FROM THE ENTRANCE ROTUNDA, AT A WINDOW beside the front door, Ethan watched as Mr. Hachette’s car dwindled along the driveway, into the tintack rain and the riddled darkness. The chef had been the last member of the day staff to leave.
Set flush in one wall of the rotunda, tucked discretely near a corner, a dark display screen brightened when Ethan lightly pressed one finger to it. This was a Crestron touch-control unit by which he could access all the computerized features of the house: the heating and air-conditioning, the music system, the gas heating for swimming pools and spas, both the in-house and landscape lighting, the phone system, and much more.
Crestron panels were positioned throughout the mansion, but the same features could also be controlled from any computer work station, such as the one in Ethan’s study.
After Ethan activated the screen with a touch, three columns of icons were presented for his consideration. He tapped the one that represented the exterior surveillance cameras.
Because eighty-six outdoor cameras were positioned across the estate, he was next presented with eighty-six designating numbers. For the most part, to obtain quickly a view of any specific portion of the [466] grounds, you had to have memorized the numbers—at least those that, in your particular staff position, you were most likely to use frequently.
He touched 03, and the Crestron screen at once filled with a view of the main gate as seen from outside the estate wall. This was the same camera that had captured Rolf Reynerd delivering the package that contained the doll’s eye in the apple.
The gate rolled open. Mr. Hachette’s car drove off the grounds, onto the public street, turned right, and disappeared from the frame.
As the front gate rolled shut, Ethan touched the screen and exited the exterior-camera menu. He pressed the icon for the house alarm system.
Not all staff members were authorized to activate and deactivate the alarm; consequently, the screen requested Ethan’s password. He entered it, was granted access, and set the house-perimeter alarm.
All public areas of the mansion—virtually everything except bedrooms, bathrooms, and staff quarters—featured motion detectors that would register the passage of anyone moving along a hallway or through a room. They were activated 24/7, but were actually linked to the alarm only when it was in the “nobody-home mode,” when the house was entirely deserted, a rare occurrence.
With Fric and Ethan in residence, if the motion detectors had been linked to the alarm, the breach siren would have gone off every time that they passed through a monitored space or so much as made a gesture with one hand.
All he needed was the assurance that the siren would sound if a door or window were opened. This precaution, along with the team of guards monitoring the additional layers of detection on the grounds beyond the house, ensured that no one could set upon him or Fric by surprise.
Nevertheless, he didn’t want Fric to sleep alone on the third floor. Not tonight, not tomorrow night, not anytime soon.
Either they would make arrangements for the kid to camp out on [467] the ground floor or Ethan would spend the night in the living room of Fric’s third-floor suite. He intended to discuss the matter with t............