“Where did you get these? They are as good as my grandmother could make!”
“I have my ways, dear Lili,” Tony answered, pouring her a second cup of coffee, “but I’m sworn to secrecy. Don’t worry, there are at least two pounds more in your kitchen.”
Naturally, after such a fine meal, we were all in the mood for a little music.
We took our coffee, slivovitz, plus more cookies and repaired to the “piano room.”
It stretched across the back of Lili’s house and she’d rebuilt the outer wall, making it basically all glass with large windows on either side of French doors that opened into her walled back garden. Even though the scenery was winter-desolate, it still looked lovely with the big beech tree in a back corner and the shrubs illuminated by discrete lights.
Since Tony and I hadn’t sung in a few days, we needed a pretty thorough warm-up. We’d done duo warm-ups a couple of times in the past, and being in such good humour, we did our best to undermine each other’s effort — all in good fun, mind you.
Tony possesses a fine, if light, tenor, while my voice is decidedly heavier and much more powerful. He’d never be suitable for verismo roles, much to his disappointment, since he loved Puccini more than anything. On the other hand, I had been leaning in that direction more and more over the past few seasons because it suited my maturing voice and I had the vocal octane to produce the amount of volume required. Whenever I sang with Tony, I had to be mindful of not swamping him.
We ran through a number of favourite bel canto arias from operas by Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini. There were a few duets that we had sung at parties, and once those had been done, we just sang solo arias with each joining the other whether the role was for male or female. There were some spectacular crashes that dissolved into laughter and I was thoroughly enjoying singing with my husband, something we didn’t do often enough, I realized wistfully.
Lili provided her usual scintillating support at the piano, bailing us out when we needed it and spurring us on when the slogging got a little tough. After nearly ninety minutes, we were all toasted.
When Tony left the room in search of the bottle of slivovitz, I sat next to Lili on the piano bench. Finally, she seemed happy and relaxed.
“It has been a wonderful evening, my dear,” she told me. “Thank you so much.”
I hugged her with my right arm. “We’d do anything for you, you know that. All you have to do is ask.”
“Would you like to sing for me tomorrow? I detected some things I am not happy about. You need a little re-adjustment, Marta. Those bad habits are creeping in again.”
Lili was probably correct. She knew my voice better than I did, of course. It’s the curse of being a singer. We open our mouths and have no real idea what it’s sounding like. In my case, when I’m in my best voice, it doesn’t sound particularly good in my head. That’s why singers depend so much on vocal coaches or répétiteurs. Without their ears, we’d be lost.
“Tony is sounding pretty good.”
“Your Tony continually surprises me. I am encouraged that he’s been offered the role of Almaviva in Barber of Seville for Opera York. Has he told you?”
“Told her what?” Tony asked as he returned.
“How come you didn’t tell me you might be singing Almaviva?” I asked.
“Because I’m not sure I’m ready.”
Lili scowled. “I wouldn’t say you are ready if you were not.”
“Why are you two ganging up on me?”
I stood and hugged him. “Tony, you’re usually a very decisive person. Go for it. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“How about I make a complete and utter fool of myself?”
“Have faith in your talent.”
It wasn’t until we were getting in the car that the weight of the world came crashing down on me again. We’d decided on the way over to Lili’s that we wouldn’t say anything to her until we got Shannon’s report. All evening we had studiously avoided all mention of what we’d found out about our condo. There had been whole handfuls of minutes where I’d forgotten about it completely.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Tony said as the car’s engine thrummed to life.
“You know what I’m thinking.”
“Let’s get a hotel room for the night.”
“Can we?”
“I’ll admit it will look a little odd showing up with no luggage …”
“That’s not what I meant!”
Tony smiled. “I know. I’m just teasing you.”
“I’m not in the mood to be teased. I just can’t face going home knowing that someone could be listening to everything we say.”
“It could be worse than that. That guy Dan told me there might be cameras.”
I felt like clamping my hands over my ears. My imagination couldn’t grasp something that horrible.
“That settles it. We are not going home tonight. I’d rather sleep in the car.”
“He could have the car bugged too.”
“Stop it!”
Next morning, we met with Shannon at her office.
The glass expert wasn’t present but Dan Hudson was. Both he and Shannon looked serious. This time we sat around a table in the opposite corner of her office from the desk. I asked for coffee and could have used a shot of brandy in it.
“So what did you find out?” Tony asked.
Shannon’s eyes dropped to the sheaf of papers in front of her and Dan pulled out a laptop. They looked at each other for a moment then Shannon looked across the table at me.
“It was as you suspected. Someone has been in your apartment at least twice, likely many more times. Hans reports that the glass shelf was deliberately broken by someone using either a point peen hammer or a tack hammer. They both have heads that can provide a hefty wallop to a small area. The top shelf was struck once at a point where it was most likely to break easily. That circular hole you found was indeed where the hammer struck. The weight of the soapstone bear statue did the rest of the damage.”
Into the silence, Hudson added, “And we found surveillance equipment.”
I asked, “So how did he get in? We have a good lock on the condo door and there is twenty-four-hour security in the building.”
Dan answered. “You’d be surprised how easy it is to get into most buildings if you know what you’re doing. As for your apartment, it does have a good lock, but anyone with enough skill can get in without much trouble. I managed to pick it in about forty seconds.”
Tony and I looked at each other.
Hudson continued, “We can get you a pick-proof electronic lock and it will allow us to monitor whenever your door is opened. Coupled with a hidden surveillance camera of our own, if someone does break into your condo again, we’ll know and have video.”
I sat up a bit straighter. “So you’re saying you were in our building last night?”
“Yes.”
“But the video cameras they have …”
“A bit of a disguise, enter from the parking level — very pickable lock there, by the way — go up to your floor, pick the lock on your front door, and bingo, I was in.”
“You were in our apartment?”
“While you were out for dinner. I have the video if you’d like to see it.”
“Video?”
“Sure. I’m recording you right now.”
“What?”
Dan took a pen out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me. “Don’t drop it, please. It cost me about a thousand bucks.”
It looked like a normal pen. I clicked its top and out popped the pen tip.
“I suppose it writes, too?”
“Beautifully. See that dot near the top?”
It was slightly larger than the head of a pin. Tony leaned over to look at it.
“That’s the camera,” Dan told us. “If you’d like, I could also put on a pair of glasses and record video and audio.”
Tony took the pen. “So someone could walk right up to Marta and reco
rd her and she’d never know it?”
Both Shannon and Dan nodded. I shivered.
Jesus, I thought, I’ve probably had this creep right next to me. Perhaps I’ve even spoken to him. It gave me the willies.
“What about the surveillance in the apartment?” I asked.
Shannon took over. “There were two bugs in the living room. One is in the frame of the painting over your sofa.”
“It was a pretty basic one, audio only,” Dan interrupted, “but well done.”
Shannon continued. “It was broadcasting to a receiver that someone added to the amplifier of your stereo. There was another mic in the bookcase, as well.”
I felt sick. “What about cameras?”
“Here our man was slightly more sneaky. He used the old camera in the smoke detector dodge.”
Tony asked, “The smoke detector in the living room?”
Dan nodded.
“What about the detector in the bedroom?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer. “There too?”
Dan nodded again. “I’m really sorry about that.”
My stomach heaved. This pervert had been watching the most intimate part of our lives. It was sick. It was disgusting.
It was beyond imagining.
Chapter Seven
Tony took my hand and squeezed it. “We want all that shit out of our apartment — today.”
Shannon looked at Dan yet again.
“I understand your feelings about this,” she began, “but you want to have the best shot at catching this man, don’t you?”
Now Tony and I looked at each other.
“What do you mean?”
Shannon nodded at Dan, who began to speak.
“You must be pretty confused at the moment. Frankly, we are, too. This is uncharted territory for me. Any security breaches I’ve dealt with in the past had no emotional component. They’ve been straight situations of surveillance or detection of surveillance. Unless this guy is planning on blackmailing you because of something you’ve done —”
I couldn’t hold back. “There is nothing Tony or I have ever done that we need to be ashamed of!”
“I understand,” he answered, soothingly, “but if there’s anything we need to know in that regard, tell us now.”
“There’s nothing.”
“Please understand we needed to ask,” Shannon said. “I know you must be feeling, well, soiled by what we’ve told you. I can imagine how I’d feel if somebody was watching what goes on in my bedroom.”
“You’ve got that right!”
“Look,” Tony said, “we’re talking at cross-purposes here. Let’s cut to the chase. Why did you suggest that we need to consider not removing the stuff you’ve found?”
Dan spoke. “The setup we found in your condo is sophisticated. Someone had access to devices that aren’t commonly available — certainly not commercially. He either knows a hell of a lot about modern surveillance or had the help of someone who does.”
“Meaning?”
“Well, when I found the devices I expected them to be connected to some sort of tape recorder or hard drive where the information would be stored for later retrieval. That’s simple stuff, commonly available.”
“But you didn’t.”
Dan nodded. “No. The feeds from the cameras and microphones, which were separate, by the way, were all broadcasting short range. That meant I’d have to look elsewhere in the building for storage devices — a bit of a complication.”
A cold finger traced a line down my spine. “You mean the guy lives in our building?”
“We don’t think that’s likely. My guess was the storage devices were nearby where our perpetrator could get at them easily.”
Tony said, “Meaning you believe he has access to the building. That’s why you broke in last night. It was an experiment.”
“Exactly. Now I have some pretty sophisticated equipment of my own; anti-snooping devices. I knew how strong the broadcast signals were, so I knew how far away the receivers could be. I struck gold the first place I looked.”
“Where?”
“The roof.”
“So you’ve got the recorders.”
“Not exactly.”
“Explain.”
“The signal was being bounced to another location. There’s an antenna disguised as a satellite dish, but it broadcasts the feeds from your apartment, rather than receiving television signals. It’s with five others that are on the roof of your building. The average technician would just see a bunch of dishes and assume that one had been knocked out of alignment since it’s not pointing at any satellites.”
“What Dan is saying,” Shannon interjected when she saw the confusion on my face, “is that the signals are being broadcast to a secondary location. That’s where the storage is, and if we’re lucky, maybe even the guy we’re all so eager to find.”
Tony asked, “Can you follow the signal?”
Dan nodded. “But it’s tricky. The signal is boosted a lot by the electronics at the dish, so it can travel quite a distance. However, it also has to be line-of-sight, and fortunately your building isn’t a tall one.”
The penny finally dropped. “So you want us to agree to leave everything in place or this creep might know we’re onto him and disappear.”
“There’s a good chance he already knows. I should have been more careful yesterday and come in looking like an exterminator.”
“An exterminator?”
Dan grinned. “It’s a great dodge that I’ve used lots of times.” Then the grin vanished. “I’m sorry about not assuming the setup might be as sophisticated as it turned out to be. Anyway, it’s my recommendation that we proceed on the basis of what I’ve outlined. This afternoon, I’ll go back to the roof and take some measurements. I should be able to get a pretty good idea what building that satellite dish is focused on.”
“And then we’ll check it out,” Shannon added. “Who knows? We might get lucky.”
Dan pulled a soft briefcase off the floor and took out my mobile phone and laptop.
“Both bugged?” I asked.
He sighed. “I’m afraid so.”
“Okay. My laptop I can understand. I leave that at home and he’s obviously had access to the condo, but my mobile? That’s never out of my sight.”
“It’s not difficult to bug a mobile, if you have the software and knowledge. The other thing I should tell you is that as long as your phone was turned on, even if you weren’t using it for a call, it acted like a microphone and he could listen to every word you said in its vicinity.”
Even Tony opened his eyes at that one.
Dan went on to explain how the software program he found buried in my phone’s innards basically allowed it to be used as a remote mic.
“And you removed the spyware?” Tony asked.
“Yes. But you need to be vigilant. Even though I put in a program that should help keep your cell bug-free, he can still get at you.”
“How?” I asked.
“By finding and removing my protection program. Be very careful to never leave your phone lying around.”
“And my computer?”
“All clean, and I’ve got pretty bombproof software for that. If he adds anything to your computer, it will let us know immediately. By the way, the password for the new software is ‘diva.’ I’d suggest changing it to something long and complicated and not a real word.”
“Thanks for doing this.”
Dan smiled, something he did a lot, I was finding. “It’s what you’re paying us for.” He turned his gaze to Tony. “Have you had your equipment checked out yet?”
Tony replied, “I haven’t had a chance.”
“Do it soon. We need to know how widespread this clown’s network is.”
“I understand.”
Shannon said, “You should know that it’s illegal to bug a phone without permission. We could go to the police on this one.”
“Would they be able to find the guy?”
>
Dan shook his head. “Not if I couldn’t, and believe me, that’s the first thing I tried. The cops’ tech guy wouldn’t stand a chance. Your stalker is too good.”
“If nothing is going to come of it, there’s no sense going to the police, then. I don’t need that hassle or the risk of it getting out to the media. I’ve had enough bad press over my personal life.”
Shannon nodded. “Then I’m assuming it’s okay with you for us to proceed with the course of action Dan has outlined?”
I nodded. We didn’t have anything to lose.
“What should I do?” I tried not making it sound as close to hysterical as I was.
We’d driven directly to Lili’s after leaving O’Brien Investigates. The farther the distance, the more upset I’d gotten. And listening to Tony repeating it all to our friend didn’t make me feel one iota better.
“I don’t even want to go home. I can’t believe I let them talk me into leaving all that bugging crap in place.”
Tony squeezed my hand. “They know what they’re doing, Marta. Try to let it go.”
“I can’t! When they’ve checked out where those signals are being sent, I want that stuff out of our condo immediately.”
“You could, of course, stay here with me,” Lili finally responded. “How many more days before you leave again, my dear?”
“I leave on an evening flight the day after tomorrow.”
“Stay here, then. It would not be good to depart for Rome with your head all in a jumble.”
“I’m afraid it’s going to be that way anyhow. What a frigging mess!”
“Perhaps they will discover the identity of this person before you leave.”
I glared at her. “This person is a ghost. He’s in and out of my dressing rooms and the condo as if he’s made of smoke.” I shook my head. “No way they’re going to find him that easily. I just know it.”
She took a deep breath. “Then I would like you to consider having someone with you at all times.”
“That’s easy enough around here. Tony’s taken the rest week off. But what about Rome and Venice?”
Tony said, “Then I’ll go.”
Masques and Murder — Death at the Opera 2-Book Bundle Page 35