Hidden Agemda (Kate Diamond Adventure) by Leighann Dobbs Read Free Book Online Page A

letting them attend.  
    They stood silent in the lobby for a few uncomfortable seconds, sizing each other up. Then Crowder broke the silence.
    “Shall we go view the items?”

    ***

    The room where the items were being held was at the opposite end of the hotel from the bedrooms. Crowder led the way, stopping at the glass door of a room that appeared pitch black inside … except for the crisscross of bright red laser lights.
    So, the security system did use laser tripwires , Kate thought as she felt her heartbeat speed up. Scanning the sides of the door and walls, she wondered what other systems he had in place as she slipped the box of Tic-Tac’s from her pocket.
    Crowder nodded to the six-foot ten-inch giant guarding the door and he punched some numbers into a keypad causing the lasers to switch off and lights to come on illuminating the room. Crowder opened the door and ushered them inside.  
    Kate hung back, making sure she was the last to enter so she could get a good look at the door. Just as she suspected, a thin red wire ran from the bottom, up the side and into the snow packed wall where the hinges were attached. It was wired to an alarm system which, thanks to Uncle Benny’s expert training when she was a kid, would be a piece of cake for her to disarm.  
    The room was awash in light. Ice columns, pedestals and mirrors reflected the beams from the overhead lighting, making it seem even brighter than it would normally have been.  
    Kate saw several paintings hanging on the snowy walls, their backs protected by animal hides. One she recognized as a Picasso that had been stolen from a wealthy patron of the Ritzholdt last year. She wondered briefly if she should steal it back for them. No, better to stick to the original plan; carrying a four-foot painting on the ski-cycle might be a problem.
    Kate’s attention was drawn to the center of the room where Mrs. Powell was bending at the waist to inspect a jeweled crown inside a glass case. But it wasn’t the crown Kate was looking at; it was the item beside it—the Millennia Ruby.
    It sat on a pedestal, inside a clear box. The transparent red hues were even more gorgeous with the lighting here then they’d been in the museum. Maybe Max should think about adding ice and snow to his display?  
    Kate inconspicuously aimed the Tic-Tac box at the ruby and tapped on the side.
    “Uh-hmm.” Crowder cleared his throat to catch their attention. “We’ll start over here.”
    Everyone walked over to the corner where Crowder was standing in front of a brilliantly colored painting. A Monet? Or was it Manet? Kate always got them confused, but it didn’t really matter. She had little interest in the painting—she was too busy scoping out the room in order to determine what, exactly, Crowder had for security.
    As Crowder droned on about the painting, Kate searched the floor and ceiling areas out of the corner of her eye.  
    He moved to the next painting, which gave Kate a chance to change her position and look at a different part of the room.
    Crowder made his way through all the items that would be offered in the auction, saying a little bit about each one. Kate feigned interest, nodding and murmuring with the rest of them, while she secretly used the time to familiarize herself with the layout and search for hidden security cameras or other security devices. She didn’t find any—could the laser tripwire system be the only security? That seemed too good to be true.  
    Finally, the tour was over and they were back at the door. Kate hung back, maneuvering herself so that she’d be the last one out of the room.
    “Oh, and in case you are wondering,” Crowder said as they filed through the door. “We have minimal security here. Just the locked door and the lasers. But don’t let that tempt you—if you did happen to make it out of here, there would be nowhere for you to go.”  
    Crowder scanned the crowd with his black, beady eyes. “But none of us here are