Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

camera sequence, a bellman pushing a room service cart loaded with big flower arrangements emerged from the elevator. He went down the hallway under the scrutiny of various cameras and never showed his face or any other identifiable part of his body.
    Gateman shifted and narrowed his eyes at the screen playing back in black-and-white. He didn’t like the looks of what he was seeing. “Dude knows where the cameras are,” Gateman said.
    “No shit.”
    The guard took one look at Rory’s cold eyes and decided that the sheriff really didn’t want—or need—input.
    The cart and the unidentifiable bellman stopped in front of Susa’s suite. Ignoring the DO NOT DISTURB sign, he knocked, waited, knocked, and took an e-key from his pocket. A few moments later the lock opened.
    “Hold there. Get today’s electronic record for that lock,” Rory said.
    Gateman shifted to another computer and accessed the record for Susa’s suite. “Guest, guest, guest,” he read off the screen, “guest…security.”
    “When?” Rory demanded.
    “Sixteen hundred.”
    The exact time the “bellman” had opened the lock.
    “ Shit . Which security card?” Rory asked.
    “Thirteen.”
    “Whose is it?”
    Gateman checked, grimaced. “Never issued, sir. Nobody wanted an unlucky number.”
    Ian bit back a comment about how bloody wonderful it was that the hotel security was a superstitious lot.
    “Well, isn’t that just sweet,” Rory said neutrally. “All right, Gateman, show me the rest of the record on the can’t-see-who bellman and the invisible security guard.”
    Lacey winced and felt sorry for Gateman, who had been unlucky enough to be on duty when the theft occurred.
    Gateman turned back to the computer keyboard and wondered if he would have a job tomorrow. He’d never seen the sheriff so pissed off.
    Cart and bellman vanished inside Susa’s suite. Five minutes and forty-one seconds later, they reappeared.
    “Hold,” Ian and Rory said simultaneously.
    The picture froze.
    “Some flowers are missing,” Lacey said.
    “The bouquet on my night table,” Susa said. She eyed the sides of the cart critically. “I assume the paintings are beneath the cloth.”
    “Would they fit?” Rory asked.
    “Unless the bellman is a dwarf, yes,” Lacey said.
    Rory looked at her, but it was Susa who answered.
    “The proportions of the cart would be large enough to hold the paintings if the bellman was at least of average height,” Susa explained. “Artists are accustomed to viewing things relatively rather than on an absolute metric scale.”
    Rory grunted. “Man or woman?”
    “Man,” Ian said instantly.
    “You sure?” Rory asked.
    “I’ve never seen a woman with that flat a butt. Man must have to strap a board on so he doesn’t fall in.”
    Rory snickered.
    “What are you talking about?” Lacey asked.
    “Sex,” Ian said.
    She rolled her eyes. “I should have guessed.”
    “Ready?” Rory asked Ian.
    “Yeah. Can’t wait to see where he goes. Ten to one it’s the valet parking lot.”
    “Sucker bet,” the sheriff said. “It’s the only covered parking around.”
    “Cameras?” Susa asked.
    “Of course.” Rory’s mouth flattened. “Bet he knows where they are, too.”
    “No bet,” Ian said. “But it’s damned hard to hide a vehicle behind a flower cart.”
    “Run it,” Rory said to Gateman.
    Silently they all watched the bellman enter the elevator. The doors closed and the floor display above the elevator lit up.
    “He’s going to the lobby,” Lacey said.
    Gateman started working the keyboard, shifting to the lobby record, beginning at the instant the man entered the elevator. The screen divided itself until it was like looking at the lobby through the eyes of a distorting prism that divided the world into squares. Some of the squares were blank. All of them winked in and out of existence in a seemingly random sequence.
    “Yikes,” Lacey said. “That’s the stuff of nightmares.”
    “Fascinating effect,” Susa said, studying it.
    Ian leaned forward. “I haven’t seen a system like this before.”
    “It’s not available on the market yet,” Rory said, watching the intricate patterns. “We’re testing the setup for the inventor, along with some otherbusinesses. It’s a pretty flexible program. In the lobby, where there’s too much traffic for motion-sensor activation on the six cameras to be cost-effective in the storage and coverage area, the cameras are programmed to fire