Page 17

Ten minutes later, they drove into Montclair .

When Jack braked at a traffic light, she noted with irony that such a charming town was home to a number of high-ranking mobsters.

She’d known that since childhood, having accompanied her father on “payouts” to the numerous capos and soldiers who lived here.

She’d stayed put in her father’s car while he’d gone inside, but she always knew why they’d gone to Montclair .

As they passed through the town’s main intersection, not even the two- and three-story brick-fronted shops with their gold-gilded signs and colorful canopies or the beautifully landscaped parks could ever make her think fondly of this place.

Her heart ached as if her parents had died only yesterday.

Before she realized it, they’d driven out of the town’s center and onto a residential road.

“ We’re here,” Jack announced, breaking into her trek down Sad Sack Memory Lane .

“ Number 42.” He pointed to the right. “ The corner house. Stucco with green trim.”

“ Posh for a crazed lunatic.” She switched to op mode and began assessing the structure and its surroundings. From a B and E —breaking and entering—perspective, that was. “ Mind if I take notes?”

“ Do whatever you need to.” He slowed the Expedition without making it obvious they were surveilling the place. Traffic was light but constant, helping them blend in.

“ Two -story, around twenty-two hundred square feet. About a third of an acre. Grass front and back lawns. Concrete driveway.” While continuing to itemize more relevant aspects of the location, she dug into her bag for a small spiral notebook and pen.

“ Two motion sensors on either side of the driveway. Metal grating on all first-floor windows.” She paused to jot down her observations.

“ Check out the rear of the house,” he said as they cruised past the front yard.

She looked over her shoulder. “ Second -story balcony. Wrought iron railing, sliding glass door. I take it there’s a problem breaking in through the front door?”

“ Several .” He braked at the stop sign and turned right at the corner. “ A sophisticated deadbolt lock with anti-pick pins.”

“ You think I can’t pick that?” She pressed a hand to her heart. “ My ego is shattered.”

“ Even if you can, it would take too long.” He made another right turn, heading back around to the front of the house. “ The front door is lit up at night like Madison Square Garden . Risk of exposure’s too great.”

“ So you need me to pick the lock on the second-story balcony?” She tapped the end of her pen on her chin. “ Easy enough to access with a rope.”

“ Unless you’ve got a busted wrist,” he grumbled so low Gina barely caught his words.

“ I heard that. Point made. For the hundredth time, I really am sorry.”

The tautness in his jaw eased. “ Forget it.”

As he recircled the block, she made a quick sketch below the notes she’d taken.

“ Hmph .”

She looked up to catch him eyeing her pad. “ What’s wrong?”

“ Nothing .” He refocused on the road, but not before she detected something different in his expression.

Admiration ? Respect ?

Can’t be. The only thing the FBI respects is the FBI .

He made one last turn and Psycho Fiori’s house came into view again.

He parallel parked midway down the adjacent block and across the street between two other SUVs .

“ We’ll sit here for about fifteen minutes,” he said.

From their position, they had partial views of both the front door and rear balcony.

“ In addition to the metal grating on the lower windows, Psycho has a standard security alarm package.”

“ Do you know what make it is?” she asked.

“ A residential Protector system.”

“ Ahhh .” Gina made another notation.

“ You’re familiar with it?”

She rolled her eyes. “ Once again, you wound me. Protector makes a very common, very simple residential security package. I assume he has a monitoring contract.”

“ He doesn’t.”

“ You’re kidding. What kind of psychotic idiot installs an unmonitored alarm system?”

“ The kind that doesn’t want the police responding to a burglary at a house that’s loaded with illegal cash.”

“ Right .” This time, she did feel stupid.

At least it made the job easier. There’d be no need to cut outdoor phone wires or internet cables before the alarm was triggered and a signal sent to the monitoring company.

“ Okay , then we’re dealing with a self-contained system with audio and visual alarms. Bells and whistles positioned inside the house to notify the owner of a break-in.

” She jotted down a few more notes before continuing.

“ The basic Protector system uses a six- to eight-zone setup, including one motion sensor that’s usually installed on the ground floor to detect anyone breaking in through the front door. ”

Jack tapped the steering wheel. “ I assume there’ll be some kind of detection unit set up on the second-story balcony door.”

“ Maybe , maybe not.” She eyed the rear balcony.

“ Most break-ins occur at ground level because it’s easier on petty crooks than hauling around a ladder to access upper floors.

There could be glass-break sensors upstairs, but I don’t plan on breaking any glass.

Most systems also use closed circuit, surface-mounted magnetic contact window and door sensors.

Each window and door has a two-part, side-by-side sensor.

One side of the sensor is a magnet and the other houses an electrical circuit that’s either wired to an alarm box or set to send a wireless signal.

As long as the two parts are within an eighth of an inch of each other, the circuit remains closed.

Any increase in distance opens the circuit and triggers the alarm. ”

“ How do you plan to get around that?”

“ I can easily bypass the sensors.”

“ How ?”

“ By simulating the magnetic contact.”

“ How do you squeeze a magnet between two locked sliding glass doors?” The look of skepticism on Jack’s face was amusing.

“ I don’t. I jimmy a slim strip of supermagnetized metal into the tiny space between the door and the jamb, close enough to simulate the magnetic contact required to keep the circuit closed. As long as that magnet remains in place, the alarm stays silent.”

“ You didn’t learn that working on Wall Street .” Jack’s laser-sharp gaze could have burned a hole right through her.

“ A girl’s gotta have her secrets.” She winked and was rewarded with a sexy half smile that sent a shaft of not unpleasant heat arrowing up her spine.

“ Okay .” He nodded. “ I’m assuming picking the lock on the balcony door should be a slam dunk for a burglar with supermagnetizing skills, but how do you plan to access the second floor?”

She held her hand out, palm facing up. “ Like I said, with a rope.”

“ You can’t leave anything behind, so how will you detach the rope after you climb back down?”

“ Another of my inventions.” Again she couldn’t stop herself from winking.

“ I won’t bother asking.” He shook his head. “ Anyone who can supermagnetize metal can devise a way to remotely unhook a rope from a railing.”

She grinned. “ So true.”

He turned back to the house. “ There are no motion sensors in the backyard. Psycho ripped them out because his dog kept setting them off, but he might have installed extra motion sensors in the upper floor.”

“ There’s a dog inside?” She loved dogs but didn’t want to tangle with one.

“ Not anymore,” he said, shaking his head. “ Apparently , the dog annoyed him.”

“ He killed his own dog?”

“ Dunno .” Jack shrugged. “ Could be he gave the dog away. Can’t say for sure.”

Bastard . Now she hated Psycho Fiori even more.

She shook her head to clear it of the awful image and concentrate on the task at hand.

“ Interior sensors are easy to check on before I step into the room and easy to get around if they’re there.

Most motion sensors are placed in such a way to detect people, not animals, and since Psycho had a dog, he would have placed the sensors up high or the alarm would be going off every five minutes. All I have to do is hug the floor.”

“ Anything else?”

“ I’ll have to watch for pressure mats.”

“ What are those?” Jack’s brows rose.

“ Pressure mats look like ordinary floor mats, the same kind you’d put just inside an exterior door to wipe your feet on. Only in this case, when you step on the mat, two metal strips are pushed together, completing a circuit and triggering an alarm.”

Jack’s lips quirked and amusement glimmered in his eyes. Gina suddenly felt as if she’d been whacked upside the head. “ You already know all of this, don’t you?” She slumped back into her seat. “ I’m such an idiot. You were testing me.”

“ Don’t worry.” He grinned. “ You passed.”

The man probably knew as much about breaking into a house as she did.

Maybe more. When she’d broken into Rocco’s apartment, Jack was already inside and she hadn’t even known it.

The rest of her team never even saw him go in.

He was only using her because he was injured, on a deadline, and there were no other agents available for the job.

“ Once you’re in,” he continued, “go downstairs and deactivate the front door alarm. Hit me on the radio, and I’ll come to the door and knock as if I’m a visitor so the neighbors or anyone driving by won’t be suspicious.

You let me in, I plant the bug, then you let me back out the same way. Got it?”

“ Yes , Dad .”

Other than arching a dark brow he ignored her sarcasm.

“ Then you’ll relock the front door, reset the alarm, exit out the balcony, and leave everything the way it was.

” He gave her a pointed look. “ I mean it. You have one mission and one mission only. No searching for cash and no safecracking. Is that clear?”