“You need help with Mick?” asked Croix.
“No. Not exactly.”
The doors opened and Angelina strode into the hall and down the corridor until she reached the window at the far westerly side of the building. She tried to open it, pushing, squatting and grunting until Croix took pity on her, unlocked the window, and opened it herself.
Smartass.
Holding out a hand so Croix could steady her, Angelina stepped through the window and onto the flat part of the roof. Croix followed, squinting in the sun.
“You should have told me to bring my sunglasses,” she complained.
“True.”
“Why are we on the roof?”
“I want you to look around. Tell me from where you would watch us if you were Siofra.”
“You think she’s coming here?”
“There’s a chance.”
Croix raised her hands in front of her face and clapped them together in rapid succession. “Ooh, that’s exciting.”
“Mm-hm.”
The girl’s expression shifted from glee to confusion. “Why wouldn’t she just come through the front door?”
“She might. She also might watch the building from some undisclosed location, and I want to know where that location is before she does.”
Croix pursed her lips and walked down the roof line, scanning the area.
“Well, there’s the parking lot, of course.”
“Duh. We have cameras everywhere for that. Siofra installed half of them. Well, the originals, they’ve been upgraded since, but the new installers followed her plan.”
Croix swept her finger from left to right as if she were tracing the Intracoastal waterway running behind the hotel.
“She could watch from a boat.”
Angelina pulled at her chin. “I thought about that. But the angle isn’t good. Especially for seeing into Mick’s room.”
“So you think, specifically, she’d be looking for Mick?”
Angelina nodded.
“Hm.” Croix looked skyward. “Hot air balloon? F-22A Raptor?”
“Funny. Imagine she doesn’t know exactly where he’ll be.”
“But he’s always—” Croix turned. “She doesn’t know?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“So she’d expect to spot him walking in and out.”
“At first.”
“But that wouldn’t happen.”
“Clearly.”
Croix turned up her palms. “Well then, this is easy.”
“What?”
“Drone. No matter how she decides to surveil the hotel, she won’t see Mick walking anywhere, so she’ll have to look harder, and there’s only one way to look in every window.”
“Drone.”
“Drone. She could fly one right up here and peek in his window.”
“Right. She could use one to watch the hotel too.” Angelina grimaced. “How could we track a drone?”
“Well, we couldn’t, not really. It would just fly away.”
“Could we shoot it with a tracking device?”
Croix traced her toe against the roof shingles, standing on one leg and making Angelina’s stomach flip.
“Stand flat! You’re making me nervous.”
Croix rolled her eyes like a petulant fifteen-year-old. “It’s a flat roof. It’s no different than standing on pavement.”
“It’s different. Cut it out.”
“You’re in heels.”
“Heels are the natural shape of my foot. Cut it out.”
With a huff, Croix stood on both feet again, but not before circling her arms and pretending she was about to flip off the roof.
Angelina closed her eyes and shook her head.
Smartass young people. I swear I hate them all.
Croix giggled and continued. “I suppose we could hit a drone with a tracker, in theory, but I’d have to see it, get into range, shoot it—all before she flew away.”
“That sounds difficult.”
“Um yeah. I can’t just go buy a tracker-shooting gun on Amazon. I’d have to build it.”
“But you could do that?”
“Sure. But unless I’m perched out here on the roof keeping watch day and night, I’m not sure how I’d spot a drone in time to shoot it.”
“But you could do that.”
Croix frowned. “If you leave Bracco in charge of the front desk that long we’re going to lose some customers.”
Angelina felt a trickle of sweat start down her brow and wiped it away. “Can we get out of the sun? It feels like lasers shooting through my skin.”
“You’re the one who brought us out here.” Croix slipped back through the window and held out a hand to help Angelina back inside.
Angelina steadied herself and then tilted her chin as a brilliant idea smacked her upside her head.
“What if we made it easy?”
“Whaddya mean?”
“What if we left his window uncovered and we set up a gun that we could shoot from anywhere by remote control. A motion-sensing one?”
Croix closed the window and locked it. “You want me to rig a gun that shoots sticky tracking devices at drones outside Mick’s window?”
Angelina patted her on the shoulder. “Perfect. Good idea. Make that happen.”
Croix sighed, her hands on her hips. “But—”
“Make it happen.”
“By when?”
Angelina smiled. “Yesterday.” She walked back down the hall toward Mick’s room. She tried to look cool, because it was important to make the youngster think she still had it, but she was so sun-blinded in the relatively dark hall she nearly clipped her head on a sconce. She thought she heard Croix giggle behind her.
Smartass.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Angelina took Mick’s hand in hers.
“I don’t want you to get too excited, but I think Siofra’s coming home.”
Mick remained still. Of course.
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking we can’t just sit around and wait for her to show up, and I’m here to tell you I have it covered. It’s clever. Croix is helping me. We’ll find her.”
Angelina’s phone rang and she gave Mick’s hand a pat before answering.
“Hello?”
“It’s Charlotte. Mick’s granddaughter.”
Angelina rolled her eyes. “I know who you are.”
“Right. Good. Because I need you to get me out of jail.”
“What?” Angelina’s eyes popped wide. “Where’s Harley?”
“I
