Lock walked to the window and stared over the wall. The light was still on in the living room but there was no sign of anyone. Rafaela had a point and he wasn’t one for letting his ego get in the way. ‘None of this is without risk, but okay. Can you take Ty and gather the materials?’
She gave a curt nod. ‘Sure.’
As Ty followed her to the door, Lock called him back. ‘And we’re going to need a new vehicle as well.’
Ty raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, yeah? Ask the black guy to jack the car. Y’know, just because I grew up in Long Beach doesn’t mean that-’
Lock put up his hand. ‘Tyrone. How many cars have I seen you steal? Not how many cars have you actually stolen. Just how many have I seen you steal?’
‘“Steal” is kind of a judgemental term to apply under the circumstances.’
‘Okay — borrowed without asking first,’ said Lock.
Ty glanced at the ceiling as he did the math. ‘I dunno. Maybe a dozen?’
Lock nodded outside toward the villa. ‘Okay, so can we have the racial stereotyping discussion after we’ve taken care of business?’
‘Fine,’ said Ty. He turned to Rafaela. ‘See what I have to deal with here?’
As they headed out, Lock stayed at the window, torn, not sure if he wasn’t deluding himself, that maybe he shouldn’t just pick up the phone to the State Department. He packed that idea away. Who would they call? Rafaela’s boss? That was one sure way of getting the girl killed.
Ty sat out of direct sight in the back seat as Rafaela navigated the empty streets. Her eyes flicked to him in the rear-view mirror. ‘You want Mendez, don’t you?’
Ty shrugged. ‘Can’t always get what you want. Ryan’s right, the girl’s more important.’
They got to the gas station. A couple of kids were hanging around out front, kicking a soccer ball back and forth. Ty helped Rafaela fill the two gas containers and load them into the back of her vehicle. She went in to pay and he put the small tank of propane next to the gas.
Lock had already worked out that the guard he’d seen walking round the grounds stuck to a regular routine, leaving on the hour every hour and taking less than seven minutes, even with a stop to pee in the pool, to complete his patrol. So, barring someone coming out of the house, that left the grounds empty and unpatrolled for fifty-three minutes. The rest of the time, Lock figured, they were relying on someone inside watching the security monitors, but the cameras were mostly at the front of the property, leaving a couple of large blind areas at the side and rear. One of those areas covered the wood pile.
With Ty and Rafaela back safely with supplies and a new model, recently ‘borrowed’, white, Toyota RAV 4, with heavily tinted windows. Lock checked his watch. It showed a quarter past the hour. He set to work, climbing on top of the wall, then hauling up the two gas containers and the cylinder full of propane. He lowered them to the ground on the other side, then followed them.
Having been over the wall once already, this time he felt more sure of himself. He doused the wood pile with one container of petrol, set the second a few feet away, but closer to the house, and the propane cylinder closer still. He was counting on no one finding the initial fire until the other items had exploded. It was an imprecise science.
Satisfied, he used a rag soaked with gas to start the bonfire, then headed back to the wall. Ty’s hand reached down and pulled him back over. They had already abandoned the apartment so they retreated to their vehicle, retrieved from the back of the apartment block, and climbed in.
Now all they had to do was wait.
Forty-eight
Hector anxiously checked his watch. They were running late. They should have left the mansion five minutes ago. They would have to make up the lost time on the road.
At the front door, he pulled Julia to one side. ‘Remember what I told you, and you’ll be fine. You understand me?’
‘I understand,’ she said softly, eyes focused on the hallway’s red terracotta-tiled floor. Charlie was standing a few feet away, looking awkward. Hector assumed this was a new experience for him — having to be around one of the girls after he was finished with her.
Eager to get moving, Hector opened the front door and ushered them out. A red Escalade SUV was waiting to take them to the party. Hector opened the rear passenger door. Charlie walked past Julia and climbed in. Julia didn’t move. The look she gave Hector told him that, while she wouldn’t try to escape, there was no way she was sitting in the back with Charlie.
‘What’s the problem?’ asked Hector.
‘I don’t want to sit next to him,’ she said, shooting a glance at Charlie.
‘Fuck it,’ Charlie said, scooting across the seats and getting out again. ‘I’ll ride up front.’
He squeezed past her as he got in, his crotch deliberately brushing her backside, even though there was plenty of room. She shuddered and got into the back. Hector climbed in and started the engine. He put the Escalade into drive and released the parking brake.
A second later she caught sight of one of the guards from the back window. He was shouting and waving his arms. Hector stopped, put the Escalade in park and got out, leaving the door open.
The guard was still animated, waving his arms and pointing to the back of the house.
Julia’s Spanish was rusty but she picked out the word fuego. Fire. She couldn’t smell smoke but the breeze was blowing towards the house and they were at the front.
Hector snapped at the guard, telling him to deal with it. Then he slammed the door, put the Escalade into drive and gunned it, roaring down the driveway, the gates gliding open just in time for them to scrape through and out on to the road.
Behind them there was a loud bang. Louder than a gunshot. Louder than a car backfiring. She looked at Hector. If he had heard it, it didn’t seem to register. His eyes were fixed on the road and that was where they stayed.
In the front seat. Charlie was staring out of the window at a vague orange glow behind them.
‘What was that?’ he asked, unclipping his seatbelt so that he could turn around for a better view. ‘It sounded like an explosion.’
Hector shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
Lock’s hand slammed down hard on the steering-wheel of the Toyota RAV 4. They had still been moving into position when the gates had opened and the red Escalade had come barrelling out on to the road. The guards couldn’t have anticipated the fire so it was down to bad luck, plain and simple. But it left in shreds his plan to grab the girl as the occupants fled the house.
Given the Escalade’s tinted windows and that they were parked behind it, they’d had no clear view through the windshield so no idea about who was inside it. For all Lock knew, it might be a decoy.
Glancing to his left, he saw a column of dense black smoke rising from behind the wall as an alarm screamed a warning. The Escalade was almost a full block clear of them now.
‘Call Rafaela — ask her to hang back here,’ he said to Ty, pulling out from the kerb and falling in behind the fleeing Escalade.
Ty pulled out a pre-paid throwaway cell phone and made the call. A few moments later, he tucked it back into his pocket. ‘She ain’t happy about staying back there but she said she’ll check the house when the fire crew arrives.’
Lock’s hands tightened on the steering-wheel. ‘All right, then.’
Up ahead, the Escalade was stopped at a red light. Lock eased up and the Ranger dropped back. If it hadn’t been for the possibility that the girl was in the vehicle, and on the way to who knew where, he would have dropped out of the pursuit.
The lights flipped to green and the Escalade drove on. Lock followed at a respectful distance, keeping his eyes on the car but also looking out for other vehicles around and behind them. If the driver of the Escalade had spotted them, which was possible, there was every chance he or she would call in reinforcements.