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"I’ll send for a set of scuba gear if Iin the cave, "but this should get h to see what’s back there"

Unable to recall another moment of the worst day in her life, Meryl picked up the phone and called the museum

"Yes, Dr Shaw?"

"Roy, I need lot two-forty taken out of storage and brought over to the house toether for some museum board members and I’d like to set up a temporary display Pack it the usual way and have it here by seven"

"I’d like to help you out, Dr Shaw, but the head curator told us nothing was to be re was finished," the security guard said

Meryl forced a laugh "Roy, I own the museum and its contents I’ll take whatever I like out of it"

"That’s so to talk about with you" Roy’s tone changed "The curator and I’ve been talking about things, and I asked his out of here for you, so I wanted to cover et htened on the receiver "That’s really none of your business"

"The curator set s," Roy continued ss nobody around here seems to know Like who really owns this place You understand what I’, Dr Shaw?"

She understood that she’d been an idiot to trust a security guard with a ninth-grade education "What do you want?"

"A little appreciation would be nice," the guard told her "You could start showing it when I bring this lot over"

Meryl opened the second drawer to her desk Inside was a strongbox with the cash she kept for household use Next to the box was a 22, sh to tuck under the fold of her lap blanket "I’ll have it waiting for you"

Chapter 8

The owners of the property bordering Jema Shaw’s home had installed a very sophisticated alarm syste into the house They also hadtheir artful landscaping Once Thierry discovered how extensive the security system was, he selected a tree, climbed it, and broke off a suitable branch When he allowed the branch to fall, it struck one of the s on the side of the house; not enough to break the glass but with adequate force to set off the arded drawbridges, guardhouses, and moats as archaic, but Thierry could not think of any that had ever been defeated by a mere stick

Predictably, the police calass, followed by a truck fro coate while the police checked the house Once they had determined the house had not been entered, the technician discovered the cause and reset the system

"I’ll call the Nelsons from the office; they’re over in Australia until January," the tech told the two unifor happens all the time"

Thierry, perched in another tree that concealed his presence and gave him an unobstructed view of the exterior alarm syste down to the ground and entering the pass code to disar the house He was te pane hbors Also, it would allow anyone else access to the mansion Instead he climbed to the top of the house, where he found an attic vent large enough for hirille, worked his way downstairs, and reset the alarm systely furnishings, but they had thoughtfully kept the water as well as the electricity on Thierry went first to the largest bath and spent an hour in the enor himself clean

The layers of dirt and dried blood on his body turned the water black, then brown, until it finally ran clear The stab wounds on his torso had closed, but the areas were still tender to the touch Also, the brief a into the ht

Thierry dried off with one of the thick, sal in the bath chaed to the lady of the house, who possessed an incredible a them Thierry found a pair of sharp scissors and used therown over his eyes He didn’t have the skill to give himself a proper haircut, so he trith and bound it back with an elastic band Unless it grew suddenly, which it soht hours, he would pass as a norrow facial hair, so shaving was unnecessary He was glad, because using the electric beard cutter the man of the house had left behind was beyond him

Clothes presented the next problem Thierry was not a sht, obviously weighed fifty pounds less After trying on several garments, Thierry found a pair of trousers with a pleated front that were not skintight on him, and a dress shirt that he could button up to the center of his chest He covered these with one of Nelson’s knee-length Arht across his shoulders, but with the colder temperatures no one would question it