Read Online 1 - Artscape: Ike Schwartz Mystery 1 by Frederick Ramsay - Free Book Online
Authors: Frederick Ramsay
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get nailed for the whole job and we are clean. Okay, you people lie low. Stay out of town and out of sight. Grafton, you go get your gear together, and all of you be ready by nine o’clock. We will move into the area at ten forty-five, and we should be out by five the next morning. Let’s go, Angelo.”
Donati and his sidekick-shadow-bodyguard oiled their way out the door and into the night. Red lit another cigarette and sighed.
“I’m going out, just as soon as those guys clear the area.”
“Out. Are you crazy? That is the last thing you need to do.”
“Sorry, but I need a drink. I’ll just drop down to the bar and get me a six-pack. You want one?”
More than anything in the world, Harry wanted a six-pack. A dozen—enough to numb the fear and the sordid sense of personal betrayal he was fighting. A drink. He licked his lips.
“No, I guess not, got to do some more planning. Thanks anyway.”
“See ya in a coupla.”
Chapter Eight
Harry crouched in the bushes east of the building. He’d worked his way to that point from the access road through the woods and into the dark side of the building. Avoiding the surveillance cameras had been simple enough, but he did not know if there were trip alarms in the approaches or not. At last, he decided he was overcautious and moved through the trees. Everything looked pretty much as he expected—no activity at the building, no sound, nothing out of the ordinary. Then a car crossed the parking lot and nosed into the trees. He could make out two heads in the front seat. The headlights extinguished and the motor went silent.
He glanced at his watch. Donati would contact him soon. There was nothing to do now but wait.
***
“Anything on the tube, boys?” Loyal Parker stuck his head in the campus police center. The eleven to seven shift had just come on duty. Jake Tarbull hunched over the television monitors displaying various walkways, corridors, and buildings on campus.
“Naw, Chief, one of them quiet nights. Wait a minute, there’s a car pulling into Paradise.”
Two screens monitored the Art Storage Compound. One covered the interior, the other the parking lot and the short lover’s lane that adjoined the facility’s parking lot—Paradise.
“Do you want me to ask Hank to go down and chase them kids away?”
Parker shook his head. “No, don’t think so. I’m about to go off duty. I’ll slip down there and do it myself on the way home.”
He left the building and went to his car, picked up the large flashlight he kept there, and struck out through the boxwoods toward the ravine next to the lane. He had made the trip many times. Chasing, or more accurately catching kids in the act was a duty he reserved for himself.
***
Harry watched the car for a few more minutes, then made his way to the east wall of the building where he had left his equipment, and waited for Donati’s call. He worried about the car. A car meant people, and people meant complications. If it did not leave soon, it would be there for the night, at least as far as the guards up at the main building were concerned. That might provoke one of them to come down to check. Donati had not allowed for enough people to watch the car and everything else. He waited another minute, and then Donati’s voice crackled in his earphone.
“Grafton, what’s the holdup?”
“There’s a car parked about one hundred yards from the building. It’s been down there for ten minutes.”
“I’ll send Red down to look. Listen, I don’t care, go ahead. We’ll just have to risk it.”
Harry decided to wait another five minutes. When the car did not move, he went ahead with interrupting the closed circuit television surveillance.
The system was not an integral part of the alarm system. It had been added only recently and not very expertly. All of the cables and power lines were exposed and exited from a simple junction box attached to the back of the building. Surprisingly, it was just out of range
Donati and his sidekick-shadow-bodyguard oiled their way out the door and into the night. Red lit another cigarette and sighed.
“I’m going out, just as soon as those guys clear the area.”
“Out. Are you crazy? That is the last thing you need to do.”
“Sorry, but I need a drink. I’ll just drop down to the bar and get me a six-pack. You want one?”
More than anything in the world, Harry wanted a six-pack. A dozen—enough to numb the fear and the sordid sense of personal betrayal he was fighting. A drink. He licked his lips.
“No, I guess not, got to do some more planning. Thanks anyway.”
“See ya in a coupla.”
Chapter Eight
Harry crouched in the bushes east of the building. He’d worked his way to that point from the access road through the woods and into the dark side of the building. Avoiding the surveillance cameras had been simple enough, but he did not know if there were trip alarms in the approaches or not. At last, he decided he was overcautious and moved through the trees. Everything looked pretty much as he expected—no activity at the building, no sound, nothing out of the ordinary. Then a car crossed the parking lot and nosed into the trees. He could make out two heads in the front seat. The headlights extinguished and the motor went silent.
He glanced at his watch. Donati would contact him soon. There was nothing to do now but wait.
***
“Anything on the tube, boys?” Loyal Parker stuck his head in the campus police center. The eleven to seven shift had just come on duty. Jake Tarbull hunched over the television monitors displaying various walkways, corridors, and buildings on campus.
“Naw, Chief, one of them quiet nights. Wait a minute, there’s a car pulling into Paradise.”
Two screens monitored the Art Storage Compound. One covered the interior, the other the parking lot and the short lover’s lane that adjoined the facility’s parking lot—Paradise.
“Do you want me to ask Hank to go down and chase them kids away?”
Parker shook his head. “No, don’t think so. I’m about to go off duty. I’ll slip down there and do it myself on the way home.”
He left the building and went to his car, picked up the large flashlight he kept there, and struck out through the boxwoods toward the ravine next to the lane. He had made the trip many times. Chasing, or more accurately catching kids in the act was a duty he reserved for himself.
***
Harry watched the car for a few more minutes, then made his way to the east wall of the building where he had left his equipment, and waited for Donati’s call. He worried about the car. A car meant people, and people meant complications. If it did not leave soon, it would be there for the night, at least as far as the guards up at the main building were concerned. That might provoke one of them to come down to check. Donati had not allowed for enough people to watch the car and everything else. He waited another minute, and then Donati’s voice crackled in his earphone.
“Grafton, what’s the holdup?”
“There’s a car parked about one hundred yards from the building. It’s been down there for ten minutes.”
“I’ll send Red down to look. Listen, I don’t care, go ahead. We’ll just have to risk it.”
Harry decided to wait another five minutes. When the car did not move, he went ahead with interrupting the closed circuit television surveillance.
The system was not an integral part of the alarm system. It had been added only recently and not very expertly. All of the cables and power lines were exposed and exited from a simple junction box attached to the back of the building. Surprisingly, it was just out of range
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