Page 8 of The Soul of Archer
Lance and Tony pulled into the back lot of Sassy Explosions. Lance climbed out and moved to the bed of his truck when something wafted on the breeze. "Hot damn, what is that?"
"Smells awesome whatever it is." Tony sighed, grabbing his bag from the bed.
Lance nodded, hefting his own bag over his shoulder as he and Tony moved to the back door. Alora had called Ethan that morning and told him to have Tony and Lance go to the back door when they showed up. As Tony knocked, Lance quickly surveyed the back lot.
It looked to be employee parking. There were buildings on either side and an alley that led to the street. He also spotted flood lights on the back of the building. Good. They could rig their system with those and the lights would also provide cover to hide the cameras should Malconi try anything here.
"You the guys from Blackout?" A man in his mid-fifties asked, holding the door open.
"Yes sir, Tony Pace and Lance Archer." Tony nodded.
"Come on in. Boss Lady said for me to show you where the security stuff is. She's tied up with a cake at the moment. I'm Frank Sullivan, assistant baker. Been with Alora since she opened two years ago." Frank said.
Lance had never been in the back of a bakery before. The place was a buzz of activity. He counted about fifteen people mixing, rolling, filling and decorating cakes, cookies, pies and breads. He spotted Alora piping away at a six-tiered wedding cake. He had seen his sister do the same thing and knew how exacting the work was.
Frank led them out of the bake room and into a hallway. He pushed open a door on their right. "Well, here she is. We just upgraded to this system last year after some druggie tried to break in, course wouldn't have done him any good."
"How so?" Lance asked sitting his bag down while Tony sat at the mainframe.
"We don't keep the day's profits here. Either me or Alora drops it off at the bank. What money we do keep is locked up in a safe that only she and I know the combination and where it is." Frank shrugged.
"You mean the other employees don't know where the safe is? That's smart right there." Tony said.
"That's what I told her when she said that's what she wanted. She said her former boss in Houston did that and never had problems with people skimmin' the till. I gotta get back, if you need anything, just holler." Frank stated, gave a wave and headed off.
Lance moved to Tony's side, "What we got?"
"She's got the same system Krista had. That just makes our job all the easier. The flood lights outside are motion activated, as are the interior lights." Tony explained.
"Alright, well, I'll get started installing the exterior cams out back. Figure I can hide them beneath the flood lights. We don't want Malconi to think he's smarter than us." Lance said.
"Ooh-ra." Tony nodded.
***
Alora sighed as she finished the last of the piping. She stood back and admired her handy-work. She had always loved the elegant look of pipe work on wedding cakes. It was that attention to detail that had caused her to fall in love with cake decorating. That and trying out new flavors and learning new techniques.
"Lookin' good 'Lora."
"Thanks Jeff. How's the flowers coming along?" Alora smiled facing him.
"We're about half finished. We'll have them all done in about two hours and then they just need to dry. Good call on talking the bride into going with the gardenias." Jeff replied.
"Well considering her bouquet is gardenias and poppies it seemed logical. I have NO idea where she got the idea for tulips and daisies." Alora groaned shaking her head.
"My guess, her mother. God that woman had no clue about flowers." Jeff laughed.
Alora giggled. She then spotted Lance walking back in from the back lot. "Okay, move this beast into the cooler. I'll check in with you guys before lunch."
Jeff gave a salute and went to get some help to move the cake. Alora moved through the baking room toward the security office. When she walked in she found the floor covered in cables, boxes and tools.
"Good lord, what did you two break?" She demanded, her hands on her hips.
Tony looked up laughing, "Take it easy, we didn't break anything. What we're doing is swapping out your old system with one of our bad boys. Trust me, in about an hour you'd never know all this was here."
"An hour? Really? Wow, it took the guys nearly half a day to install the old system." She said, in shock.
"Tony is a wizard with this stuff." Lance added.
