by L. B. Simon
"You sure you never did this before?" He laughed.
"Excuse me?" Her eyes widened, something akin to fear flashing in them, as her fingers froze in mid-action.
"You are a natural at this." He added reassuringly.
She refocused her attention on the task at hand, letting out a small exhale as if she had held her breath.
"Maybe I was born into the wrong social class," she offered.
"I wouldn’t say that. There are many wealthy people who enjoy a life of crime, keeping things exciting. It’s not always about the money, you know, it is often about the thrill."
She lowered the screwdriver.
"Can you remove the panel or do you need help?"
"I think I got it!" She peeked into the next space between the vents. "My God! They did not even bother to replace this panel! Is the forensic team usually this sloppy?"
"Let me see." Aidan scooted up to her side. "I don’t believe the forensics actually climbed all the way in here. There was concern about the ceiling not being strong enough to hold up the investigation team. They checked both ends of the vent and vacuumed as far as they could get in, but that was it. It must have been left by the thief, he or she was most certainly in a rush. Shine the light down there…" Putting her hand over his shoulder she directed the light where he pointed. "What the hell," he muttered.
A set of wires was running on the outside of the second vent, coming to a stop at a box further down the passage and some more wires sneaking below the metal duct.
"What is that?" Mélisande breathed, her words trembling. "I have not seen these…" She stopped abruptly.
He leaned his head back, his face inches from hers.
"I am not sure, but I think we are about to find out… You see that set of wires, they are electrical, they go through the house, feeding the fans and so on. These ones, on the other hand, are used in security systems; high-tech wiring." He struggled to maintain his focus on the strange cables rather than on her full lips.
"It is part of the vault, is it not?" She was frowning.
"Well, it shouldn’t be! Not with this type of a vault, in any case. Are any of the paintings or other valuables protected by special sensors; in the vault or out in the halls?"
"I do not think so…" Mélisande’s palms itched underneath her gloves, her breathing becoming erratic.
"Let’s go see what this is all about, shall we? You want to go first, or should I?"
"Is there a chance that whoever goes first gets electrocuted or killed in some other horrific way?" She scrutinized his face, her expression serious.
"Very unlikely…" He declared, trying to hold back his smile.
"Then I go first!" She climbed over him and into the next tunnel.
Aidan stayed put for an instant, unable to move, his head spinning and feeling like a teenager again. He wondered how he was going to keep his hands off this woman and how he will walk away from her once the job was done.
"Are you coming? Or are you waiting to see if it is really safe?" She had scooted back and was frowning at him.
"I am right behind you, boss!" Aidan grinned and followed her. They stopped when she reached the vault’s fan. "Can you see anything on your left?"
"No, nothing." She was touching the sides of the tunnel now. "Wait, I think this is moving." She pressed a spot and popped open a switch panel with several buttons. "What is this?!"
Aidan slid up next to her, examining the panel.
"Oh boy…" Aidan’s face darkened. "Let’s remove the fan to get access to the vault, and then you will spray the air until you can see the laser beams. We will see if this is what I think it is." He shifted down a bit to give them both room to work.
"Care to share your suspicions?" She began undoing the fan screws.
Aidan watched her as she worked, then directed his attention back to the mini switchboard.
"Not until I know for sure. If I am wrong, which I hope I am, you do not need to know." Aidan lifted the fan out and removed the inside grill, then Mélisande sprayed the chamber beneath them.
"Done."
He flipped the first switch, and she peered into the vault. A second later, she let out a shrill gasp.
"The laser! It’s off!" Her head snapped up and she stared at him in bewilderment. "Aidan, what is going on?" She looked like a trapped animal, her stare wild, and her body trembling.
"Calm down!" Aidan grabbed her hand. "They don’t need to know we found this! Do you understand?" She nodded. "This is a control panel. This vault was built exclusively to keep you out. It was meant to be robbed, and easily. I am sorry…"
"I am afraid to ask, but that other button, what is it for?" Tears glistened in her eyes.
Aidan heaved a sigh and flipped the other button, an audible click sounding in the vault as all the safe deposit boxes disarmed. Mélisande began sobbing loudly.
"It was this easy? If I knew this was here I would have just taken them all! All that trouble and it was as easy as the flip of a switch!" She muttered under her breath, a mask of devastation on her face, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Aidan scowled, slipped into the vault, and pulled her down after him.
Chapter 12
"What did you just say?" He ignored the dread on her face and pushed her against the wall. "You would have taken them all? You did break-in here, didn’t you? I thought it was strange how fast you found the blueprints, how easily you moved through the vent and got the panel off. You knew exactly what to do because you have done this before! That is why your alibies were so against you joining me on this venture! They knew you would give yourself away." He tried to pry down the anger that choked him.
"It is not what you think!" Mélisande pleaded. "You must listen to me!" She reached to touch his face, but Aidan stepped away from her.
"You had me fooled, Mademoiselle!" Aidan’s words faltered. "You are really good; you know that?" He shook his head, his jaw tightening, furious at himself.
"Will you not listen to me?" She inquired, her face drawn, but her eyes were full of pain. "I have not lied to you; I have just not told you everything…" She stepped forward.
"Listen to you? I heard everything you have been saying and I let you blind me," he stepped away, "so, no, I will not listen to you anymore. You had manipulated me enough."
"Manipulated you?" She gasped as if she had been struck. "Is that what you think of me? That I am a conniving and manipulative…" She blinked, took a deep breath, and hardened her face. "Pardon me, I shall get out of your way!" She hurried to the vault door, going for the panic button, wanting to get as far as she could from the thief.
"Stop!" Aidan felt all the fight leaving him. He ran his fingers through his hair, as he considered all he had seen and heard. "If you do that, and you are telling the truth, whoever is behind this will know that the cat is out of the bag." He grabbed her arm, pulling her closer to him. "Tell me the truth, did you steal the jewels?"
She stared up at him, unblinking.
"I took only a bracelet. I wanted to take a pair of earrings too, but François did not let me. When I left, everything else was still here." She crossed her heart. "Je vous le jure! I swear I did not do this! Question him, he was here with me. Why rob myself? It is ridiculous!" She insisted, sincerity written over her features.
"You admit taking the one piece… You could have taken all of them."
"They will be all mine upon my marriage. I just wanted the one thing I loved the most of all these jewelry. My father never allowed me to wear it. I had to take it…" She turned away from him. "You do not have to believe me; God knows the truth and that is all that matters."
"So why not marry your fiancé and get this charade over with?"
"Because things are more complicated than they seem." She wiped her cheeks, trying to put a brave face on, and smeared the camouflage paint in the process.
"Indeed, they are," he said. "Okay, back up the vent. We flip the switches, you go back down and shut off the laser as we planned
originally. Get yourself under control. No one can know that we found the switch box, do you understand?"
"You believe me then?" She brightened with sudden hope.
"I don’t know," he admitted reluctantly. "You did have two men at your party who had no business being there. And that box… that should not be there either…" He studied her again for a long moment, torn between wanting to believe her and not trusting her at all. "Up you go!" He heaved her back into the vent.
When they were ready, Mélisande added more spray to see the laser and Aidan lowered her into the middle of the beams.
She tried to get to the ground carefully, but she just couldn’t focus and within seconds she brushed up against a laser, triggering the alarm. The loud, ear piercing wail filled the room and Aidan jumped in, next to her. He pulled out a package of earplugs from their pouches and motioned for her to put them in her ears. Her eyes implored his forgiveness, but he just gestured dismissively.
He indicated with his index the lever that would disarm the laser located by the vault entrance, and she went to switch it off, while he pulled out a small gadget from his bag. He aimed it at one of the safe deposit boxes and pressed a button, surveying his watch as the wireless code breaker worked on identifying the individual code and disarming the lock. It took almost one minute.
He met her gaze and indicated his wrist, then the boxes, moved his fingers as if punching in the numbers and then pointed at her. She went up to one of the keypads and disengaged it within seconds. He then motioned to his ears; she said she had tried to steal two items, then she should be able to open two boxes and she did. Aidan walked up to the boxes and made a mental note of their identification numbers and closed them back. It seemed that she was telling the truth.
He doubted she could remember all the codes, there were way too many and if she had used the flip switch there would have been no need for her to remember any numbers at all. She seemed genuinely distraught by the discovery, but Aidan wasn’t sure if he could trust her, or any other woman after what had happened with Gia… Still, could anyone be this good an actor?
This time, more gently, he eased her up into the vent and they made their way out of the vault. Mélisande waited as Aidan leaned the discarded panel back against the vent, then found two screws that had fallen during the real robbery and fastened the panel with them.
Back in the staircase, Mélisande avoided his gaze as he joined her on the landing and replaced the vent cover. He glanced at the door behind her and pulled out his earplugs; she did the same. The alarm could be heard here too, but not so loudly. He scrutinized her again for a very long moment; removed one glove and turned her face his way, forcing her to look at him.
"You sure got yourself into a pickle!" He leaned close to her and whispered into her ear. She nodded, a sob escaping her lips. "Don’t you dare cry!" He warned. "Your friends tried to stop you from doing something foolish. And I doubt that either one of your cronies was thrilled about your plans to rob the vault, to begin with! So now you swallow your self-pity and do what I say. Do you understand?"
She nodded, averting her gaze.
"We can’t hide that you cried, so we will say that you got upset about setting off the alarm."
"I am so sorry about that!" She began.
"It was perfect; you aren’t a professional remember? You aren’t supposed to be able to bypass security systems of any kind."
He was so tempted to kiss her, her smell intoxicating, making his thoughts blur, but that was one rabbit hole he did not want to go down. He was still unsure whether she was genuine or a cunning femme fatale.
"If what you say is true, then I strongly suggest that you do not trust anyone. Someone was aware of your plans, so one of your cronies was in on the real robbery. Think about that." He stepped away from her before he did anything he regretted and took her by the hand. "Ready?"
"As I ever will be…"
Aidan began walking down the steps, but then stopped short as the heiress pulled on his arm.
"Are you going to tell the Commandant?" She murmured.
His heart cooled, desire fled him, and he was glad that he had not indulged in his moment of folly.
"I don’t know yet." His tone was icy, but he meant every word he said.
He spun away abruptly, not giving her a chance to add anything else and as they returned to the main floor, found Samuel hovering around the corner. The butler paled as he saw Mélisande’s face, suddenly certain that the jig was up.
"Lock the door, will you?" Aidan continued, towards the library, where they were expected, dragging the heiress after him.
Chapter 13
"We came down shortly after the alarm went off." Lachance hurried to them as the door opened, his gaze sharp, boring into the young woman. "Everything okay?"
"An amateur mistake. Can’t become a burglar just overnight." Aidan shrugged, moving into the room, having just let Mélisande’s hand go.
She followed in slowly, hesitating. François marched up to her, trying to pull her out into the hallway, but Mélisande sidestepped him, her confidence returning.
"I apologize for the noise. Monsieur Carver told me how to avoid setting off the alarm, but it is harder than it sounds." She fell into a chair, apparently exhausted.
"So, what did this little experiment get us?" Belmont threw mockingly. "Other than a headache, of course."
"Actually, quite a lot!" Aidan retorted. "First of all, Mr. Belmont you have been very upset by this theft, but you had been first robbed when you commissioned your super-vault. Any self-respecting twelve years old pickpocket could get in. It has very basic security features and the ventilation tunnels lead right into the chamber."
"I am going to sue that crook!" Belmont fumed.
"I am sure that you can’t," Aidan laughed. "You should read the small print of your contract. They usually have rock solid disclaimers."
"What about our suspects? Did you learn anything useful?" Lachance redirected the conversation before Belmont could respond.
"I can confirm that it is a job best done by a team. It took the thieves about fifteen minutes to get into the vault. Once inside they had the lasers disabled in less than two minutes; there is a switch in the vault to shut off the lasers, so it was just a question of slipping under the beams and pushing the button. To crack the safe deposit boxes’ code, with a tool, it took me about one minute each. With forty-five boxes, it is safe to say it took them at least three-quarters of an hour to open all the doors. Then add some time to remove each item, secure it; my best bet is that they spent at least one and a half to two hours in the vault."
"But how did they carry out the jewelry?" Kárpáti mused.
"I have an idea about that. I need to check the photos again, and I need some airport security snapshots if possible for comparing. Do we have the stills from the security cameras? I will need to review those too." Aidan rubbed at his five o’clock shadow.
"Uh-huh, I will get them to you." Lachance nodded. "Thank you, Mademoiselle Belmont, for your assistance."
Aidan noted that Belmont had cooled off and was even smirking at him with disdain. François had relaxed too. Aidan’s instincts went on high alert.
"Ah! Yes, I almost forgot; we have confirmed the identity of the two mystery men to be German citizens, Dierk Foerstner and Heinrich Meissner. We have a warrant for their arrest." Lachance added as if an afterthought. "We have completed the interviews with the security guards, musicians, staff and most of the guests, but no one was able to provide us with anything useful."
"That is good work. Anything else?" The man of the house stared at Lachance and then at Kárpáti.
"Not at this time," Kárpáti replied.
"All right! I’m going back to work. You can reach me on my mobile if you need me. Good day gentlemen!"
In a rather surprisingly jolly mood, Belmont left. Aidan and the detective exchanged a look.
"I’m going too." Mélisande rose, all but forgotten in her chair. "I will see yo
u all later. Au revoir chéri! À bientôt everyone!" She kissed François on the cheek and followed her father out.
"Well, seems like I’m dismissed." François exhaled noisily. "Anything I can help you with?" He offered.
"Actually, yes!" Kárpáti straightened. "I would like to get your perspective on the evening. Is that all right with you Lachance if I question Monsieur Renaud myself?"
"Go ahead!" Lachance waved his hand indifferently. "If there is something of value, then we will get it on record, but for now it is fine. Aidan, come with me, I will get you the images from the security cameras. They are in my car."
Chapter 14
Exiting the house, Lachance noted Belmont’s car disappearing on the far end of the driveway. The tension in his shoulders eased slightly and he turned to face Aidan.
"So, what is it that you did not say in there?" Probed the detective.
"Still as sharp as a butcher’s knife, even at your old age…" Aidan teased but stopped as he saw that the man was dead serious. "That vault wasn’t meant to keep thieves out; only Miss Belmont. We found a switch panel that controls the security features inside the vault, conveniently located in the duct panel. And the exhaust fan; it was within the vault, making it a piece of cake to remove, especially that the screws were fastened from the tunnel rather than the safe chamber."
"Hm, yes, the forensic team had mentioned in their report that the fan could only be taken apart partially and the hole was too small to allow access to the room."
"Well, we were able to pull it out entirely into the shaft." Aidan rubbed at a stain on his sleeve, nonchalantly. "And I had no difficulty passing through the opening."
"What else? You got more, I know you do." A shadow crossed Lachance’s face.
"Well, it appears that it wasn’t the first time the young miss had broken-in. She did so during the party but swears that she only took one bracelet and that all the other jewelry were still there when she left."