Private Deceptions Read Free

computer off and decided I would come back tomorrow with Jett. I felt someone come up behind me. "Ouch!" I got hit in the back of the head and was out like a light.
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Chapter Two
    "How long were you out?" Wanda asked. She had changed into her robe, made a cup of coffee, and had made herself comfortable on the couch.
    "Not long. Ten, fifteen minutes maybe."
    "Any idea who it was?"
    "No."
    "What happened then?"
    "I could feel the blood running down my neck. That’s when I realized that I only had on one glove. The right hand glove was on the floor."
    "So we know somebody wanted your finger prints. What’d you do then?" Wanda asked questions just like Kirk. Hard and fast.
    "I took a quick look around the apartment and got out."
    "Where’d you go when you left?"
    I stood up and walked around the room. Deciding how I was going to answer the question. "I drove to the Childers’ house."
    "Why’d you go there?"
    "To get a feel for the layout. Just being thorough, Wanda."
    I couldn’t bring myself to tell Wanda that I went there to see if I could see her again. But it was the truth; there I was sitting outside her house.
    In complete darkness.
    I opened the trunk, got my bag out, and took out my camera. This gave me an opportunity to try out my new Predator night vision goggles. Jett says they’ll give me high performance in low light.
    "These are great, Nick!" Jett said, louder than he needed to, as he handed them to me. "Check them out. They’re lightweight, only 550 grams. They are powered by a single 1.5-volt AA alkaline battery. Their design is great for helicopter pilots flying night missions. But you should be able to carry out search operations under low light conditions."
    Time to see if he was right.
    It was a big house. I hopped the fence and walked around the house looking around for any security. "I hope they don’t have no dogs out here." Which was a great time to think of it because I hate dogs.
    I got a few shots of the house. It was surrounded on all sides by trees. The long driveway led to a big garage and more trees behind it. There were six cars in there.
    I walked back to the house surprised that there was nobody patrolling the grounds. The alarm system was nothing fancy. I disabled it and was inside in two minutes.
    "Nice set up. These drug dealers sure know how to live," I said.
    With my night vision goggles on, I walked around the house planting listening devices and taking pictures of the entire house. Timing myself as I moved from room to room, until I reached the master bedroom. I checked the closets. The really big one was hers naturally. I can’t really think of a word to describe her wardrobe, but both expensive and extensive came to mind.
    I put a listening device behind a picture of her and Chilly next to the bed. "What did she see in him?"
    The curtain was opened so I looked out of the bedroom window at the trees over the garage. I bugged the phones before returning to the car and waited. It was one thirty-four when she drove up in a white Porsche.
    I put the goggles back on.
    What was I doing?
    She stopped to open the gate. I watched as she opened the car door and her leg appeared. First one, then the other. Her outfit matched the car. I wondered if she coordinated her outfits with which car she was going to drive.
    After awhile, lights began coming on inside the house. She immediately closed the curtain in the front room. Ten minutes later, the downstairs light went out. I wanted to see her one more time, and then I would go. I got out of the car and went over the fence again, heading for the garage. But I was too slow. The bedroom curtain closed just as I walked up. I turned in time to see headlights stopped at the gate. I ran behind the garage and made my way back to the car. There were now four cars other than hers parked in the driveway. A sound check of each room let me know that there were eight, maybe nine people in the house other than Mrs. Childers. She was still upstairs alone.