Wallace is already in the master suite?” I asked.

“The doctor usually arrives at eleven,” Pendelton said.

“We’re twenty minutes ahead of his usual routine.”

The lead police car slowed as it reached the high brick security walls around the Bellevue Crest estate.

The black iron gates were shut, their thick bars blocking the long asphalt driveway that curved up through the pine trees toward the grand stone porch.

The lead car stopped two feet from the brass intercom box mounted on the stone pillar.