Fifth Ave 01 - Fifth Avenue (5 page)

There was the deep sound of a bass guitar being plucked behind them.
 
Elizabeth looked at Spocatti and said, “Mr. Benedetti, this morning three bombs exploded on top of this building.
 
Several men were hurt, my daughter nearly killed.
 
Tonight, I think we all know that anything could happen--and it possibly might.
 
With such amateurs on our security staff, it looks as if you’re going to have your work cut out for you.
 
I hope everything goes well.”
 

Amused, Spocatti watched her walk away.

George and Celina Redman arrived ten minutes before their guests.

They left the family elevator together and moved in two separate directions.
 
Spocatti watched Celina.
 
He thought she was stunning in her red-sequined dress.
 
Her stride was long and determined--she moved with her mother’s confidence.
 

Elizabeth was standing at the canopied entrance, speaking to the four members of security stationed there.
 
Celina placed a hand on her mother's back as she approached one of the guards, plucked the cigarette from the man’s hand, dropped it into a nearby ashtray and turned him so he faced the windows.
 
She pointed at the street.

The woman was good.
 
Not only had she saved a life earlier this morning, but she was keeping security focused so no harm came to anyone this evening.
 

When it came time to kill her, it would be a waste.

George Redman was in a world of his own.
 
He was moving about the lobby, looking with pride at the tables, the flowers, the elaborate place settings.
 
Spocatti knew from Louis Ryan that owning this building on Fifth Avenue was George Redman’s dream.
 
He knew how hard the man had worked for it, how happy he was that it was finally his.

Spocatti glanced at his watch.
 
Too bad it won't be yours for long.

Behind him, the band began playing “My Blue Heaven.”
 
Spocatti looked across the lobby and saw through the windows the first guests alighting from their limousines.

The party was beginning.
 
George and Elizabeth and Celina were at the entrance, waiting to greet, to hug, to be congratulated.
 
It wasn’t until Spocatti slipped behind the waterfall and stole into one of the elevators that he realized the youngest daughter wasn’t here.
 

The outcast, he thought fleetingly, was missing.

*
 
*
 
*

The elevator doors whispered shut behind him.

Spocatti reached into his jacket pocket and removed the computer-coded card Ryan gave him earlier.
 
He inserted it into the illumined slot on the shiny control panel, punched into the keypad the eight-digit combination he had set to memory, and waited.

For a moment, nothing happened.
 
Then a computerized voice said, “Clearance granted, Mr. Collins.
 
Please select a level.”
 
So it was somebody named Collins who sold out to Ryan, Spocatti thought.
 
He pressed the glowing button marked 76.

The elevator began its ascent.

Spocatti removed the card from the slot and withdrew his gun.
 
As the car slowed to a stop, he stepped to one side.
 
The doors slid open.
 
Sensing, judging, he peered out, saw no one and relaxed.

Now for the fun part.

The corridor was long and well furnished.
 
On the ivory walls were paintings by the old masters, the door at the end of the hall was crafted of mahogany, the wood floor gleamed as though it had just been waxed.
 
On a delicate side table, a Tiffany lamp cast amber rainbows of light.

Spocatti leaned back inside the elevator.
 
To any one else, this would have seemed nothing more than a richly appointed corridor.
 
To him, it was an obstacle course.

He holstered his gun, removed a slender pair of infrared glasses from his jacket pocket and put them on.
 
Instantly, everything took on an eerie red glow.
 
He had seen no video cameras in the hallway, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.
 
The paintings could be decoys.
 
He'd need to risk it.

He looked back into the corridor.
 
Directly in front of the elevator was a thin beam of light that would have been invisible without the glasses.
 
Moving carefully, he dipped beneath it, knowing that if he accidentally severed it, a sensor would detect the difference in temperature and he would not hear the silent alarm as it alerted the police.

He moved on, the web of beams becoming more difficult to elude as he neared the door that concealed Redman International’s vast cluster of computers.
 
At one point, he had to crawl on his stomach.
 
A moment later, he had to jump twice and roll.
 
I could have already tripped the alarm and not even know it
, he thought.
 
The thrill he felt from not knowing charged him.

He reached the door.
 
Spocatti knew it was reinforced with at least three inches of steel.
 
Ryan told him there would be a small keypad at the base of the door that, upon entering a six-digit code, would not only open the door, but turn off all surveillance equipment as well.

He knelt, found the keypad--and saw that it was protected by a series of beams crisscrossing in front of it.
 
He swore beneath his breath and looked again at his watch.
 
Ten minutes had passed.
 
I want to be out of here in thirty
.
 

He studied the beams.
 
Slanting in various angles from floor to ceiling, they formed a grid-like pattern that was so small in design, his fingers would almost certainly sever one of them if he tried reaching through the tiny, diamond-shaped gaps.
 
He needed something long and thin to stick through the openings and tap out the code.
 
Like a pencil, perhaps.
 
Or a pen.
 
But he had neither.
 
Mind racing, he looked around the room, but there was nothing here he could use and it infuriated him.
 
He had come so close.

And then it struck him.
 
The answer to his problem was on his head.
 

He removed the glasses from his face and looked at the bows that extended from the green frames. They were long and thin and curved at the end. One would fit perfectly through the tiny gaps.
 
He snapped off a bow.
 
Then, while holding the glasses to his eyes with one hand, he gingerly went to work with the other.

In just a few moments, it was over.
 
He entered the code Ryan gave him, the infrared beams of light winked off and the door leading to the computer room swung open on its own.
 

Spocatti withdrew his gun and stood.
 
He made a quick surveillance of the room and saw nothing inside save for a hive of computers.

He went to them and knew he was in trouble the moment he turned on a computer.
 
As the screen flickered to life, he noticed on the front of the computer an illuminated slot that differed slightly from the slot on the elevator’s control panel.
 
And then the following words appeared on the screen: PLEASE SWIPE ACCESS CARD.

The only card Ryan gave him was the computer-coded card he had used to access the elevator.
 
He removed it from his jacket pocket, swiped it and waited.
 
The screen went blank.
 
A moment later, a new message flashed on the screen: ACCESS DENIED.
 

And there it was--Ryan screwed up.
 
He didn't supply him with the correct card.
 
Spocatti felt a spark of rage, but stilled it.
 
He could hack the machine, but there was no time.
 
He turned the computer off and looked around the room.
 
There were no file cabinets here, only desks with locked drawers in which he assumed Redman would keep nothing vital.
 
Spocatti knew that everything he needed was in these computers...or safe in Redman’s office.

He looked at the time on his watch.
 
He still had twenty minutes before he wanted to be back in the lobby.
 
Ryan told him that Redman’s office was on the third floor of his triplex.

If he hurried....

CHAPTER FIVE

High above Redman International in her parents’ triplex, Leana Redman stood at a window at the end of a long hallway.
 
She was looking down at the endless line of traffic on Fifth.

She was thirty minutes late for the party.
 
Her parents would be irritated and the press would be wondering where she was--but that's exactly as Leana wanted it.
 
In no way did she want to be part of this event.
 
And yet she knew she had to go.
 
If she didn’t, her parents would disown her.

Before she went, she decided to have a drink first.

In the library, she bent to the small refrigerator that was at her feet and removed a bottle of champagne.
 
She poured herself a glass and thought again of the man who had followed her earlier.
 
His threat still chilled her.
 
She wondered if she had made a mistake by not going to the police and knew now that she probably had.

She went to her father's desk, turned on the green-shaded lamp and sat down.
 
On it were several framed photographs of the family.
 
Leana chose one of her and Celina.
 
Here, they were children--Leana, seven; Celina, eleven--and she was surprised to see how happy they looked.
 
In the meadow behind their Connecticut home, the girls were holding hands, resting against a tree stump and wearing huge straw hats that cast their faces in shadow.
 
Behind them, Elizabeth was laughing, her blonde hair shining in the sun.

She wondered when her feelings for Celina changed.
 
The answer came at once.
 
When Dad began taking her to Redman International.

It was late.
 
No matter how much she didn’t want to go, she had to join the party. Turning the picture face down on the desk, she flipped off the light and left for the bar.
 
As she bent to put the bottle of champagne back into the refrigerator, she caught a glimpse of herself in the windows beside her.
 
There was also something else in the reflection.
 
The door to the library was opening.

She felt a start and turned.
 
The door was almost fully open now.
 
A flag of light spilled into the room.
 
She was about to ask who was there when a man peered inside.
 
He didn't see her--Leana was at the opposite end of the room, partly concealed by shadow.

He stood in the doorway, sensing, judging, his concentration intent.
 
Something in his left hand glinted and Leana saw that it was a gun.

She stood completely still, barely breathing.
 
Although she wasn’t absolutely certain, he resembled the man who had followed her earlier....