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She started toward the door. Luca hesitated, then followed her, handing his invitation to the guard, who looked it over, waved them in.
What had appeared to be the entrance to the house was actually a wide veranda, with a view of the rolling hills and the lights of Rome in the distance. On their left was an open kitchen where the caterers worked. On their right, a wide travertine staircase led up to what was most likely the main living quarters, which formed a U shape around the veranda. Numerous doors on that level opened out to the wide balcony overlooking the lower veranda. That, unfortunately, left a lot of real estate when trying to figure out the best place to enter.
She and Luca moved away from the entry, Luca searching for Sam, Remi pretending to. The conversations she heard sounded like every other fund-raiser she’d been to. The value of a certain stock, who was wearing what designer, who was divorcing whom. The one thing she didn’t hear was anyone talking about cars, classic or otherwise.
Odd, she thought, until it occurred to her that the party was probably a convenient cover for an auction that was dealing in stolen cars.
She was about to ask Luca if that was the case when she noticed the man she’d ridden the elevator with walking toward the stairs with the assurance of one who knew where he was going. He stopped as two men, looking like linebackers in expensive suits, blocked his entrance. Whatever he said, or showed to them, they immediately stood to the side, allowing him to pass.
“Who’s that walking up the stairs?” Remi asked.
Luca looked that direction. “Probably one of the buyers. They’re the only ones allowed up there. It’s all prearranged.”
She watched the door at the top open, and the man step in. The door started to close, but not before she caught a glimpse of another guard, this one blond with a goatee, inside the door, patting the man’s jacket and pockets, searching for weapons. “Prearranged? How?”
He looked away so quickly, Remi became suspicious.
She moved so that he’d have no choice but to face her. “How were you going to get Sam in if it was prearranged?”
“I wasn’t. The truth is, I don’t even have access. This is as far as I’ve ever gotten.”
“Did you really think you were going to get away with taking our money?”
The look of guilt on his face told her everything she needed to know.
“I think our business here is done,” she said.
“You still owe me the entrance fee.”
Several seconds ticked by while Remi contained her fury. Taking a calming breath, she leaned in close, whispering, “I’d like to see you try to collect it.”
His jaw dropped. Remi plucked a flute of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, tempted to toss it on him, instead walked to the balustrade that overlooked the sweeping stretch of manicured lawn surrounded by a high stucco wall, the moonlight gleaming off the deadly glass shards topping it.
51
Sam, hidden behind the oleanders, kept his binoculars focused on the palatial building while he examined the six floor-to-ceiling windows, each with two potted cypresses set on a Juliet balcony barely wide enough to fit them. The only security on this side of the grounds happened to be the two young men shuttling the guests and the guards at the door. He swept his eyes along the ten-foot wall surrounding the estate, not seeing any security outside the perimeter. There were a couple of cameras, however, mounted high on the corners of the house, one pointed toward the front entrance, the other toward the back. He looked for a camera aimed along the south face of the wall but didn’t see one. It was either hidden behind the line of trees growing near the wall or someone felt it wasn’t needed due to the wall’s height and glass topping it.
The crunch of footsteps nearby alerted him to Remi’s return. She crossed the graveled lot, circumventing the parked cars, until she reached the far side, where he was hiding behind the oleanders.
One look at her face told him something had gone wrong. “What happened?” he asked, as she crouched down beside him.
“I think Georgia needs to cross her friend of a friend off her Christmas card list.” She told him what happened.
He laughed softly.
“How do you find that funny?”
“You’ve got to love the irony. If we hadn’t been hacked, he’d be up there stealing our money.”
Remi cracked a smile.
“What’d you find?” he asked.
“The party’s definitely a cover. To let the high-priced buyers in without attracting notice.”
“Any idea where they go once they’re in?”
“They entered a door on the South Wing. That’s all I could tell. No one’s getting in without passing through heavy security. All the other guests are one level down, on the veranda.”