The hours dragged by as the group schemed, talked, planned, then broke for lunch and, later on, an early dinner.

At one point, Espinosa untied the fishing line that bound Zack Meadows. The man didn’t so much as twitch, nor did he wake. Cyrus never took his eyes off the sleeping form except to eat and when he went out to do what he had to do.

At seven-thirty, the elevator pinged and Harry’s friends arrived. Charles briefed them and then asked if they had any questions.

Kee, one of Harry’s friends, looked at him and grinned. “You telling me you can’t take those guys on yourself?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you.” Harry grinned in return. “Plus, I wanted to give you guys a royal send-off so you’ll have something to remember us by besides pillows.”

One by one, the men lined up against the wall and dropped to the lotus position, where they remained until Charles gave the signal that it was time to leave for Lizzie’s.

“Shall we run through this one more time?” Charles asked.

“NO!” Maggie bellowed. “But if you insist, and it will reassure you, then I guess we can do it.” The others agreed.

Zack Meadows, who had been awakened by Cyrus nipping him on the rear end, groaned. “I go in alone. I just walk up the driveway and knock on the door, the money bag in my hand. I’m going to be fifteen minutes late because we need full darkness, and the rest of you are going to surround the house from the back and enter through the basement door, which is next to the air-conditioning unit. You have a key that will let you in. How’m I doing so far?”

“Keep going,” Jack said.

Meadows muttered something obscene under his breath, but when Cyrus moved, he hastened to say, “We sent a text to Rodriguez telling him not to show up till nine-thirty, which will place all of us inside and in place when he arrives. You said one of your people is monitoring Santiago’s phone in case a call goes through to him from Rodriguez. If that should happen, then your guy will somehow divert the call, so we’re all in the clear till he shows up. Then it’s a crapshoot as to what happens. You happy now?”

“Didn’t you leave something out?” Jack barked.

“Yeah, guess so, the two . . . um . . . portly gentlemen who seem to be running this gig will be out front in the shrubbery in case anyone tries to make a run for it. The one who hogtied me will be a little farther down the road in case one or two of them slip past the two in the bushes. Don’t go telling me I left anything else out, because that’s it in a nutshell.”