The Music Box book of Hours and the music box itself were locked in large safe in Pete's office, which overlooked the Lodge's close to the Canadian border ice skating and hockey rink. Pete’s office now also served as Yuri’s lodging. El Ladron's signature approach was to fall down outside of the home where his victim lived, then limp to the door and ask for entrance and shelter to recuperate from his injury. With any luck he would be invited inside, where he could scope the layout of the house and possibly even locate the safe. He was usually armed, and in the past, rather than at return to steal at night, sometimes he had taken what he wanted at gun point.
Courtesy of California law enforcement, Both Nico and Yuri now had photographs of El Ladron. However, not only was refusing hospitality to an injured man a difficult situation for a respected lodge, but also Vermont's laws on carrying loaded fire arms were surprisingly lenient, due to hunting culture.
Pete and Yuri were discussing soon-to-graduate Hockey players in upstate Vermont when out the window, they noticed that a man who was not a registered guest was skating figure eights on the lodge rink.
"Thats the manuscript thief!" Yuri exclaimed, comparing the photo of El Ladron with the skater. "Let's invite him to skate with us," he said to former Dartmouth hockey top scorer/enforcer and 10th Mountain Division veteran, Pete Lafitte.
On the Lodge la Belle Montagne, the first assault -- discovered in Alarie's decoded notebook -- would be set in motion by the manuscript thief, aka, among other names, "El Ladron". It was likely that he would fly into Burlington, Vermont, where he would not have to show a passport. But because under what disguise and alias he would travel was not known, precisely when this diabolical plan would begin had not been ascertained.