“If I tell you, then I get to kiss you,”
From the T-shirt collection of Anna Collins
I’d been surprised to get a text from Shane so soon after our D&D game, and even more surprised to find her sitting at the café with Darius. It was the kind of place that had one big, long farmhouse table in the middle, with a few four-top tables scattered around. They were seated across from each other at one end of the big table, and Shane waved me over to sit next to her.
“Hey,” she said cheerily, “sit here. We’re just finishing up and then let’s order.”
Darius didn’t say anything, he just smiled.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I don’t want to interrupt.”
“I’m sure,” Shane said, and there was a definite finality to her tone.
I sat on the bench next to her, and she turned back to Darius. “So tell me again what, exactly, to update on the Gray file before I close it?”
My attention sharpened to a razor’s edge as he answered. “As I said, McCallum added two more exterior cameras to the south side of the house – one at the door, and one aimed at the small balcony on the second floor. He also changed the cameras in the second floor hall to a thermal surveillance system and added an additional one on the landing near the balcony window.”
I stared at Darius in shock. What the hell was he doing?
“Interestingly,” he continued, ignoring my eyeballs, which had doubled in size, “the motion sensors I originally set into the bannister of the main staircase, two inches above every third step, beginning with the first one and continuing up to the top floor, have not been replaced or augmented with cameras. They remain tied to the off-site alarm system, as do all the ground floor windows and doors.”
He was giving me the security plans to Gray’s mansion, disguised as an update to a closed client file, which allowed him to keep his professional integrity and still help me. I could have leapt across the table and kissed him, except I wasn’t actually sure if it would be welcome or for that matter, if my eyeballs, which were still inflated like balloons, could survive the impact.
Neither Shane nor Darius looked at me, which was for plausible deniability I was sure, but I couldn’t stop looking at Darius, whose handsomeness had just increased by an exponential of google to the bazillionth power.
“McCallum also replaced the book pull mechanism that opened the panic room door. I was unable to determine the exact placement of the new mechanism, but my best estimation is that it’s a push button set somewhere on the right side of the shelving unit at approximately waist to shoulder height. The new locking mechanism also seems to be made of inferior grade metal, as the weight load is insufficiently supported for silence.”
Shane was taking notes in a small composition notebook, and when he paused to take a sip of his water, she looked up. “What about inside the panic room?” she asked innocently.
“The frame, which we wired to the wall and also attached to the off-site alarm system, is unchanged and remains exactly as it was when the paintings were cut from their stretcher. The computer shows the feeds of the three extra cameras and the new thermals, and the stored feeds show a record of having been copied to an external drive.”
Crap. And … wow. He even checked to see if the recording of Colette’s tan-line-free booty was still there and/or had been copied. He truly was a most noble prince.
“Finally, and anecdotally, Sterling Gray seems to be quite fixated on the return of the missing painting, possibly even dangerously so.” And with that remarkable statement, Darius stood to leave and shot me a final, parting glance that had as much warning as warmth in it.
I quickly stood up too. “I was wondering,” I said pointedly to Shane, “if we could possibly reschedule lunch?”
She looked from me to Darius with a sly smile. “Of course. You have my number. Call me anytime.”
I smiled brightly, including Darius in my gaze. “I definitely will. Thank you for inviting me. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine.”
I gave Shane an impulsive hug and whispered “Thank you” in her ear before turning to Darius. “I’m headed downtown. Can I give you a ride?”
“A ride?” A smile inched its way across his face. “You have a horse?”