Hit List (Stone Barrington #53)(21)

“I was getting a tiny flash in the corner of my eye. Must be reflected sunlight.”

“Did it have a color?” Dino asked.

“Green or red, I’m not sure.”

Dino shrugged and went back to his cricket match.

The flash came again, disturbing Stone. “I can’t read with this little light going off,” he said.

“I don’t see anything.”

“It’s infrequent, and I can’t tell where it’s coming from.” Stone returned to his book.

“I see it,” Dino said. “It’s right there.”

“Something inside the heating vent?” Stone asked.

The flash came again. “Got it,” Stone said. He stared at the spot as he approached the vent. The flash recurred, and he realized that it was coming from a tiny space between the molding and the floorboards, less than a quarter of an inch, he thought.

“What the hell is that?” Stone asked.





17


Stone and Dino got down on their hands and knees and peered at the tiny space. They were rewarded with a tiny but definite flash, red this time. Stone got a powerful little flashlight from a desk drawer and directed the beam at the space. He had to wait another minute for the flash, and this time, he marked the baseboard with a felt-tipped pen.

“What do you think it is?” Dino asked.

A voice from the doorway caused them both to jump.

“What on earth are you two doing?” Viv asked.

Stone got up, took her elbow, led her to the front door and out onto the stoop.

“What are we doing?” she asked.

“Please call your London office and get a tech team over here. We’ve got some sort of electronic thing in the wall of my study, so you can’t make the call from inside.”

Viv produced a cell phone from her purse and made the call, then hung up. “Twenty minutes,” she said.

“Where is Vanessa?”

“Upstairs with half a dozen shopping bags.”

They went back to the study, and Stone held a finger to his lips when Dino started to speak. “Twenty minutes,” he whispered.

Dino shrugged and went back to his cricket match.

Twenty minutes later, Stone answered the front door, then stepped out onto the stoop and closed it behind him.

“What’s up, Mr. Barrington?” one of the young men asked.

“We’ve discovered something electronic in the wall of my study. I’d like you to take a look at it, determine what it is, then see if there are any others in the house.”

“Show us where,” he said.

Stone led them into the study, motioned for them to kneel, and pointed at the mark he had made, then nodded.

The two men put their cheeks to the floor and waited.

“You may have to wait a minute or two,” Stone said.

The team leader looked back at him and gave him a thumbs-up. He took a small meter from his case and set it on the floor next to the spot. Shortly, the needle moved straight up, then returned to zero. He got up and motioned Stone back to the front door, then outside.

“You’re right,” he said. “You’ve got an electronic device there that seems to be both receiving and transmitting. We’ll take a look around and see if there are others. You go back to the study and resume normal conversation, just not about the device.”

Stone did as he was told. Half an hour later the team returned and bent down again. The leader took a needlelike tool from his bag, swept it under the baseboard and came out with a piece of wire. He pulled on that, and a moment later a small, black object revealed itself and flashed.

“I need to get to the breaker box downstairs in the garage,” the team leader said.

Stone nodded and watched him disappear into the hallway, then, presumably, down the stairs. He was back in fifteen minutes.

“Okay,” he said in his normal voice. “You’re all clean. We found five of them scattered around the house.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any way to know how long they’ve been there,” Stone said.

“No way to tell. It’s very sophisticated equipment, though. My best guess is that it was done recently, and they had to get out before they could get everything wired.”

“Okay,” Stone said, “we are, apparently, not using the best possible door locks.”

“I’d say you’re a notch down from the best, but very good. The Israeli locks are best.”

“Do you have them?”

“In our van.”

“Please replace mine with those and give me a dozen keys.”

“Certainly,” the man said. “How long can I have?”

“Whatever it takes.”

“I reckon two hours. I can duplicate the keys in the van.”

“Go to it,” Stone said, and the man did.



* * *



—

    When the locks had been changed and the keys distributed, they gathered in the study for drinks and chatted quietly.

“Why are we whispering?” Dino asked at his normal volume.

The others laughed.

Vanessa spoke up. “Did they find one of those devices in our bedroom?” she asked.

“Ah, I’m not sure,” Stone replied, though he was certain they had.