I got to the end of the road, turned right, and headed back to the hotel.
The room was like a sauna. Kelly's hair was sticking up all over the place; she had sleep in her eyes. Her face was creased and had some crumbs stuck on it. By the look of it she'd been halfway through a cookie and fallen asleep.
As I dumped all the supplies on the side she said, 'Where have you been?'
'I've bought tons of stuff.' I started diving into the bags and dragging things out.
'I've got you some books, some coloring books, some crayons...'
I laid them on the bed and stepped back, waiting for some form of appreciation. Instead, she looked at me as if I were crazy.
'I've done those.'
I thought a coloring book was a coloring book. I'd quite enjoyed doing my connect-the-dots.
'Never mind, I've got you some sandwiches and Coke, and you're to drink as much as you can because I need the bottle for something.'
'Aren't we going out to get something to eat?'
'There's some cookies in there ...' I pointed at the bag.
'I don't want any more. I hate it in here all the time.'
'We've got to stay in the hotel today. Remember, we've got people who are looking for us at the moment, and I don't want them to find us. It won't be for long.'
I suddenly thought. Shit what if she knows her home number and starts using the phone? While she was pouring out some Coke with both hands around the bottle that seemed as big as she was, I stretched around the back of the small cupboard between the two beds and pulled out the tele phone jack.
I looked at my watch. It was 4:30; the best part of five hours to go until Pat made contact again.
I wanted to get the camera sorted out. I wanted it working at first light; I might even be able to get in an hour of filming before last light today.
Kelly got up and looked out the window, a bored, caged-up kid.
I poured myself some Coke and asked, 'Do you want some more of this before I dump it out?'
She shook her head. I went into the bathroom and poured the remainder down the sink. I ripped the wrapper off and with the scissors I'd just bought I started to make a cut at the top where the bottle started to curve into the neck. I also cut at the base so I was left with a cylinder. I cut a straight line up it and pushed the resulting rectangle of plastic down flat to get rid of the curve. I cut a circle, first by trimming off the corners of the rectangle, then developing the shape. That was me, ready to burgle.
I came back into the room and checked the cords and made the camera ready for use, by battery or power lines.
'What are you doing, Nick?'
I'd been hoping she wasn't going to ask, but I should have known better by now. I had a lie all prepared.
'I'm going to make a film so you can say hello to Mommy, Daddy, and Aida because you said you were bored. Here, say hello.'
I put the camera to my eye.
'Hello, Mommy, Daddy, and Aida,' she said into the camera.
'We're in a hotel room, waiting to come home. I hope you get well soon. Daddy.'
'Tell them about your new clothes,' I cut in.
'Oh yes.' She walked over to the wall.
'This is my new blue coat. Nick got me a pink one, too. He knew my favorite colors are pink and blue.'
'I'm running out of tape, Kelly. Say goodbye.'
She waved.
'Bye, Mommy; bye, Daddy; bye, Aida. I love you.'
She came skipping over to me.
'Can I see it now?'
Another lie.
'I haven't got the cords to plug in to the TV But I'm seeing Pat soon, so maybe he'll get some for me.'
She went back to her glass of Coke a very happy bunny.
She picked up a crayon and opened the coloring book, and was soon engrossed. Good; it meant I was able to put a tape into the camera without her seeing.
I picked up two plastic coffee cups, got the rest of the kit together, put it all in the video bag, and said, 'Sorry about this, but...'
She looked at me and shrugged.
I made my way up to the roof. The rain was holding off--the aircraft and traffic noise wasn't.
The first thing I wanted to do was get into the elevator housing; I needed to know whether I could get direct power.
I got out my circle of plastic and put it in the crease of the green door. I pushed and turned it, making it work its way through the twists and turns of the doorframe until it hit against the lock itself. The door was there to keep people out for safety reasons, not to protect something of value, so it was a simple lock to defeat.
Once inside I turned on my mini Maglite, and the first thing I saw was a bank of four power sockets.
I looked up at the ceiling. The shed was made of panels of quarter-inch mild steel bolted onto a frame. I got the wrench and undid two of the bolts enough to lift up a bit of the roof.
Then I got the power cord from the camera, pushed it through the gap, and ran it down against the wall. It didn't look out of place among all the other shit. The small gap I'd created wouldn't let in much rain, so there wouldn't be a flood that somebody had to come up and investigate. I plugged the cord into one of the sockets and hoped I'd remember there was juice coming out the other end when I started to mess around with the camera.
I kept the door open to give me some light while I prepared the camera. I got two trash bags and put one inside the other, then put the camera inside, pushing it against the plastic at the bottom until the lens just burst through. I then took the two plastic coffee cups, split them both down the sides, cut the bottoms off both, put them into one another, and then fitted them over the lens as a hood. That was going to keep off the rain but at the same time let enough light into the lens so the thing could work. I used gaffer tape to keep everything in position.
I got on the roof with the camera and plugged it in. I lay flat and looked through the viewfinder, waiting for it to spark up and show me what the lens could see. I wanted a reasonable close-up of the staircase leading up to the main door.
Once it had jumped into life I used the zoom, got it right on target, and pressed Play. I tested Stop and Rewind, then Play again. It worked. I tucked in the plastic, making sure not to dislodge the camera, pressed Record, and walked away. I went and bought a cartwheel-sized pizza, which we sat down and ate in front of the television, with the cell phone plugged in, charging.
Then it was just a matter of hanging around with indigestion waiting for Pat to call and the four-hour tape to finish. It was dark now, but I wanted it to run the full four hours: one, to check that the system worked, and two, to see what the quality was like at night.
For the first time, both of us were bored. Kelly had had death by TV, death by pizza, death by Mountain Dew and Coke. She wearily picked up one of her new books and said, 'Would you read to me?'
I thought, All right, it 'sjtist a collection of stories, it won't take that long to read a couple. I soon discovered it was one continuous adventure, with optional endings to each chapter.
I was reading to her about three kids in a museum. One had gone missing no one knew where when the story just stopped. At the bottom of the page it said, 'Do you want to go to p. 16 and follow him through the magic tunnel, or do you want to go and see Madame Edie on p. 56, who might tell you where he is? It's your choice.'
'Where do you want to go?' I said.
'Through the tunnel.'
Off we went. After about forty-five minutes and changing tack about eight times, I thought we must be getting to the end soon. It took nearly two hours to get through it. At least she had fun.
The room was warm and I still had all my stuff on, ready to go. I kept dozing off, waking up every half hour or so to the sound of The Simpsons or Looney Tunes. One time I woke up and looked down at my jacket. It had come
