her parents she was working at the college library. We made some decent scores over the first couple of weeks, worked out some kinks in our system, but then we came up against an opportunity we just couldn’t resist. Have you ever heard of Marian Singer Wellington?”
“No.”
“She is an heiress. Her grandfather was a lumber baron, and her father invented something huge, like the disposable cigarette lighter or VCR players or something. I can’t remember exactly, but whatever it was, it made them rich as hell. She was coming to stay at our hotel for some highbrow charity event, and the temptation was just too much. We started working on a plan. Mick was in security, remember, so he adjusted the cameras in the hallway away from her penthouse suite door. Then he made sure he was working that night, just to keep an eye on things. The plan was that I’d use a housekeeping key to get in the room, stash as much stuff in my toolbox as possible, then stroll away. In and out. Alice had to sit this one out because she was with her parents at the country club, and I was glad. I didn’t want anyone to see her at the hotel. This was before cell phones, so Mick had arranged for me to borrow a radio from security so he could keep me up to date in case anyone was in the hall. I didn’t need it. Everything went off without a hitch. It was seamless.”
“So, what happened?”
“Mrs. Singer Wellington called security the next morning when she realized her jewelry was missing, and because of the extraordinary dollar value, the head of security called the Miami police. The first thing the police did was look at the security footage from the hallway.”
“And they saw you?” My heart fell on his behalf. Even though I shouldn’t be rooting for Jimmy Novak the common criminal, I couldn’t help but feel something for my friend Dmitri.
“No, I was in the clear. They didn’t see me because I wasn’t on the tape, but Mick wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed. When he repositioned the cameras right outside her door, he put his damn face right up to them. He was on the surveillance tape. The cops could see him as clear as day.”
I pressed a palm to my cheek and actually felt sorry for the guy. The poor, dumb guy. I shouldn’t because he was a burglar, but so was my dear friend Dmitri, apparently.
“They accused him of taking one of the security radios, so they figured he had an accomplice. I didn’t know if he’d keep our names out of it. He and I had agreed beforehand that we’d never rat on each other, and that we’d definitely keep Alice’s name out of everything, but we also never figured we’d get caught. So Alice and I were scrambling. We didn’t dare take the stuff to the fence we’d formed a relationship with, because the robbery was all over the news, and then Mick’s face was all over the news, too. Only a handful of people knew that Mick and I were friends, but all it would take was one tip and we’d be arrested, so Alice and I took off. She dyed her hair brown, I bleached mine blond. Not a good look for me, in case you were wondering.”
I caught myself smiling. “I’m going to need a splash more of that whiskey.”
“Sure.” He freshened our drinks and was back in just a few minutes. “Where was I? Oh yeah. Alice and I were on the run, even though we had no idea if anyone was looking for us. Because we had all the stolen loot with us and we were terrified about being stopped and having the car searched, we did the most logical thing.”
“Hid the loot?”
“Sort of. We wrapped it in a towel and then rolled it into a ball and stuffed it under Alice’s dress. We figured that way, if we did get stopped, they’d think she was pregnant.”
His eyes lost some of their gleam, and his voice went soft. “Sounds like she was. She didn’t tell me.”
“She tried to. It’s all in the letters, and you haven’t yet told me how you ended up here.”
“We drove north without much of a destination in mind. Then Alice suggested Wenniway Island. She’d heard about it from some Michigan snowbirds who lived at her grandparents’ retirement village. Seemed like as good a place as