Bleep, bleep.

Pissed, Buck snatched the phone off his belt.

"Goddamnit, boy. I tol' you one signal was enough," he said into the instrument.

"I know but I think it's the lady, Buck," came the excited voice from Marcus, who was keeping watch outside. "I think it's her car just came in down at the east end. Y'all ought to kick on outa there."

Buck was already at the top of the stairs and taking them two at a time.

"Let's roll, Wayne," he called out but the other one was already ahead of him, with an armload of stuff from the den and heading through the kitchen for the garage door. Both of them dumped what they had into the open van doors and Buck jumped into the driver's seat, keys still in the ignition. Soon as the engine cranked, Wayne hit the garage opener alongside the entry door and skipped to the passenger side and slid in. Buck eased the van out of the garage while the door was still rising, and just like they'd planned, Wayne turned in his seat and pointed the stolen signal back and flicked it. The door rolled back down and its seemingly undisturbed look would give them a few more minutes of getaway time before the owner discovered the burglary.

Buck drove slowly out into the street and hung a left. Wayne looked sharply at him but was smart enough not to question why he was going in the opposite direction from the development's entrance.

"We'll run us a circle. The lady's gonna drive the shortest route, straight home. Better she don't even pass by a white van today," Buck said to answer the question that hadn't been asked. They took another left and another and then paralleled the street they'd been working on for four blocks before Buck used the Nextel to get Marcus, who'd been instructed to use the backyards to make his getaway if they ever had to bail out of a house.

"Meet us out on the main road," Buck said into the handset.