Lifeguard

Take a deep breath, Neddie… Everything was rolling on this – years of a clean record, the possibility of jail, whatever was going to happen with Tess. I told myself that this one time, it was worth the chance. And that I wasn’t doing something I hadn’t done a few times before.

I snuck around the side of the pool to the sliding rear doors. A typical latch lock. I could see art on the walls inside. I was sure there was an alarm contact on the door.

I took a metal jimmy from my back pocket and jammed it between the doorframe and the glass slider. I pried at the space. There was a little movement, but the lock would not budge. I wasn’t surprised. I wedged it in there again. Suddenly there was the slightest slip. C’mon, Neddie, hard!

I felt the glass frame give way. Suddenly, several loud, penetrating beeps resonated around the house. Lights flashed on, and my heart stood still. I looked through the glass and didn’t see anyone.

I’d done what I came to do. I was outta there!

I hurried out the same way I entered, hugging the hedges until I reached the street. I jumped back in the Bo

I felt a shot of adrenaline.

One down!

I drove back onto County, reassuring myself that the cops weren’t waiting for me at every turn. Keep cool… So far, everything was according to plan.

I drove south over to Cocoanut Row, past the Royal Poinciana Plaza. I made a right toward the lake. A street protected by hedges, called Seabreeze. This time, it was an old plantation-style ranch, like from the thirties. I parked half a block away and tried to mosey up to the house as inconspicuously as I could, though I had a timetable to keep.

I saw an ADT security sticker on the front door. That’ll scare off the robbers. I hung for a second in the hedgerow, took a look around. Down the block a woman was walking her dog, and I gave her a moment to go back inside. 7:58. Clear. I found a rock on the ground. I hurled it as hard as I could at the front window. A shrill alarm sounded and suddenly an automatic light bathed the driveway in unexpected illumination. I heard the high-pitched sound of a dog barking.

I took off, hugging the shadows, my heart beating a mile a minute. That’s two!

The last one was one of those stately Mizner mansions on El Bravo off South County below Worth Avenue. It was 8:05. I was right on schedule.

There was a huge boxwood hedge in the shape of an arch, and a heavy iron gate. I figured there must be an army of servants inside. I parked the car a block or so from the house and went around back. I wedged myself through the tall sculptured hedges. This was a house for the ages. Had to belong to some Old Guard family, Lauder or Tisch, or maybe some hotshot Internet billionaire. The glass French doors overlooking the sea were double-sided. I’d never break them.

I hugged the side of the house and came across a regular framed door I assumed led to the kitchen. I looked inside, no light.

I wrapped my hand in a cloth I was carrying and punched through a glass panel in the door. Shit… No sound.

I glanced at my watch. Mickey and the guys were ready to go in.

I reached inside the door and twisted the knob and let myself in. Jeez, Louise. I was in some kind of pantry, leading toward the rear of the house. I saw a sunroom overlooking the lawn. Next to it was a dining room. High ceilings, tapestries on the walls. A couple of candelabra that looked as if they might have belonged to the Romanovs.

God, am I crazy doing this? I knew the place was wired. Clearly the owners or the staff hadn’t put on the alarm. I was thinking I could search along the windows for the contact points. 8:10. The crew would be going in at any moment. I had to get this done. My heart was racing.

Suddenly I heard footsteps and I froze. A black woman in a white robe shuffled toward the kitchen. Must be the maid.

She looked up and saw me, and I could see by the little gag in her throat, she was more scared than I was.

She didn’t scream, her jaw just dropped. My face was hidden under the cap. There was nothing she could identify about me. I just stood there for a second and muttered, “Sorry, ma’am.” Then I bolted for the door.

I figured that in two seconds she would be on the phone to the police. That was as good as an alarm.

I ran back through the hedges and hugged the shadows to Ocean Boulevard. I jumped in the Bo

“You’re goddamn crazy, Ned Kelly!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Three house alarms in record time!

I hit the accelerator and felt the night sea breeze whip my hair. I was alongside the ocean and the moon was lighting it up and I felt an incredible thrill buzzing through my veins. I thought about Tess. How it could be with her. How I’d been marking time down there for a long time, and now I’d made the perfect score.

Chapter 10

SOMETHING DIDN’T FEEL RIGHT. Mickey sensed it as soon as they stepped through the front gates.

He had an i

The house was there in front of them. Spectacular, vast. Lit up like this great Italian palace. Pointed Venetian arches and windows with stone balconies. An arched loggia, ringed with bougainvillea, leading around to the sea. The driveway was probably a hundred yards long, every bush and tree perfectly lit. He heard the crunch of pebbles under their heels. They were in stolen police uniforms. Even if someone was around, no one would suspect a thing. Everything was just the way he was told it’d be.

And still he had this bad feeling in his gut.

He looked at Bobby and Barney. He could see they were nervous, too. He knew them well enough to know what they were thinking.

Never been so close to anything this grand.

Casa Del Océano. Ocean House.

Mickey knew everything about the place. He had studied it. Knew it was built by someone named Addison Mizner in 1923. He knew the interior layout, the alarms. How to get in, where the paintings were.

So why did he feel nervous? C’mon, he thought, to calm himself, there’s five million bucks inside.

“So what the hell is that?” Barney nudged him with the black satchel containing his tools. At the end of the long pebbled driveway, there was this huge, lit-up marble… bowl.

“Birdbath,” Mickey answered, and gri

“Birdbath?” Barney shrugged and adjusted the brim of his police cap. “More like a fucking pterodactyl!”

Mickey’s watch read 8:15. Dee had called in; Ned, as expected, had done his job. Cop cars were probably bouncing all over town right now. He knew there were cameras hidden in the trees, so they kept their faces hidden under their caps. In front of the oak doors, he took a last glance at Bobby and Barney. They were ready. They had waited a long time for this.

Mickey rang the bell, and a minute later a Latino housekeeper answered. Mickey knew there was no one else in the house. He explained how there were disturbances all over town, and an alarm had gone off there, and they were sent to check it out. Maybe she noticed Barney’s bag. Maybe she wondered where their car was. But a second later, Bobby whacked her with his Maglite and dragged her into a closet. She never got a decent look. He came back wearing a smirk as wide as the Charles River. A million-dollar smile.

They were in!