Three Fates

down here, going back to my book. I’ll ring you back.”
     
     
    THEY PARKED THREE blocks away, and waited.
    “See, I told you we had time for pizza.”
    Jack slanted Cleo a look. “Why aren’t you fat as a cow?”
    “Metabolism.” She took a Hershey’s Big Block out of her bag, unwrapped one end. “It’s the one useful thing my mother passed on to me. So, are you and Rebecca going to live here, or over on the Emerald Isle?”
    “Some of both, I imagine, and here and there. We’ll work it out.”
    “Yeah. It’s handy you’ve got a gig where you bounce around a lot.”
    “What about you? You going back to dancing when this is over? With your cut, you could buy a chunk of the Rockettes.”
    “Dunno. Probably hang loose awhile.” She munched on chocolate. “Maybe I’ll open my own club or a dance school. Something that doesn’t keep me hauling butt from audition to audition. Right now, I can’t think further than making Anita pay for Mikey.”
    “We’ve got a good start on that.”
    “Man. He’d get such a rush out of all this shit. Jack?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What if it’s not in there? What if she took it with her or something?”
    “Then we go to Plan B.”
    “What’s Plan B?”
    “I’ll let you know when we get there.” He looked at her as Malachi’s signal came through his headset. “She’s in the air.”
    “Curtain up,” Cleo said, and stepped nimbly out of the van.
    “You want to go over anything again? Floor plan, hand signals?”
    “No, I got it.”
    “We’ve got two people in the building this time,” he reminded her. “Two live-in servants. We have to do this quietly.”
    “I’m a fucking cat. Don’t worry. Do you think this is some kind of record?”
    “What’s that?”
    “Breaking into two places, for a total of three B and E’s in twenty-four hours, without actually stealing anything.”
    “We’re taking the Fate.”
    “Yeah, but it already belongs to Mal, and Tia, I guess. So that doesn’t count. I think we could get into the Guinness guy’s record book for this.”
    “A lifelong dream of mine.”
    They walked by the house once. The lights were off on the second floor. “Looks like they’ve settled in for the evening. Servants’ quarters there, south corner of the house.”
    “Housekeeper and butler, check. You think they get it on while the boss is away?”
    Jack scratched his jaw. “I’d rather not get that image stuck in my head just now. We go up the east side to the bedroom terrace. We’ll be exposed about fifteen seconds.”
    “Takes more than that to shake a former stripper, pal.”
    “Maybe you could do a number for my bachelor party.” He grinned as Rebecca’s pithy comment came through his headphones. “Or maybe not. Love of my life? Shut down the alarms.”
    He ignored the stream of cabs that drove by, and the radio car. At Rebecca’s signal, he clamped a hand on Cleo’s and pulled her off the sidewalk and into the shadows of the house.
    They hooked lines to harnesses and were rising up the side of the building, rolling over the stone rail and crouched on the terrace before another word was spoken.
    He gestured for Cleo to stow the gear while he crab-walked to the terrace doors. “Take out the locks, east terrace, second level,” he said quietly into his headphones. He waited until he heard them snick, then rose, exposing himself again to deal with the manual locks.
    From his jacket pocket, he pulled out a small case, chose his lock pick from it.
    “Bet they didn’t teach you that in security school,” Cleo mentioned in a low voice.
    “You’d be surprised.”
    He dealt with the dead bolt, then, easing the door open, waited for Cleo to slip inside before he relocked it.
    A good crime-scene investigator would spot the job, he knew. But he didn’t think that was going to come up.
    “Obsession.” Cleo sniffed the air. “Her perfume. Fits, doesn’t it?”
    “Lock the doors. Hallway, straight ahead. Master bath on the left.”
    She moved through the shadowed light to oblige, and continued to whisper. “Should I ask how come you know so much about her bedroom setup?”
    “Professional knowledge only.” When the doors were locked, he moved directly to the closet.
    “Holy shit, this is bigger than my old apartment.” She fingered the sleeve of a jacket as she moved inside. “Not bad, either. Think she’d notice if I copped a couple things? I’m rebuilding my wardrobe.”
    “We’re not here to shop.”
    “Hey,