Chapter 78

 

The bedside clock read 2:10 when Pen finally switched off the light and closed her eyes. After Amber’s discovery of the LeBlanc estate, excitement had roared through the room like a tsunami. Ideas coalesced into plans, plans required supplies, shopping lists were made.

While Gracie and Sandy wrote lists covering every foreseen eventuality, Amber browsed for more information on the Golden Tigers. Their technique, it seemed, involved storming large jewelry stores and high-end boutiques and sweeping up as much as they could in a quick haul. But there were a few individual victims as well. A woman, whose diamond ring had been in the family five generations, had been held at gunpoint and the ring taken when she happened to be standing in one of the targeted shops; a Fabergé egg from a private collection was suspected to be in the hands of the notorious thieves after being taken in a home burglary. The case sounded suspiciously like the situation with Penelope’s necklace.

“If we get in there and find your necklace,” Amber told Pen, “I want to look for these other things too. What these guys are doing—hurting old people—it’s just wrong.” She looked up at Pen. “Sorry, not saying you’re old or anything.”

Pen chuckled. “I suppose I am, to your generation. But that’s okay. We seniors know a few things too.” She flexed a muscle to show she wasn’t exactly decrepit.

As research for one of her books, she’d met with a locksmith and learned the fine art of picking a variety of locks. Assuming the thieves would not leave a fortune alone in a building without such measures, she’d surprised the group by describing exactly what types of lock picks she would need. Now, she smiled to herself and rolled over to sleep a few hours.

By noon they’d begun their quest. First, a rental car as it became apparent public transportation had its limits. As Amber pointed out, there was no cool way to make a hasty escape on a bus.

Gracie drove the little four-seat Peugeot, first on a drive-by around the property where they discovered the perimeter walls to be much more formidable than shown from the aerial map. They casually cruised up the winding road, just a group of ladies out for the day, until they came to a heavy steel gate. A thuggish man wearing a pistol stepped out of the guardhouse and scowled.

“Oh, like, wow. Sorry! We thought this was, like, the way to the beach,” Amber called out in her best ditzy-girl imitation.

She stuck her head back inside and Gracie did a quick turn-around.

“So, no approaching from the front, I suppose,” Sandy said in a shaky voice.

“At least we learned that they’ve got a guy on duty there,” Amber said, staring at her laptop.

“I assume an armed guard isn’t the norm,” Pen said beside her. “Did you notice the keypad and intercom? And the guard house was not well maintained. I don’t think someone is normally there. Drivers come up, state their name, or enter a code.”

“So maybe the estate’s owner is away and these thieves have commandeered use of the place?”

“Or they know someone. I suppose we can’t very well go back and ask.”

“Right,” said Amber. “We have to go with what we can learn. Right now, our clues have to come from this photo.”