level, and the second subterranean level.
Later he would use this feature to search for the boy. First, he needed to locate Ethan Truman and kill him.
He might have been able to snare the boy and spirit him out of the house under the security chief?s nose. He?d feel more comfortable dealing with Aelfric, however, if he knew the ex-cop was dead meat.
Any floor of the mansion was too large to fit entirely on the Crestron screen in a scale easy to read. Consequently, the eastern half of the ground level appeared first.
A single blip of light blinked, indicating Corky?s position in the grand drawing room. He wasn?t moving, but the motion detectors were in fact motion and heat detectors. Even in his insulated storm suit, he produced a sufficient heat signature to register with the sensitive sensors.
He took two sideways steps to his right.
On the screen, the Corky blip moved a tiny bit to the right, in synch with him.
When he stepped back in front of the touch-control panel, his blip moved, as well.
[560] The complex floor plan of the western half of the ground level appeared on the screen, also with only a single lonely blip blinking in all those chambers and hallways: Ethan Truman, no doubt, in the living room of his apartment.
This was where Corky had hoped and expected to find the man.
He exited the motion-detector display, went to the nearest set of double doors, and stepped quietly into the north hall.
Ahead of him lay the entrance rotunda and another spectacular Christmas tree. The residents and staff were rich with the Christmas spirit in Palazzo Rospo.
Corky wondered what exquisite holiday cookies people of this wealth enjoyed. Once he had killed Truman and secured the boy, maybe he would dare to take a few minutes to investigate the stock of baked goods in the kitchen. He might pack a tin of homemade treats to enjoy later at home.
He turned right and followed the north hall past the tea room, the intimate dining room, the grand dining room, toward the kitchen and ultimately toward the west hall where Truman waited to be killed in his apartment.