Page 66 of Playing with Trouble

I was glad the hospital had kept Christopher overnight for observation.If he’d been allowed to leave and accompanied me, only to be faced with law enforcement, the risk of him bolting because of panic was too real.I had to present this carefully for these men to take the situation seriously.

I’d had Tate in our IT department run Christopher’s records for me, just as a precaution.He didn’t have any kind of record, just as Violet had told me.Not even a sealed juvenile one.He had never been caught for his part in any petty crimes his friends from back in the day committed, so that at least helped in terms of his credibility when I laid out the entire story for the two attorneys and chief of police.

“How did it go?”Violet asked when the meeting was over and I gave her a call.

Chase was still with her, allowing me to get everything situated and put in place to intercept the burglary.“They’ll do it,” I told her.“I can’t tell you more than that but I wanted you to know that we’re a go on the plan.”

I could feel her wanting to ask more, but instead she released a deep breath and said, “Okay.”

According to Christopher, the crew was a textbook three-man operation.A driver and two inside men to do the actual pilfering.Christopher only knew two of them from back in the day, David and Lewis.The third guy, Shane, was new and apparently the mastermind behind the robbery.

I sat in Christopher’s hospital room with him while he called David and told him if they would lay off his sister, he would help them by making sure the security system was shut down during the time they planned to lift the crown.

“I knew you’d see reason,” David said, and set a day and time three days from now.“Do your part, and your sister will be just fine.”

“And remember,” Shane warned, “even a whiff of cops…”

“I know, I know,” Christopher said irritably, and hung up the phone.

Christopher went into work as usual on the designated day, handling security for the new exhibit, his boss already briefed on what would happen after closing.I dressed casually, grabbed my laptop, and set up at the café across the street well before the museum shut down so I could keep an eye on things as they unfolded.

The museum was open from ten to five, which wasn’t unusual hours, especially for such a small place.Once it was closed, Christopher would stay on-site and monitor the security all evening.He didn’t have the graveyard shift, but that was a part of the plan.Most people tried to rob a place late at night, but this crew was actually going to try and rob it pretty early in the evening.

With Christopher “helping them” by erasing over the video tapes and unlocking the security systems, the trio would be able to stroll in, take the valuables, and stroll back out, without attracting attention for hanging around at an odd hour.

“My boss got this extra fancy security to protect the crown,” Christopher explained while we’d been discussing the details of what would happen.“But I can still override the system with a code.”

I could see why having this position and knowledge put Christopher in such a bad predicament.He had been told by Shane to shut the system down, and try to pass it off as a glitch.But Christopher wasn’t a total idiot.He knew they were setting him up to take the fall.

Any halfway decent cop would immediately know that Christopher had been involved.While the other three undoubtedly had plans to get out of town scot-free, the police would focus on Christopher and prosecute him in absence of the other men, and he wouldn’t even know where they had gone.It was a no-win situation for Christopher, but at least now he had a fighting chance of getting exonerated by helping the police catch the true robbers.

I played Solitaire on my computer until the museum closed.About an hour later my phone finally pinged with a text from Chris:they’re coming in.

Hit record,I texted back.

One advantage to using our security firm instead of the police?We had better toys and cool gadgets.Tate had outfitted Christopher with a set of micro-cameras that fed directly into our firm’s secure cloud.Once he activated them, they’d start recording automatically.The main security system would be down, just like the crew wanted, but our cameras would still capture everything.Faces, voices, the plan, the theft.

And because we’d already gotten a judge to sign off on a warrant in advance, every second of footage was admissible.

I signed into my company account, pulled up the live feed, and slipped on my headphones.A moment later, I saw and heard them.

Two men walked into the museum with Christopher after he’d let them in.One of them stepped forward immediately, taking control without hesitation.That had to be Shane.

“Everything’s off?”Shane asked, glancing around.He jerked his chin at the other guy.“Double check.”

The second man—either David or Lewis, I wasn’t sure—went over and examined the security panel, then the display cases holding the crown and other artifacts.They were both wearing ski masks over their faces, which was smart of them, but it wouldn’t help in the end.Not with the audio we were recording.

A moment later, he returned.“Yeah, everything’s off, just like he said.”

“I knew you’d cooperate.”I could practically hear Shane’s grin through the mask.“You’re stubborn as hell, kid.You’d be a solid asset to the team if you’d learn to listen and take orders without the attitude.”

Christopher glared at him.“Just take the damn thing and go.”

“All right, all right.”Shane put his hands up.“I’m just saying, the boys told me lots of fun stories about you back in the day.You’d fit right in if you ditched this place and came with us.”

“No, thank you.”

He shrugged.“Suit yourself.”