be challenging, unless I had a reason to be parked on the street.”
“I’ll ring Kathryn. She seems to know every highway, truck, and driver across the country. I’ll ring you back.” Charles immediately called Kathryn.
“What’s up?” Kathryn bellowed into the phone. Her voice was as big as she was tall.
“We need to get Avery a utility vehicle pronto.”
“He’s in Aspen, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I’m on it. An hour. Two, tops,” she replied in her husky voice.
“Thank you.” Charles immediately called Avery. “An hour. Maybe two.”
“Roger that.” Avery was still deciding if he should park the SUV down the road and try to get a glimpse of the property from behind.
He drove a little farther and found a small area on the side of the road where he could stop and be off the main drag. He sat for a few minutes to get a sense of the traffic flow. There was none. He got out of the car and walked through the woods that surrounded the five-million-dollar property. There didn’t seem to be any activity near the house. He wondered if Steinwood had the same flimsy security at the house as he had at the office. He pulled out a pair of small binoculars and started scanning the trees. And then he looked for fencing. Nothing he could see yet. He turned his attention to the roofline of the house. On each corner was a camera. He could count five from his vantage point. But they were all pointing toward the garage. Odd. Must be something going on in there. Once he got back to his motel, he’d go over the blueprints again and see if the security system was listed. He would also be eavesdropping on the conversations taking place in the reception area at the office to determine when the coast was clear for a break-in.
By the time he got back to his room, Charles had called with information about a utility truck. “Kathryn said she is going to have to fly to Denver and pick up the rig herself. She’ll meet you in Aspen around nine. This way, you can get the truck outside the house before he leaves in the morning.”
Avery Snowden checked his watch. He had no idea what time the Live-Life-Long office closed for the day. There had been no indication anywhere. They probably conformed their schedule to their patients’. After all, the patients were the ones paying the exorbitant fees, and God knows what else.
His ears perked up when he heard a man’s voice getting louder in the background.
“That about does it for today, ladies. Enjoy your evening.”
From what Avery could glean, the doctor was leaving the office, and the women were preparing to do the same. The woo-woo music stopped, and he could hear them rustling and chatting about what they were going to do for the evening. One was meeting her boyfriend to go dancing, and the other was meeting her sister for a movie. Nothing suspicious about either of their plans.
He would wait another hour or so before he returned. That would still give him several hours before he had to meet up with Kathryn. The plan was to park on different streets and meet at a Starbucks, where they would exchange keys and directions to their vehicles. Kathryn would take one rental back to Denver. That would still leave Avery with a rental and a utility truck.
He reviewed the office blueprints again. No security cameras in the front. Just one at the rear door, facing in one direction. There was also an alarm system that could be dismantled by a three-year-old with access to the Internet . Cripes. You can learn to do almost anything from YouTube. Avery shook his head. What a world. He laughed again at himself. Indeed.
After donning a black running suit, black cap, black gloves, and black sneakers, Avery slipped out of the motel and walked down the street to the first of the two rentals. He double-checked his gear. He had magnets for the alarm system and four bugging devices. He parked the car a few blocks away, began a slight jog in the direction of the office, and made a turn onto the street behind it. Behind the buildings, there was a small walkway running parallel to the street. It was where the trash bins and electric and gas meters were located. It would qualify as an alley, but they would never call it an alley in this town. No, it was considered public works access.