Page 34 of A Colby Christmas Rescue

“There’s been a slight change,” he said. “Nothing to worry about. Originally, we were scheduled to arrive at eight tonight but now we’re to be there at seven-thirty. I’m not pleased with the sudden change, but I can only assume some other sort of intelligence became available, prompting this schedule change.”

The fact that he was genuinely upset seemed to suggest he was telling the truth. Either way, she was over this whole cloak and dagger game. They were on the same side after all.

“I need you to walk me through what’s going to happen tonight. This beating around the bush has gone on long enough.”

“All right. Let’s sit down and I’ll walk you through it.”

It was about time. She followed him back to the living room area. He went to the bar and grabbed a couple of bottles of water and passed one to her. If not for that sudden phone call, she would be convinced his decision to share had something to do with Poe’s absence. She hoped that was not the case.

“We will arrive at the party like any other guests. I’ve seen the list of invitees, and none are familiar to me. I’m assuming I will not be familiar to any of them. Same goes for you. Which is part of the beauty of the situation.”

“Is there some aspect of his private residence that has been deemed more accessible than, say, the hospital or his clinic?” The private residence of a man such as Dr. Case likely included serious security services and a well-trained security team.

“The hospital where his surgery privileges are has state-of-the-art facial recognition for everyone going in and coming out,” Abi explained. “It wouldn’t prevent us from coming in, but it would not forget our faces. I’m sure neither of us wants that to happen.”

“A good reason to rule out that location,” she admitted. A hospital with facial recognition technology. Wow.

“His clinic is not equipped with technology quite so advanced, but the location creates a difficult exit strategy. Too congested...too many cameras on the surrounding buildings.”

“I suppose the fact that the clinic operates only during regular business hours, daylight hours, creates a problem of its own.”

“The cover of darkness is always an ally,” he agreed.

“I’m sure there will be security cameras at the doctor’s residence.” Really, she was confident this was the case.

“You’re right, but we have access to the system so no issues there.”

Of course they did. Abi was too good to move forward without that key piece of intelligence.

“There will be some sort of precipitous event,” she suggested. “A distraction?”

“A power outage. It’s not so unique, but it will work and it’s not so unusual this time of year.”

“You have the layout of the residence?” Familiarizing herself with the floor plan would be useful. As for the power outage, that was always a workable strategy. Power outages happened—as he said, particularly during extreme temperatures. Living this far outside the city proper was asking for additional issues when it came to utilities.

“I do.” He pulled out his cell and opened an image. “We enter via the front as one would expect.”

The front door appeared to open into a large entry hall. He moved on to another image that showed a photo of the entry hall.

“Security will be here confirming that all who enter are on the list. From there we’ll follow the others into the grand hall.”

The grand hall was an area that branched off into a living room, dining room, library and—well beyond all that—a kitchen. Any one of those rooms was larger than the entire first floor of this house. The grand hall worked like a massive hub connecting all the other rooms. It made for the perfect area to linger in groups without interrupting the flow of those filtering into and through the other rooms.

“Once we’re in,” he went on, “we’ll mingle, have hors d’oeuvres and a nonalcoholic drink. Just to blend in.”

“Where is our egress?”

He slid the photo left, moving to another image. “Our priority exit is through the kitchen. We have two secondary options. Through the French doors in the library and off the back terrace outside the main living area.”

“What’s the layout for transportation around the property?” She’d looked at the house and property via the telescope, but some aspects were blocked from view by landscaping and other obstacles.

“We’ll have two options for leaving. A helicopter from the doctor’s helipad. This would give us a sort of emergency style departure. The hope would be that other guests assume there has been an emergency and the doctor had to go. The other option is via a limo that will be standing by in the front roundabout.”

So far she had no complaints.

“What method of inducement do you plan to use to ensure his cooperation?” This was the part that concerned Jamie the most. She hoped he didn’t intend to use drugs or physical coercion. Despite her reservations with either of those avenues, the problem was, there weren’t that many other options. At least none she liked any better.

“We have that covered,” he said as he closed his phone and slipped it into his hip pocket.

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