Page 134 of Sweet Sin

Look in the mirror again.

And whoever is watching me can see me.

They see me as I see myself right now.

Physically clean, all the dirt scrubbed from my body and my hair.

But on the inside? So far from clean.

I will never be able to wash the dirt of Miles McAllister from me.

So I’ll do as Maggie says.

I’ll relish this last evening. Perhaps I’m being watched, but this is the last sliver of freedom I will ever have.

39

FALCON

“All wireless alarm systems rely on radio frequency signals sent between door and window sensors to a control system that triggers an alarm when any of these entryways are breached,” Leif says quietly. “The signals deploy any time a tagged window or door is opened, whether or not the alarm is enabled. But when enabled, the system will trip the alarm and also send a silent alert to the monitoring company, which contacts the occupants and the police.”

I shake my head. “How is this even possible?”

“It is. All the systems use different hardware, but they are essentially the same. This isn’t that advanced. It’s been around since the nineties. I can jam the signals to prevent them from tripping an alarm by sending radio noise to prevent the signal from getting through from sensors to the control panel.”

“It all sounds like gobbledygook to me.”

“It did to me at first too,” Leif says. “But it’s actually pretty simple once you understand how the tech works.”

“Right.”

Leif plays with his gadgets, listening intently. A few lights flicker on and off, and he taps in different codes. This goes on for several minutes until he smiles. “Got it. The whole thing is disarmed, including the cameras and microphones. But now we have to get in and out before they discover this.”

“How could they discover it?”

“Depends. If they have actual humans manning the cameras, they’ll see it quickly. If they don’t, it’ll be a while.”

“And how do we know whether people are watching?”

“We don’t, Falcon. That’s why we fucking hurry.” He pulls out yet another gadget.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a lockpick gun, just in case disabling the system didn’t unlock the gate.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Sometimes the gate is on a different frequency so cars can come and go via a remote control without unlocking the whole system. That’s probably the case here.”

We walk toward the gate, staying in shadows as much as we can. In the distance, several dogs bark.

“Where do you think the hounds are?” I ask.

“Could be in the back, but they sound farther away than that. There’s probably a couple dogs in the back and one or two in the house as well.” He pats the bag of jerky in the pocket of his hoodie. “We’ll take care of them.”

“Just how quickly does the doggie downer work?”

“Too damned long, but it’ll do the job.”

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