Given the parental traffic to & from the apartments during the evenings proceedings this would have been a highly stressful operation so could induce the urge to smoke.
I'm still unclear how the abduction team communicated though.
A half hour phone call at 7:30 to tell him the coast would be clear...... after 9?
That doesn't make sense.
I think we're missing the walkie talkies or Morse code flash light messages.
Ah, wait, I got it, smoke signals!
Smoke signals would certainly have been an option, but both sender and recipient would have to be fully conversant if anything other than 'go', 'no go' was in operation.
It could be argued that, let's call them Hose A and Hose B, if Hose A is keeping vigil in the stairwell, then he could give the signal of 'go' by starting to smoke. Ideally Hose B would be within proximity to be able to see this sparking up of a ciggie, and could interpret this and initiate the abduction. If Hose A sees a parent or other appropriate adult sticking to a pre-determined schedule of checking, then he could put out the snout, alerting Hose B of the impeding arrival - which would explain the many fag ends found.
