risk that?”
Massey rubbed his smooth chin, thinking it over. When he looked up at
Buchanan, his expression was wary but interested.
“Do you really think you can nail this guy?”
“I’m prepared to die trying. And I need to work the phones. Call in
some very special help.” Buchanan smiled to himself A lobbyist to the
very end. He turned to Lee. “And I need your help, Lee. If you’re
willing.”
Lee looked surprised. “Me? What can I do to help anybody?”
“I spoke with Faith about you last night. She told me about your
‘special’ abilities. She said you were a good man to have in a bad
situation.”
“I guess she was wrong about that. Otherwise she wouldn’t be lying up
there with a hole in her chest.”
Buchanan put a hand on Lee’s arm. “I can barely function with the
guilt I have, for her having stepped in front of that bullet. But I
can’t change that now. What I can do is try to make sure she didn’t
risk her life for nothing. There’s great danger for you. Even if we
get this man, he has many at his back. There’ll always be some out
there.”
Buchanan settled back in his chair and watched Lee closely. Massey and
Reynolds stared at the PI too. Lee’s muscular arms and broad shoulders
were in stark contrast to the fragility of the look deep within his
eyes.
Lee Adams took a deep breath. What he really wanted to do was stand
next to Faith’s bed and never leave until she woke up, saw him, smiled,
said she’d be okay. And then, so would he. But, Lee knew, one rarely
got what one wished for in this life. So instead, he looked at
Buchanan and said, “I guess I’m your man.”
CHAPTER 54
THE BLACK SEDAN PULLED UP TO THE FRONT of the house. Robert Thornhill
and his wife, dressed in formal evening clothes, came out the front
door. Thornhill locked the house, then the two got in the car and were
driven away. The Thornhills were attending an official dinner at the
White House.
The sedan passed the phone-line control pedestal belonging to the
community where the Thornhills lived. The metal box was large, bulky
and painted light green. It had been placed there about two years ago
when the phone company had upgraded the communications lines for this
old neighborhood. The metal box had been a sudden eyesore in an area
that prided itself on splendid homes and high-dollar landscaping. Thus,
the residents had paid for a number of large bushes to be planted
around the aboveground pedestal. These bushes now hid the box
completely from the road, which meant that the telephone servicemen had
to approach it from the rear side, which faced the woods. Aesthetically
pleasing, the bushes were also very welcome to the man who had watched
the sedan pass by and then had opened the box and begun delicately
picking his way through its electronic guts.
Lee Adams identified the line going to the Thornhills’ residence with a
special piece of his own customized equipment. His background in
communications hardware was serving him well. The Thornhills’ home had
a good security system. However, every security system had an
Achilles’ heel: the phone line. Always the phone line. Thank you, Ma
Bell.
Lee went through the steps in his head. When an intruder broke into
someone’s home, the alarm went off and the computer dialed the central
monitoring station to inform him of the break-in. Then the security
person at the monitoring station called the home to see if everything
was okay. If the owner answered, he had to give his special code or
else the police would be sent. If no one answered the phone, the
police would be sent automatically. Simply put, Lee was making sure
that in this home security system the computer’s phone call would never
reach the monitoring station, yet the computer would think that it had.
He was accomplishing this by building an in-line component or phone
simulator. He had dropped the Thornhill * home from the landline feed,
effectively severing outside phone communication. Now he had to trick