The president, Joe Konerko, was a morbidly obese man with thick rubbery ears whose lobes rested against his jowls. He held out his hand, which looked like a glove that had been inflated, and showed me to a chair opposite his cluttered desk. He said, “Normally, I wouldn’t tell you squat about a client but Birk’s not a client anymore. And there were always a few things about that job that bugged me.” “Such as?” “We pride ourselves on our work. We’re not the biggest outfit in town, right? We’re not going to compete with your ADTs, your Brinks, in terms of volume. So we specialize in offering the best there is to high-end clients. Your multi-camera closed-circuit systems, complete with interactive video, night vision capability, weatherproofing. The whole enchilada. And Birk went for the best. We had him wired up with eight high-resolution colour cameras outside, plus a hidden dome camera inside, all hooked up to a digital recorder. I’m talking about thirty grand worth of equipment and that doesn’t include the installation or monitoring fees.
