Teddy pulled up in front of his house, or what was left of it. He parked on the street and walked up the drive, just an unfortunate owner inspecting the damage.
A crime-scene ribbon was strung in front of the rubble, due to the fact that the police were considering it arson. Teddy stepped over it and went up to the stoop. The front door was gone, indeed, as was most of the front wall. The remnants were no longer smoldering. There was no smoke. Except for the danger of falling debris or a floor cave-in, it was relatively safe.
Teddy walked through what had been the living room. Nothing remained. He checked where his office had been. His computer had melted from the heat. There was no hard drive for him to destroy.
Teddy was in luck. The firemen had managed to save part of an interior wall. It was worthless in itself, but it blocked the view from the street. Behind it was the real reason Teddy had come. The wall would protect him while he inspected it.
Teddy stepped around the corner to see if his incredibly expensive, state-of-the-art safe was really fireproof.
It was. The massive floor safe was covered with ashes and debris, but the titanium underneath had not dented, blistered, or in any other way succumbed to the heat.
Teddy crouched down out of sight from the street and went to work on the combination. The dial stuck a little, but the tumblers clicked. Teddy took a breath, and swung the door open.
The safe had stood up well. The Ziploc bags containing his sets of credentials had not melted. The bills in his cash supply were still crisp. The wigs and disguises and makeup kit appeared to be fine, too.
But all of that was incidental. Teddy’s eyes were immediately drawn to the gun that had killed Ace Vargas. It was separate from his other weapons in its own evidence bag. He snatched it up and examined it. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was fine.
Teddy loaded the gun into the backpack he’d worn for that purpose. He put the bills and credentials in, too. He packed the wigs and disguises into trash bags he’d brought along in the backpack, and grabbed the makeup kit. He locked the safe, just in case he was interrupted and not able to get back, and toted everything to the car.
No neighbor came out to commiserate with him on the loss of his house, which was damn lucky, as he was dressed as Mark Weldon and had no right to be there.
Teddy locked everything in the trunk. He grabbed an empty backpack and a suitcase and hurried back to the safe. It opened easily—no sure thing when it stuck slightly once.
He’d cleaned out everything but the weapons, of which there were many. There was the sniper rifle he’d designed himself, with the silencer and the scope. It had its own case, but other things didn’t. They included a wide variety of handguns, some with silencers, and some designed to be as noisy as possible. Some were huge. Some held only two shots but could fit in the palm of your hand.
Teddy had brought towels to wrap the hardware in. He filled the suitcase and the backpack.
There were still a number of burglar tools remaining, such as crowbars and wire cutters, but nothing that related directly to crime. Teddy grabbed the case with the sniper rifle, locked the safe, and toted the weapons back to the car.
He locked his arsenal in the trunk and exhaled in relief.
And looked around.
Teddy had another bag in his trunk that would hold the burglar tools, but entering the house a third time would be pushing it. He had everything crucial. He should drive away, thanking his lucky stars. But in the back of his mind he had a vision of a fire inspector and the head of the arson squad forcing him to open the safe in their presence, and then demanding to know why he had such a massive security device just to protect a few simple tools. Far better they find nothing to discuss.
Teddy grabbed the bag and hotfooted it back to the house. The lock stuck this time, wouldn’t you know it, but he got it open and stashed the tools in his bag.
Teddy locked the safe and made a last perilous journey from the house to the car.
As he drove away from the house, waves of relief flooded over him. He had retrieved everything that had been in the safe. And now he had no reason to go back.