David slowed for a curved driveway, the property surrounded by a tall stone wall. He punched in the security code at the entrance, and tall, black iron gates swung open. He pulled in and parked on the left side of the drive.
The house was fairly close to the road, the side yard filled with trees. Built of stone, it blended beautifully with the landscape, designed to follow the slope of the land. The smaller front yard had been laid out in crisscrossing walkways and tiered flower beds for what must make an inviting array of color in the spring.
“She has a beautiful home. I can’t wait to see it in daylight.”
“Maggie took voice lessons here, from a retired singer who had a famous career in the eighties. This has been her dream home ever since. When it came on the market a year ago, Maggie considered it a worthy reason to return to Chicago.”
David sorted out keys as they walked up to the front door. Evie studied the house, the recessed entry, the lighting, began to pick up signs of the security that had been added. David unlocked the door, entered a passcode on the security panel, paused, tapping his finger on the wall to count time passing, then entered a second code.
“I like the fail-safe system,” Evie noted.
“It’s useful. Do things in the wrong order, the patrol is on scene to check it out. Miss one of the steps, it’s the equivalent of calling 911. We’re set at maximum security right now since the house is empty.”
David turned on lights for the main floor. The entryway welcomed them, a long closet for coats, a comfortable bench on which to sit and put on boots, two tall tables for flower vases. The marble floor curved into a spacious cream-carpeted great room, a couch still wrapped in shipping plastic set in front of a fireplace. Two blue-and-silver-striped wing-back chairs flanked the couch. A grand piano commanded attention. Beyond it was another seating area with love seats and a square ottoman facing a large television.
The floor-to-ceiling windows showed a large backyard bathed in muted ground lighting, a pool now covered for the winter, a spacious patio with bench seating and tables and chairs set near a stone outdoor grill. Farther out, Evie could see the high wall circling the back of the property. “Maggie is going to be very comfortable here. And safe.”
“I think so. She wants this—the yard, the flowers, the property—to call home for the next thirty years. When she lived on the sixtieth floor of a high-rise and her apartment number in the building was a protected fact, security was an easier matter. But it didn’t have the setting of a normal life that she wants.”
Evie smiled. “I can imagine.”
David slipped off his shoes. “Yours are fine—it’s habit for me. I want to glance at what furniture came today, snap a few photos for Maggie, then check the last security upgrades that went in this month. Feel free to wander around. This’ll take me about thirty minutes.”
“Sure.”
Evie took her time, disappearing down a hallway, getting a feel for the place. The layout was nice: two powder rooms on the main level, separate pantry, mudroom, the spacious living room, a formal dining room, and a well-laid-out kitchen. Entertaining twenty or thirty people wouldn’t feel tight here.
She opened a kitchen cabinet, found dishes and glassware, opened random drawers and found towels and utensils in place. Pictures, awards, coasters, and candle holders rested on the dining room table, waiting for Maggie’s decision on where they should be placed. Framed artwork leaned against the walls in many of the rooms. Evie walked over to study some of the watercolors in the living room. Maggie liked ones with a light touch and soft colors.
David came back, phone to his ear. He waved toward the fireplace before pocketing the cell.
“There are cameras throughout the house?” she asked, curious.
“Yes. I know it’s creepy at first, but you learn to let it go. They’re on when Maggie requests it, when she has guests over she doesn’t know well or when she’s throwing a party and sensor security for the grounds are turned off. They’re a security blanket of sorts, for Maggie and for me.”
“Aren’t you worried someone could hack the system, turn on the cameras to watch her?”
He shook his head. “One of the benefits of having the finances for really good security, it’s all encrypted transmissions from here to the Chapel Security offices, and it flows over our own equipment, not carried by any public network. Someone can’t casually stroll into those offices, press a button to turn on cameras here. But to bulletproof it further, there are fail-safes. She can’t be watched without her knowledge. I can tell the cameras are on right now.”