Cassie turned and leaned against the door and then slid down to the floor. She quickly unzipped the black gym bag and pulled out the receiver/recorder. She opened the screen and raised the antenna, then quickly hit the button that put the view from the bedroom smoke detector camera on the screen.
The bedroom became visible, though the screen was largely in shadow because the only light came from the slight break in the curtains.
She waited.
The door opened and the light came on. Hernandez stepped into the room, the briefcase still at his side. Cassie leaned in close to the screen and saw that the case was attached to his wrist with a handcuff. It put a little shiver of excitement in her. Leo's spotter knew how to pick them.
Hernandez was smoking a fresh cigar and blowing clouds of smoke toward the ceiling while he stood in the center of the room and looked around, never once looking up at the camera. He then stepped beneath the camera and into the alcove leading to the closet and the bathroom.
Cassie switched screens to the closet cam and waited. The screen wasn't completely dark. Light from the bedroom slashed through the slats. In a moment she saw Hernandez's legs through the slats and then the door opened. Cassie hit the record button in case Hernandez opened the safe.
But he didn't. He apparently rustled through his clothes, though Cassie couldn't see this because of the camera angle, then stepped out of the closet. Cassie thought of the gun and retraced her actions with it. She was sure she had returned it to its place in the jacket pocket exactly the way she had found it.
She returned to the bedroom cam and just caught a glimpse of Hernandez going through the door to the living room. She immediately lamented not setting up a camera in the living room. But she just as immediately dismissed the regret as Monday morning quarterbacking. The fact was that if she had installed a camera there, she might not have had the time to install the bedroom or closet cameras, which were necessities.
Getting up quickly, Cassie moved with the receiver/recorder to the table in her suite. Spread on the table were tourist magazines, hotel information and room service folders, a pad and pencil, and a bottle of chardonnay from Robert Long Vineyards with a generic welcome card on it. She pushed everything aside so she would have room to work.
She checked the screen again and saw Hernandez was back in the bedroom. He had placed the briefcase on the bed while he worked a key into the cuff and detached it from his wrist. Once free of the encumbrance he reached over and picked up the foil-wrapped mint that had been left on the pillow as part of the turndown service. He ate it in one bite, returned the cigar to his mouth and then turned toward the closet alcove, reaching into the inside pockets of his suit coat and removing thick sheaves of money as he approached.
Cassie switched screens to the closet camera and hit the record button. This was it. All her work had been to put her in this position.
On the screen the light came on in the closet and Hernandez's big left arm followed by part of the upper portion of his body dropped into the picture. He reached down to the combination and started tapping the numbers. But before he was done his right arm swung through the picture and he put his hand on the top of the safe to support himself.
SHIT NO! Cassie wanted to yell. But instead she brought a clenched fist up to her mouth.
Hernandez opened the safe's door, dropped to one knee and reached inside. He brought out a two-inch stack of currency and placed it on top of the safe, then put down the equally thick stack he had just removed from his pocket. He reached into the side pockets of his jacket and took out two more wads of cash. He combined all of the currency into one thick stack he could barely hold in one hand. He hefted it. Cassie could not see his face because of the angle of the camera but she knew he was smiling.
Hernandez put the cash into the safe and closed it, then got up and closed the closet door, extinguishing the overhead light.
As Cassie watched she wondered about the briefcase. It appeared that it was too large to fit into the safe. But why hadn't Hernandez taken the cash that must be in it and placed it in the safe?
She switched to the bedroom camera but there was no sign of Hernandez. The briefcase was lying flat on the bed. Her question about the case and Hernandez's decision not to put its contents into the safe did not hold her attention long. There was a more important question she had to answer. She switched the receiver/recorder to the playback program and began watching the recording of the closet camera. She grabbed the hotel pad and pencil and hit the slow-motion button just as Hernandez's hand dipped into the picture.
'Come on, baby.'
The numbers could clearly be seen on the screen. Hernandez's finger hit 4-3-5 but then his right arm, reaching for support on the safe, swung through the frame and obscured the final two numbers. Cassie reversed the recording and replayed it with the same result. She was short the final two numbers of the combination.
'Son of a bitch!'
She got up from the table and paced across the room to the curtains. She pulled them open and looked out, the view going across the Strip to the dark outlines of the mountains far from the city of neon. She looked up and saw the moon.
She knew she couldn't go in with just three numbers and hopes of trying various combinations of the final two to open the safe. The Halsey safes had built-in tampering devices. If three successive erroneous combinations were entered on the keypad, the locking mechanism would freeze. It would then take a visit from security and an electronic device called a D-Lock to open the safe. The D-Lock was usually kept under lock in the hotel manager's safe.
There was only one alternative, Cassie decided. A fire drill.
15
CASSIE watched the screen and waited. The alarm was blaring in the hallway and she could smell the smoke. But Hernandez showed no sign of moving from his room. He was fully clothed and lying propped on a pile of pillows on the bed. He was watching the television but the angle of the smoke detector camera prevented Cassie from seeing what was on the screen.
She dialed his room and watched as Hernandez lazily reached for the extension on the bedside table.
'Yes?'
'Mr. Hernandez, this is hotel security. We have an alarm and a report of smoke on your floor. We are going to need you to evacuate immediately.'
'A fire? I heard the alarm.'
He sat up abruptly.
'We're not sure yet, sir. We have people coming up. But other guests are reporting smoke on the twentieth floor. Please, sir, gather your valuables and evacuate down the emergency stairs until we can evaluate what is happening.'
'Okay, bye.'
As Hernandez jumped up from the bed Cassie was surprised at the big man's agility and speed. As he was putting his shoes on, Cassie switched screens to the closet camera and hit the record button. She waited.
In a few moments the door opened and this time Hernandez knelt in front of the safe instead of leaning over it. He reached to the combination pad and hit the buttons, in full sight of the camera. Cassie could tell the last number was 2 and wrote it on the hotel pad.
As Hernandez quickly pulled the money from the safe and started stuffing his pockets, Cassie blew out her breath excitedly and hit the playback program on the receiver/recorder. She once more played the opening of the safe in slow motion.
This time she got it. She wrote the last missing number down on the pad.
4-3-5-1-2
She took no time to celebrate. She switched back to the live feed from the bedroom cam. Hernandez was standing at the desk, locking the briefcase onto his wrist. Cassie picked up the phone and called his room. Hernandez grabbed the phone quickly.
'Yes?'
