Page 50 of The San Marco Heist

Jayce waggled a finger. “It might be a longshot, but therewasthat guy who came into the library just after I grabbed the Codex.”

My heart stuttered.Stay quiet, stay calm.Jayce hadn’t acted like she recognized me, so I must have been in the clear, but I still couldn’t risk tipping any of them off about my role that night.Just shut up and let them keep talking.

Jayce continued, “What if Albrecht paid that other team to take the Codex?”

Scarlett paced to the table with the model. “Also possible, and it increases the odds we’re looking for the most secure area in the house to find the ring.”

“So, the safe room is my target?”

“Safe room first, if we can find it. Then, we target backward. The next best odds would be a standing safe.”

Declan pointed to one of the floor plan printouts. “From the images we got with the drone, I suspect there’s a walk-in safe just off the primary bedroom.”

Jayce grimaced. “Going in there would be almost as high risk as walking in the front door. It’s on the second floor, facing the rear of the house, where the party will be. They’ll have the place lit up. If we’re considering entry from the outside, I’d have to do it alone, and I’ve got a feeling a walk-in safe would need Declan’s help if we don’t have specs, and I can’t risk a drill. Going through the inside hallways could be even riskier. The door to the primary suite is at the center of the house, right next to the railing that’s open to the grand hall. There’d be no hiding, so if any guest were down there and looked up, they’d catch us.”

Sometimes a big event was a blessing, sometimes a curse. “But we could come back the next day and check that out if needed?”

Scarlett blinked slowly, her self-control slipping. “Then we’d have the kidnappers to contend with. That would put us a day over.”

Jayce moved next to Declan, studying the second-floor plan. “We could go in before the party? Maybe during the wedding ceremony itself.”

“It starts at eighteen hundred,” said Rav. “The church is a half-hour away.”

Scarlett leaned both hands on the table, staring at the model, everyone waiting for her to say something.

Not me. “Probabilities, right? If your best bet is a safe room, we figure out where that is and go in there during the party. We don’t risk burning ourselves by going in early when staff and caterers will be swarming the place with last-minute checks.”

Scarlett didn’t budge.

I said, “The kidnappers won’t do anything to Emmett if you’re still going after the ring and need an extra day. If it were weeks, possibly. But not a day.”

“Then where’s the safe room?” Scarlett lifted the main-floor model so we could focus on the lower floor. “I think the most likely place is off the power plant.”

I rounded to Declan with the sheets. “The architect said it wasn’t in the basement. They didn’t have to dig down to build it.”

“Assuming he was telling the truth,” she said.

“I know when people are lying to me.”

“The architect said it was near something precious to the homeowner.” Scarlett finally looked up, daggers in her eyes. “The cars are precious. It’s got to be there.”

That wasn’t it. My gut told me it was wrong. The architect hadn’t been lying to me. The floor plans and model were a distraction. I needed to think. Outside the box. What was outside the box? They hadn’t dug to build it, so it wasn’t in the basement. We’d walked through the entire ground floor and there wasn’t anywhere to hide it there. The top two floors were all bedrooms.

Wait.

That was it. The top floors. “Where are we?”

Will’s brow creased. “My mum’s place?”

“No! We’re in a converted attic.” I placed the main floor model on top of the lower floor to put the pieces of the puzzle together. “Jayce, did you get any video of the ground floor garage?”

She pointed at the garage in the model. “It all went into the floor plan.”

“Exactly.” I took one of the floor plan printouts, as large as the model, and laid it on top. “This is a floor plan, not a ceiling plan.”

As though figuring out my needs while I talked, Brie started a feed of Jayce’s video on the screen.

“Pause!” I swatted Declan’s arm and walked over to the screen. “The garage has a peaked roof. But not a peaked ceiling.”

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