“Actually, I will come with you and search your things to make sure you didn’t steal anything else. And if we notice anything missing, I will come after you.”
Perfect. She can search my stuff, see there’s nothing out of the ordinary, and escort me out. Painless, effortless, and clean.
In half an hour, I’ll be free from this tedious task and back with my man. Then, all we’ll have to do is wait for Becker’s lavish birthday party on Saturday. Now that I know this place like the back of my hand, it’ll be interesting to experience it from the other side of things.
I’m coming back as a guest, not the help. A guest with a purpose and a will of steel.
Chapter 35
Of course, we don’t stay idle during the two days we have until Becker’s reception. On Friday morning, I get us the same laptop as Becker’s hidden one, and we practice opening it up as fast as we can to access the hard drive below and pull it out. It quickly becomes clear that Andrea is better than I am at it, so we decide she’ll be the one opening the laptop while I prepare the cloning station and everything we’ll need.
Late in the afternoon, I accompany her to meet with Paola, who replaced the office key she’s supposed to leave at Becker’s penthouse after every shift with a similar-looking one. We have it copied in ten minutes, and despite offering Paola one last payment, she refuses, arguing she got more than enough of our money. She wishes us luck with the rest of our endeavor and says we can always contact her again if we need more help.
“If you find out what happened to Amalia, can you let me know?” she asks before we part.
“Amalia?”
“The Colombian girl who disappeared. Amalia. Amalia Camacho. I’ve been worried about her.”
We agree with her request, of course, and after thanking her one last time for all her help, we return to the apartment.
In the evening, since we know something will go on at Becker’s place, we drive there with my laptop and park right at the corner of the building, ready to observe the walk-in entrance and the access to the underground parking lot.
Five minutes before seven, we see a black van with tinted windows turn in there. The ambient light allows us both to recognize Horvat at the wheel and, next to him, a man we’ve never seen. As soon as they’re out of view, I pull up the security feed from the parking lot’s cameras. Becker’s cameras are turned off, and I can’t turn them back on without attracting attention. The building’s cameras still run, though.
That allows us to see them park by the elevators, then the two men exit the vehicle. When they open the sliding door on the side, two more men come out, each dragging a woman with them by the arm. They’re wearing short and tight party dresses, and blindfolds cover their eyes. They aren’t tied up, though, and don’t seem to resist their handlers. Are they here of their own volition? Are the blindfolds a way to prevent them from knowing where they’re being taken?
We watch, concerned and perplexed, as one of the men tugs a third woman out. Then, they bring the women to the elevator, the one reserved for the penthouse, and they disappear from our sight. This is all we can get, as the camera in there is linked to Becker’s security system.
About an hour later, more cars arrive. Ten in total, all personal cars with their drivers, which will make it easy to find out who’s attending. From those cars, we see ten men come out, all wearing fully black suits and black domino masks. I take as many screenshots as I can, but I doubt I’ll find their identities, given the low resolution and the masks covering half of their faces. The plates will have to do.
We wait some more, just in case, but when we’ve seen no further activity for a while, Andrea asks, “Do we stay to see them all leave?”
“We can monitor their exit from the apartment. I got the cars’ plates, we saw the process, I think we have everything we need.”
“Okay, let’s go, then. I don’t know what will happen to those women up there, but it’s creeping me out.”
I don’t need to be told twice, also feeling uncomfortable given what we witnessed. We spend a quiet evening at the apartment, while the surveillance camera from the building’s parking lot runs on my computer. Andrea works on her laptop dismantling skills as I triple-check everything we’ll need for tomorrow evening.
“Okay, Iris is ready,” I say, proudly looking back at the lines of code I was working on.
“Yay! So, how does it work?”
“She’ll watch out for Becker coming toward his office, and if she sees that happen, she’ll completely cut the building’s electricity for about thirty seconds. That should give us enough time to strategize and get rid of whatever evidence we have on us. If Becker catches us in his office, he will have grounds to get us searched.”
“Making it the whole building was really smart. It’ll look like a random electrical issue, not a targeted one.”
“Exactly. We’ll keep our phones’ flashlights on, so we don’t waste a second in case it happens. I’ve also programmed her to loop the camera feeds on my signal, so we can sneak into Becker’s office without being discovered.”
“Damn,baby… You did all that in four hours?”
“Six. I started working on it earlier today.”
“That’s still impressive. We now have someone watching out for us.”
“Iris isn’t someone.”
Andrea frowns. “She is. Stop being so mean to our eldest daughter.”
