Allyson had been listening to the entire conversation between the other thief and Monique van der Wahl. She’d placed a bug on the external wall of the Dutch woman’s home. It was a device Allyson had used a few times before. The receiver was able to receive clear sound from a small area without much interference, and it didn’t require her to drill into the wall, something she wouldn’t have had time for. On the black market, this sort of technology would go for thirty- to forty-thousand dollars each. She’d got it for almost nothing. Well, nothing and a ten-thousand-dollar Bvlgari Diagono. The underworld dealer she used had an affinity for the finer things in life, though most of the time he refused to pay retail for them.
She pulled the tiny wireless receiver unit out of her front pocket and set the device on a slender white dresser. The piece of high-end tech was ruined now. Shame. It wasn’t like they grew on trees. She could get another one at some point, but it would cost her.
Discarding any nostalgia about the unit, Allyson started formulating a plan to escape the city. The police would be looking for her but as far as she knew, they didn’t know her name. Of that, she was fairly certain. They may have captured the other woman, but without knowing for sure, she had to assume the thief was still out there — in spite of the circumstances in which she’d been left.
Allyson had watched from a safe distance as the Spaniard entered the van der Wahl home just minutes before she could. She was furious at herself for not getting there first, but she’d brought along her little electronic backup plan. She’d also taken a picture with her phone of the other thief as she left the residence. Good thing I just upgraded to the waterproof version, she thought as she struggled to get the device out of her soaked pocket. She tapped the home button and was relieved to see that the promise the phone’s maker made had stayed true. The screen lit up and revealed her home page full of apps. She’d look at the picture of the woman later and run it through her database. There was probably nothing there, but Allyson had other ways to find people’s identities.
Out of nowhere, the boat suddenly shuddered and bumped hard into the side of the canal. Allyson wavered and nearly fell over sideways but caught herself against the wall near the bedroom door. A deep rubbing sound resonated from the starboard side of the boat, and she stepped out of the bedroom to see what was going on.
A boat of similar make but different colors was grinding up against hers as it passed by. It wasn’t going very fast, and she wondered how someone who was accustomed to navigating the narrow canals could be so careless. For a brief second, she was able to see through one of the windows in the other boat and caught a glimpse of the steering wheel. No one was there.
She frowned. Where was the driver?
Then it occurred to her. The boat was coming from where the altercation had happened. Either the boat’s owner had carelessly stepped away from the steering wheel for a minute, or the other thief had used it as a diversion to draw away the police.
Sure enough, she saw a man in uniform traversing the side of the boat in an attempt to gain access to the cabin. Another one was on the roof and crawling forward.
“Clever,” she whispered to herself.
She admired the creativity but at the same time knew that if the other thief was still out there, that could mean more trouble in the future.
For now, Allyson had to get out of there without being recognized. She looked back at the clothes in the closet and groaned. The outfits were much too girly for her tastes, but at this point, she didn’t have a choice.
She slipped out of her wet clothes and underwear and grabbed the least offensive flowery dress available. She wasn’t about to look for replacement underwear. That would have to wait until she got back to the hotel. The only problem was getting out of the area without looking suspicious. For the moment, Allyson was safe. Well, safe enough. But once the police checked the other boat and realized their suspect wasn’t aboard, they might start checking other boats, including this one. Her eyes wandered into the closet. There were several boxes stacked on a shelf, each about the size of a milk crate. She glanced into the bathroom at the toilet, a standard size in spite of it being on a boat. She then shifted her feet and peeked through the doorway into the kitchen. The cabinets were fairly small, too small for a person to fit inside, which was exactly what she was hoping. She took one more look at the bed and then set into motion.
This kitchen better have a knife.
12
Adriana checked the door to the boat’s cabin and found it to be unlocked. Not surprising. The only way to get in, other than the ledge she’d just used, was to go through the home. The owners probably figured that to be an unlikely danger.
She stepped inside the wheelhouse and checked the ignition. The keys weren’t there. She checked the obvious places first: a nearby drawer, an overhead cabinet, and a bowl with loose change and a few nuts and bolts in it. Nothing.
She didn’t have time to override the electrical ignition. That could take anywhere from two to three minutes, maybe more. She had to go now. Exasperated, she was about to leave the boat when she saw her salvation sitting on a dining table near the door. She’d walked right by them.
Adriana stepped over and grabbed the keys then hurried back to the dashboard and shoved them in the ignition. She turned the key and heard the motor grumble underneath her in the rear of the boat. She turned the wheel slightly, pointing the vessel into the center of the canal and then pulled the lever into gear. She had to act fast. The slack on the moorings would be gone in seconds if she left the boat in gear, and getting them unhooked would be nearly impossible if they went taut. Her hand pushed the lever back into idle, and she turned toward the entrance.
She ran out the door and hopped back onto the landing, first undoing the ropes on the front and then hurrying to the back. The boat’s motor had already tightened the mooring,but with a little effort, she pulled enough slack into it to let it loose. Five seconds later,she was back in the boat and pulling the lever back again, this time a little farther to make sure it had enough speed to make it look like someone was trying to get away. The boat lurched forward, and she sprinted back for the exit. Adriana jumped and landed on the patio, sure to stay out of the line of sight from the opening on the other side of the home where the unconscious policeman was being attended to by his comrades.
Easing back slowly, she moved away from the canal, carefully watching the other side and along the ledge where she’d just crossed. No one had noticed her yet. Then she heard the voices of the first officers to arrive at the scene. They were yelling in Dutch so it was difficult to understand, but she figured they were pointing at the boat as it skimmed by, narrowly missing a boat of similar style with a reddish wooden cabin.
She didn’t need to stick around to watch the cops try to jump aboard. Her distraction would work. It had to. She spun around and clasped the door handle. A slight twist revealed it was unlocked, and Adriana cracked it open and slipped inside.
The room was close to twenty feet wide, stretching from a dining nook on one side to a study on the other. It appeared to be a sitting room. An antique wooden coffee table sat in the center, with a beige cloth couch and two matching chairs on either side. A grandfather clock in the corner ticked loudly, the only sound in an otherwise perfectly silent room.
The home’s decor was a mishmash of current trends and something out of a 1950s American rancher. She closed the door and padded into the foyer, a narrow sort of antechamber with a staircase rising up to the next floor, lined by a cherry wood banister. Pictures hung from the wall, ascending along the stairs. A young man with short brown hair was in most of them. He looked like he was in his twenties. A few featured an older woman who looked to be in her seventies. She’d have to send them some money for any damage done to their boat.