“Yes,” Dad said. “That was fun, wasn’t it? So, about tomorrow, you want me in the office for the whole day, or just after seven to help you install the mini cams?”
“How about you come by here around five?” I said. “We can spend a little time going over the installation process. We should be able to get everything into place and get back out of there in a little more than an hour, now that you’re going to be there to help.”
“Well, then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Dad said and walked out of the office.
I kept my eye on the door and tilted my wrist back, counting off the seconds. It only took twenty-eight seconds for Dad to stick his head back in the door. He saw me looking at my watch. “Not even half a minute,” I said, “for you to remember that you rode here with me. That’s not a bad time. Wait a minute, let me put a few things away and I’ll drive you home.”
Dad came by the office the next day shortly after four-thirty. He was dressed in black slacks, a black mock turtleneck shirt and wore a black stocking cap on his head.
“What kind of job do you think this is?” I said. “We’re not burglarizing the place. The owner gave me the keys, remember? Come on, at least lose the hat.”
Dad pulled the hat off his head, looked at it, looked at me and laid it on Gloria’s desk. “So, you ready to go?” Dad said.
I checked my wristwatch and looked at Dad. “It’s only four-thirty,” I said. “I told you yesterday to meet here at five. We’re not even going into the plant until seven-thirty.”
“I hate to be late for anything,” Dad said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I remember that about you. But you’re just going to have to sit here until I finish my reports from last week. Relax; we’ll get there in plenty of time.”
I finished my paperwork while Dad looked out the window down onto Hollywood Boulevard. He checked his hair in the mirror above the sink, sat behind Gloria’s desk for all of twenty seconds and then got up and started pacing around the office. After I’d filed the last of my overdue reports, I closed the file cabinet and pulled one of the mini cam units out of my desk and turned to Dad.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s take a closer look at the surveillance unit.” I pointed to a small antenna that stuck up from the camera. “Make sure you have this antenna sticking straight up when you’re done mounting the camera. The monitor unit has a similar antenna that it uses to communicate with the camera. Situate the camera and check the image it’s sending out on the monitor. Once you have it where you want it, switch that particular monitor to your other pocket so you don’t get them mixed up. They’re all numbered, but you might not be able to see that in the limited light we’re going to have.”
Dad took the camera and studied it closely. He pointed the antenna straight up and looked to me for approval.
“Perfect,” I said. “And you want to make sure there is nothing obscuring the lens once it’s in place, but you also want to make sure it’s not obvious enough for anyone to notice it. Now, Mr. Powell gave me this copy of the floor plan layout for the factory. This is our copy to keep so it doesn’t matter if I cut it up and give you half. We’ll know exactly where we are at any given time. He made some little red marks on the paper to indicate about where the mini cams would work to best advantage. We come in through the office entrance, past all the offices and into the plant itself. Once we get inside the plant, you take your six cameras and find a good spot somewhere near the red dot area. When you have them all mounted, we’ll meet back at the main door leading back into the offices.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Dad said, reaching into his pants pockets and producing two small black boxes. He handed one to me and said, “I picked these up last night at that electronics store over on Pico. They’re miniature walkie-talkies. That way we can stay in touch when we split up inside the plant.”
I looked over the unit and then back at Dad. “Great idea,” I said. “I gotta get me a pair of these for me and Gloria.”
“Don’t bother,” Dad said, handing me the receipt. “I bought these for you. They were only thirty bucks plus tax and I had that hundred dollar bill burning a hole in my pocket yesterday. They’re my gift to you.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I said. “Thanks a lot. These’ll come in handy.”
Dad turned on his walkie-talkie and said, “Can you hear me?”
“Perfectly,” I said. “And I don’t even have mine turned on yet.”
“Smart ass,” Dad said.
I checked my watch again. It was just five-fifteen. I looked at Dad again and said, “Well, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. We still have a couple of hours to kill. You want to get something to eat?”
“Sure,” Dad said. “Tell you what, my treat. I still have more than sixty dollars left from yesterday.”
“Did it ever occur to you to save some of it for later?” I said. “You don’t have to spend it all right away.”
“I won’t be taking it with me,” Dad said. “What good is it if I can’t spend it? It’s just colored paper until you use it.”
“All right,” I said. “But after this job is done and I pay you for your part in it, try to put some of it in the bank for a rainy day, okay?”
“Sure,” Dad said, almost dismissing the whole notion. “Squeat.”
“Huh?” I said.
“Squeat,” Dad repeated. “Let’s go eat—squeat.”
“Where did you pick up that little gem?” I said.
“I was standing in line at the checkout when I bought the walkie-talkies.” Dad said. “Two guys in line ahead of me were talking and I heard one of them say to the other, ‘Jeat?’ The second guy shook his head and the first guy said, ‘Squeat’. Get it? Did you eat—Jeat? Let’s go eat—Squeat. I thought that was clever as all hell and I even wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it.”
“I’d lose that piece of paper if I were you,” I said.
“Come on,” Dad said. “You like it and you know it, so just admit it. I’ll bet you can’t wait to use it on Gloria next time your stomach rumbles.”
With all this free time on his hands lately, Dad was turning into one of those guys that you try to avoid at parties. We sat there in the booth at the coffee shop and finished our dinner. Dad pulled his wallet out and laid down the tip.
“At least let me get the tip,” I said.
“Forget it,” Dad said, “my treat.” He paid the bill at the counter and we both left the coffee shop and walked back to my van. I slid behind the wheel and dad slid in beside me. I checked my watch again. It was nearly seven o’clock.
“I guess we can drive over there now,” I said. “It’ll take us half an hour to get down to Fifteenth Street and South Alameda in all this traffic.”
I pulled away from the curb and headed south on Highland Avenue. It was just seven-thirty when I parked the van half a block from the office entrance of Powell Industries. Dad and I casually walked down the sidewalk and up to the front door of the factory offices, as if we belonged there. I stuck Powell’s key in the door and turned it. The door opened and the two of us stepped inside. I locked it behind us and hurried over to the front reception desk, pulling Powell’s information slip out as I walked. The alarm pad was right where Powell had said it would be. I punched in the six-digit code and the flashing red light changed to a steady green light.
“And that’s that,” I told Dad. “We can go anywhere we want inside her now without setting off any alarms.” I looked down at the floor plan and pointed to a hallway on my right. “The plant is down this hall,” I told Dad.
At the end of the hall I encountered a large double door that had no lock on it. I swung it open and looked into the hundred thousand square foot facility. I stopped and looked again at the floor plan to get my bearings. Dad had his half of the floor plan in his hands, trying to figure out where to go. I looked over his shoulder and then pointed down an aisle. “That way,” I said. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour. If you run into any pro
blems, buzz me on this.” I held up my walkie-talkie.
“Got it,” Dad said, and headed off down the aisle.
I found the first red dot on my part of the floor plan and looked around for a suitable place to hide the first camera. I noticed a two-place wall plug twelve feet above the floor. A plug came out of one of the places and led up to a wall clock. Perfect, I thought. I pulled a couple of boxes over to the wall, stepped up onto them and placed my first camera on top of the wall plug. I aimed it down toward the factory area and checked the placement in the mini monitor. With a little tweaking, I got it situated exactly where it would do the most good and then stepped down off the boxes, putting them back where I’d found them.
The next red dot on my paper led me to an area where boxes of materials had been stacked. Some of the boxes were already opened and the small gauges inside looked like the ones that were already set out on the work tables. That was just too much temptation for any would-be thief. I set my second camera on top of a shelving unit. There was nothing else up there. Other parts had been stored below that level, but the camera was all alone on top.
I was able to get all six of my units installed and adjusted in just fifty minutes. All of them had been placed where no one would ever notice them and they provided coverage over all of the areas Powell had indicated on the floor plan. I grabbed the walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button.
“Dad, are you there?” I said and released the button.
A moment later my unit squawked. “I’m here, Elliott,” Dad said. “What’s up?”
“I’ve finished installing my six cameras,” I said. “Do you need any help with yours?”
“Nope,” Dad said. “I’m just setting the last one in place now. “I’ll meet you back at the doors to the offices in just a few minutes.”
“Got it,” I said and returned my walkie-talkie to my pocket. I met Dad back at the office doors a few minutes later. “How’d it go?”
“Slicker than dog shit on wet grass,” Dad said.
I gave him a strange look.
“What?” he said.
“Did you pick up that little gem in line at the electronics store, too?” I said.
“Just think about it literally for a second,” Dad said. “There aren’t too many other things slicker, you have to admit.”
“Dad,” I said, “I hate to say it, but it seems every time you open your mouth lately, a little more of your class slips away.”
“Oh, really?” Dad said. “When did you get so snooty?”
“Snooty?” I said. “It’s not snooty to want to sound like a professional and ‘dog shit on wet grass’ just screams lowlife.”
“But it’s just the two of us here,” Dad said. “There’s nobody I need to impress. I always figured you were already impressed with your old man.”
“I was,” I said, “until you started talking like this. What happened to the classy Clay Cooper I once knew?”
“Really?” Dad said. “Is it that bad?”
“Maybe not in the present situation,” I said. “But it’s just a matter of time before it starts slipping over into your social and business life. Then what are people going to think of you?”
“Oh, all right, you old poop,” Dad said. “I won’t embarrass you in front of anyone.”
“Thank you, Dad,” I said. “Can we get out of here now?”
Dad gestured with his open hand in front of him as he bowed slightly at the waist. “After you, my son,” he said, following me out to the offices and back to the alarm box. I unlocked the front door, armed the system again and let myself out. Dad followed and I locked the door within the forty-five seconds allowed by the alarm system.
Our pockets bulged with the mini monitors as we walked back to my van. Once inside the van again, I emptied my pockets onto the shelf, arranging the monitors numerically with their numbered holders. Once mine were in place, Dad emptied his pocket and arranged his monitors in the open slots, securing them with the thumb screw holders. All twelve monitors were now in operation and receiving the signals from their camera counterparts. All were transmitting clear images to the monitors.
“Well,” I said. “That’s it. Now we can go back to Hollywood and just wait until tomorrow night. Maybe we’ll catch some after-hours action.”
“Are you going to have to sit there in front of those twelve tiny monitors and watch for something to happen?” Dad said.
“Not at all,” I explained, and told him about the fast view option on the unit. “I can set all twelve on fast view and just scan back and forth in the van. If something moves, I just stop the action and go back to that particular camera. Either way, after twenty-four hours the unit’s memory will be full and I’d have to erase the chip for it to accept another twenty-four hours worth of video. That’s a little time consuming, but I’d do that during regular business hours when no one would dare take anything from the factory floor.”
“Is that something I can help you with?” Dad said.
“That would make things go faster and smoother,” I said. “Sure, I can use your help. I’ll let you know when it gets to that point.”
I dropped Dad back at the office parking lot where he switched to his car and drove home again. I pulled out of the lot and headed home myself. This was turning out to be a lot of running around, but the final paycheck would make it all worthwhile.
Mrs. Chandler met me at the door and took my coat. I found Gloria in the living room, stretched out on the couch alone. She had an empty plate with some food crumbs still on it and a glass with a few drops of milk still in the bottom.
“Looks like you’ve had a full day,” I said.
“Shhh,” Gloria said, holding her index finger up to her lips. “I just got Matt to sleep a few minutes ago. I love him to pieces, but he wears me out with all his constant needs.”
“We all had ‘em at that age,” I said, sitting next to her. “He’ll grow out of it in no time and before you know it, he’ll be asking for the car keys.”
“Well, how about if you let him be a kid for a little while longer before you have him driving off in our car?” Gloria said.
“Okay,” I said, slipping my arm around Gloria’s shoulder.
“And how was your day?” Gloria said.
“You think you have your hands full with Matt?” I said. “Dad’s getting to be quite a handful himself. You should hear some of the stuff he comes up with. But we did manage to get all those mini cams installed at Powell Industries. Now we just wait and see.”
“He certainly enjoyed your outing in the van yesterday,” Gloria said. “He had to call and tell me all about it.”
“Did he also tell you that he already spent half of the hundred I gave him?” I said, pulling the pair of walkie-talkies out of my pocket. “He bought these and we hardly used them tonight.”
“Let me see that,” Gloria said. “Gees, these are tiny.”
I looked at them for a moment and said, “I wonder what would happen if I taped the talk button down on one of these and set it near Matt’s bed. I’ll bet you could hear him from anywhere in the house on the other one.”
“I can already hear him from anywhere in the house,” she said, “without one of those. I suppose next you’d have the helicopter hovering over his bed with the camera.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I said. “I’ll just keep my toys at work. What did you have for supper?”
“Just a ham and cheese sandwich and a glass of milk,” Gloria said.
“Sounds good to me,” I said and turned toward the kitchen. I almost ran into Mrs. Chandler, who was holding a plate with a ham and cheese sandwich on it in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. She handed them both to me.
“I figured you might want this,” she said and returned to the kitchen. When she returned she had her coat and hat on while her purse dangled from her arm. She looked past me toward Gloria and said, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going home now.”
“Thank you,” Gloria said
. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Can I give you a lift home?” I said.
“Thank you, Elliott,” she said, “but my cab just pulled up out front.”
“Good night, Mrs. Chandler,” I said and closed the door behind her.
*****
It was four thirty the next afternoon when I folded my laptop closed and brought it with me down to the van to check the twelve monitors. If I’d captured anything, I wanted to have my laptop handy for transferring any files to if from the portable units. Dad was waiting for me outside of my van when I got to the parking lot. I looked at him with a bit of surprise.
“What?” Dad said. “You didn’t think I was going to come?”
“To tell you the truth,” I said, “I’d forgotten about it myself. As long as you’re here, let’s have a look at the monitors and see if we caught anything on them.”
I played each unit back in the fast forward mode and watched the first six monitors while Dad kept an eye on the other six. Nothing popped out at either of us. I emptied the memories of all twelve units and reset them. They’d be good again until this same time tomorrow night. This was Friday and it could be the day that some Powell Industries employee did their shopping from the company store.
“We’ll just have to take another look at them tomorrow,” I said. “So, what are you going to do with the rest of your night?”
Dad shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “I thought I might go on down to the corner and have a beer and watch a little television by myself.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and waited.
“All right,” I said after a moment. “Let’s go.”
I sat with Dad for an hour before I made up some excuse to get home again. He remained on his barstool as I said goodnight and walked out of the place. I was eager to get home again to my wife and son. I’d turned into a homebody before I even knew what hit me.
Saturday night came and went and now I had twelve more camera units to check for activity. Now it was Sunday morning and I figured I could take care of checking the monitors early and have the rest of the day to myself. I walked out of the house in my slippers and robe and took a seat in front of the shelf unit in the back of my van. I started all the monitors playing and then one by one hit the fast forward play buttons. I sat there looking up and down the row of monitors for something, anything.
The Complete Cooper Collection (All 97 Stories) Page 232