'Hello,' replied Adam, moving towards the open terrace.
'You got your invitation?' asked the usher, stepping forward and blocking Adam's way.
'Not on me.'
'Well, this is a private wedding. Invited guests only.'
'That's good. I just wanted to see how you do these things over here.'
'You from England?'
'Damn accent always gives me away,' Adam joked.
'I'm sorry but it is a private wedding.'
'I appreciate that. But I really would love to watch the wedding. My friends here…' he indicated Billie and Tucker who were now standing behind him. '…they'll tell you I'm from Tatler. A big magazine at home. The biggest. We carry society weddings. Our readers love it. I just wanted to see what it's like over here. You never know, it might even make our pages.'
The usher looked over Adam's shoulder at Tucker, who nodded his agreement. 'Okay. There's some spare seats at the back. And you'd better wear these.' He handed Adam and Tucker two skull caps, satin white yarmulkes with 'Torrey Pines Sheraton' emblazoned across the back of them.
'That's fantastic!' exhuded Adam. 'And maybe I could meet the lucky couple afterwards?'
'I'm sure they'll love to. I tell ya, this is one of La Jolla's biggest.'
Adam could see that most of the guests had arrived, some two hundred of them. The path from the glass doors led down to a large balconied terrace. Rows of white slatted wooden chairs spread out on each side of the path, most of them filled with immaculately suited men and expensively dressed fashionable women. At the end of the path a four poster canopy, the Chuppah, had been erected, the Star of David proudly embroidered on the top. The rabbi and cantor stood next to the Chuppah, talking between themselves as Adam and the two American agents took their seats at the back. By the time Adam had sat down, he had identified where Trimmler sat, half way down on the right hand side of the path. He leant across the other two and told them where the scientist was.
'Wow! An accomplished liar as well,' said Billie sarcastically, referring to his exchange with the usher.
Adam grinned and said nothing, went back to surveying the area and its surrounds. If there was to be an attempt, then it would come from one of the many hotel room balconies that ran the full length of the terrace. There were already many people on these balconies, no doubt hotel guests who had been drawn from their rooms to watch the ceremony below.
The music, piped, surged up as the first pair of ushers and bridesmaids walked down the terrace from the glass doors to the Chuppah. They came in single pairs, the usher on the left, the white short skirted bridesmaid on the right carrying a posy of fresh cut flowers. When the first couple reached the canopy, they split, the usher to his left, the bridesmaid to her right. They waited there for the next couple to walk down the seventy foot long path.
There were ten pairs in all, ten couples dressed identically and separating as they reached the Chuppah. When they had finished, and formed themselves in a gently curved row facing the audience in the way of the Jewish faith where men and women are separated at their place of worship, the close relatives of both families walked down towards the canopy and took their place at the spare seats on the front row.
Then came the groom, escorted by two men, his father and his future father-in-law. They left him at the canopy, next to the Rabbi. Everyone turned expectantly. The bride would soon be making her appearance. Adam watched Trimmler, then kept his vigil. If someone was to strike, it would be when everyone's attention was diverted elsewhere.
He saw nothing to alarm him.
The bride came through the glass doors, accompanied by her mother and future mother-in-law, all three of them carrying lighted candles. She was a plump girl, in her mid thirties. Adam noted the small bump on her stomach, too big for the white wedding dress to hide. He watched them walk down to the groom and the waiting ceremony.
When they reached the canopy, the two elder women went to their seats at the front whilst their respective spouses came forward to escort the bride on her last short journey. As the cantor started to sing 'Mi Adier', they led her round the groom and canopy seven times in the orthodox manner. They completed the last circle at the front of the Chuppah, where the bride joined her husband-to-be in front of the rabbi. The couple held hands as the rabbi recited his blessing over the cup of wine he held in his hand.
The movement was slight, but unusual enough to catch Adam's eye.
It was to his right, up on a third floor balcony at the rear of the hotel.
The closed curtain had moved, not in the haphazard way that one would expect as a result of a sea breeze, but in a deliberate manner, as if someone was holding the curtain edge stiffly so as they could see but not be seen.
It was then he saw the black shiny barrel slide out from the curtain. It was only out for a few seconds before being withdrawn.
By the time Adam had left his seat and was through the big glass doors he had worked out which room the sniper was in. Behind him, surprised by his sudden movement, Billie and Tucker decided to follow him.
The rabbi continued his blessing.
The guests and Heinrich Trimmler sat still and excitedly watched the ceremony unfold.
Adam didn't take the lift, but found the service stairs and climbed them, two at a time. When he had reached the third level he stopped at the steel door and waited. He heard the other two rushing up behind him.
'Quietly!' he shouted down the open stairwell. 'Quietly.'
He heard them slow down as he pulled the Browning 9mm from his shoulder holster. He didn't want their noise warning whoever might be on the other side of that door, any look-out who was in the hallway. When they had reached him, he motioned them to be quiet, then slowly turned the round knob and pushed against the door.
The hallway was empty.
He came along the hallway towards the room he believed the sniper to be in.
'What the hell's going on?' asked Tucker quietly as he followed Adam.
'I saw something. In one of these rooms.'
'What?'
'I don't know. Maybe a rifle barrel.'
'Shit. You sure?'
Adam had stopped outside the room door, his hand-gun ready for any quick response. He listened, and when he was satisfied that there was no movement from inside the room, he tried the handle. It was locked, as he had expected.
'Let me get a passkey,' whispered Tucker behind him.
'No time,' answered Adam as he stepped back and fired the hand-gun at the lock, smashing it from the wood of the door and out of its latch. He lashed at the door with his foot and kicked it open, fell into the room rolling across the soft carpet with the Browning cocked and ready to fire. The room was empty but the balcony glass door was open, the curtain stretched across it and flapping outwards. As Adam came to his feet, a man stepped through the curtain, a long nosed black cylinder in his hand. He was wearing a morning suit and Adam recognised him as the usher who had let them into the wedding.
'He's got a gun,' screamed Billie behind him.
The shriek startled the usher who stepped back out onto the balcony as Adam lunged across the room and dragged him down, ripping the tube from his hands and holding the Browning muzzle to his head.
The usher screamed and started to sob uncontrollably.
The wedding ceremony came to an abrupt end as the rabbi, the couple and all the guests looked up to where the scream had come from.
That was when Adam realised the usher had been holding a long lensed camera, a Nikon F4 with a 300 mm lens, in his hand.
He'd been taking pictures for the family album from the vantage of the balcony.
Shit.
Adam put the gun into his holster and stepped away from the sobbing man.
'It's a fucking camera,' said Phil Tucker as he looked through the curtain.