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CHAPTER SIX

A Tiny Microphone

Mitch didn’t slow down: he became a machine.

He had never needed as much sleep as other people and now this was to his advantage.

However much work Avery Tolleson threw at him, he managed to get through it. Sometimes he worked all through the night,

and found an unsmiling Abby waiting for him when he came home at dawn for a quick shower before returning to the office.

Oliver Lambert invited the McDeeres, the Quins and two other associates and their wives to dinner one Saturday at Justine’s, his favourite restaurant.

Not long after Mitch and Abby entered the restaurant, two men with the correct key entered the shiny black BMW in the car park of Justine’s.

They drove away from the restaurant to the new home of Mr and Mrs McDeere.

They parked the BMW in its usual place. The driver got another key out of his pocket and the two men entered the house.

They worked quickly and quietly.

A tiny microphone, no bigger than a fingernail, was stuck into the mouthpiece of each phone in the house.

The signals from these microphones would go to a receiver in the space under the roof of the house.

Then the men turned their attention to each room.

A small hole was made in the corner of every room, high up where no one would notice it.

A tiny microphone was placed inside each hole. A wire, no thicker than a human hair and completely invisible, ran from each microphone to the receiver.

The receiver looked exactly like an old, broken radio, and it joined other old objects that were already there in a corner under the roof.

It would not be noticed for months, maybe years. And if it was noticed, it would simply be thrown away as rubbish.

The receiver, of course, would also send signals from the house back to the fifth floor at Bendini, Lambert & Locke.

Just as the fish was served at Justine’s, the BMW parked quietly next to the restaurant.

The driver locked the car door. It was the Mahans next. At least they lived closer to the restaurant than the McDeeres,

and had a smaller house, so the work would be easier.

On the fifth floor of the Bendini Building, DeVasher stared at rows of lights and waited for some signal from 1231 East Meadowbrook.

The dinner party had finished thirty minutes earlier and it was time to listen.

A tiny yellow light shone weakly and he put a pair of headphones on. He pushed a button to record. He waited.

A green light marked ‘McD-6’ began to shine. It was the bedroom. The voices started to come in loud and clear.

‘I don’t like Jill Mahan,’ the female voice, Mrs McDeere, was saying. ‘Her husband’s OK, but she’s really unpleasant.’

‘Are you drunk?’ asked Mr McDeere.

‘Almost. I’m ready for sex.’

DeVasher bent his head closer towards his surveillance equipment, to listen better.

‘Take your clothes off,’ Mrs McDeere demanded.

‘We haven’t done this for a while,’ said Mr McDeere.

‘And whose fault is that?’ she asked.

‘I haven’t forgotten how You’re beautiful.’

‘Get in the bed,’ she said.

DeVasher closed his eyes and watched them.