“Bad idea. We need to stay under the radar. Instead of leaving one of your generic messages on his burner phone, go with a flat-out threat via his secretary and see if that produces any results. You said a while back when you researched him that you had his private e-mail and his landline phone number at that ritzy place where he lives. Do the same thing there. Shake the tree and see what falls out. Other than that, I have no other ideas,” Miggy said in a resigned voice.

Alonzo looked around, seeing the deck and its contents for the first time in the early morning light. He noticed the flowerpots, the leafy trees, the lounge chairs with the padded cushions with fern patterns all over them. A nice place to sit after a hard day’s work. This little oasis was for a family. He bit down on his lower lip before he said, “It’s starting to get light out. We need to get inside. I’ll make the calls from the kitchen.” He took a long, last, lingering look at the table where he knew the family dined from time to time. The pot of bright red geraniums brought a lump to his throat. He remembered another pot of red geraniums that had belonged to his mother and how the man she had hooked up with threw them at her and cracked her skull wide open. He remembered the blood being as red as the flowers. And then he remembered how he could see nothing but red as he picked up a piece of the broken pot and slit the man’s throat from ear to ear. And then he couldn’t tell the blood from the flowers, so he ran and ran and ran. He was nine going on ten at the time. It was a year or so before he met Miggy.

“What’s wrong?” Miggy asked.

“Nothing. Must be nice eating out here when the sun goes down and they unroll the awning, don’tcha think?”

“I suppose. C’mon, get in here. It’s almost full light, and people are up and out jogging.”

Alonzo closed and locked the sliding doors, then drew the draperies across the entire bank of windows.

A shout from the second floor sent everyone running to the foot of the long, spiral staircase. “We found the safe and we got a ton of swag,” a young voice shouted. “It’s a big safe, too!”

The staircase shook as the gang members thundered their way to the second floor to stare down at a floor safe under a round table in the dressing room off the master bedroom, a room with mirror-lined walls and bigger than most people’s living rooms.