Page 41 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Thirty

Jesse cursed the full moon. Only shadows were distinguishable within the palm and banyan trees where she and Cole crouched beside the wall outside Menendez’s hacienda. Once they got over the wall it would be a different story. The bright moonlight could prove a huge liability.

Cole leaned a shoulder against the wall and cupped his hands between his knees. Jesse stepped into his laced fingers and he hoisted her up. She gingerly ran her fingers along the top of the wall until she found two spots devoid of embedded glass shards and pulled herself up. She peered over the wall at the mansion. The light in Menendez’s study glowed through the curtains of double French doors. She scanned the grounds for guards, found the area deserted, then lifted herself onto the wall. Two seconds, Cole had hoisted himself up beside her, and they dropped onto the ground.

He pointed to his eyes, then pointed to either side of a gnarled banyan tree with a trunk ten feet thick, meaning he’d keep watch from the cover of the tree as she ran ahead. Jesse ran to the right and Cole to the left. She hurried around the tree, crawled under a low palm and halted. Palm trees dotted the grounds. To her left, Cole emerged at the base of a pigmy palm twenty feet away. He opened his hand, palm down, indicating all clear from his vantage point.

A shadow, then a red ember flared in Jesse’s peripheral vision. She pressed closer to the tree as a man with a machine gun slung over his shoulder ambled along the path that encircled the house. The cigarette he drew on burned red hot at the tip. He might as well be a flashing lighthouse in the darkness. The guard abruptly turned on his heel and strolled back the way he’d come. Once he disappeared around the corner of the house, Jesse turned to Cole and pointed at the mansion.

He sprinted across the yard, running low from tree to tree. Jesse followed, dodging two palms, then a third, before reaching the south wall of the mansion behind Cole. She sidled between bushes shading the foundation, hugged her back to the wall, then pressed the audio button on her watch. “Twenty-three, fourteen,” the voice said. Another fifteen minutes before Menendez left for his rendezvous with his lover.

Cole reached into the side pocket of his ops vest, withdrew the cell phone scrambler, switched it on, and laid it between the bushes and the house. The light in the study went dark. He exchanged a glance with her, then stepped from the bushes and linked his fingers for another boost up. Within the bushes, Jesse pretended to swat a bug on her ankle and snapped off the cell phone scrambler.

She squeezed through the bushes, then grasped his shoulder and stepped into his cupped hands. He launched her upward. She was airborne for an instant, then threw both arms around one of the thick columns that supported the balcony railing. She shimmied up the stone baluster, adrenaline pounding through her veins.

Jesse reached the railing, wrapped her arms around the cold stone, and tapped her feet together. Cole leaped, caught hold of her right ankle, then grabbed her left. She felt the strain in her arm and healing shoulder muscles as she pulled him up with her legs until he reached the bottom lip of the balcony.

He grabbed the balcony lip. With the sudden release of dead weight, she scrambled over the railing, followed by Cole. They hit the stone balcony noiselessly, paused for a split second, then rushed to opposite corners near the house. Jesse tensed in anticipation of the guard who would be patrolling the section of ground below in three minutes or less.

Two minutes later, steps sounded to the right. A guard stopped, waited for a few seconds, then returned the way he came. Jesse glanced at Cole. He nodded at the doors. She sidled to the double French doors and tried the handle. Locked. She squatted, and pulled out a stiff plastic card from her front pocket, then worked it between the doors until the latch popped. She stepped inside the study with Cole inches behind.

Jesse donned the UV glasses. The interior lit up in a blue glow around her. A second later, another glow appeared around Cole. He faced her, two brilliant points of light shined from the temple hinges. She pulled her glasses down her nose and peered over the frame. The room was pitch-black with no sign of visible light from Cole’s glasses.

Jesse pushed the glasses up and scanned the room. A massive oak desk and two carved guest chairs dominated the left side of the room. The Persian rug reminded her of the one in her grandfather’s dining room. To the right, four armchairs encircled a coffee table. The odor of cigar smoke hung in the air. Floor to ceiling bookcases lined the walls, broken by an eight-by-five-foot, solid wood door. The high ceiling and the corners of the room lay in shadow, revealing the range limit of the UV glasses. Dammit, no computer.

“I’ll take the desk,” Jesse whispered into the mic.

Cole nodded and headed toward the big door. “I’ll comb the bookcases.”

She headed for the desk. The judge had a Tiffany banker’s lamp and hand-carved humidor for his cigars. Only the best for high-paid criminals. Jesse reached into her vest as she dropped to a squat beside the desk, pulled out the air link sniffer and hit the on button. Three lights lit, then two went dark, leaving only the power indicator lit. She glanced over the top of the desk. Cole faced away from her thumbing through books.

Jesse looked back at the sniffer. A second green light now glowed.

The sniffer had located a cell-phone signal.