As she walked home, she thought about how to make the keys. Dad might know a better way, but I’ll have to do a lot of it by hand. It’s gonna be a pain in the ass.
***
Even though Roni was invisible, she stayed in the shadows. It was Thursday night and she’d hung around the Castanos’ warehouse since 8 o’clock. Men had started showing up shortly before nine. Joe Castano himself had arrived a little after the hour.
Castano unlocked and entered the third of the five rooms with the heavy steel doors. He’d gone in alone as far as he’d known, but Roni had actually been right behind him. The room had a few bales of something she thought might be marijuana. There were also a few plastic wrapped bricks she thought might be other kinds of drugs. She had out her phone and she videoed them as she followed Castano over to a massive combination safe in the corner.
Castano started turning the dial on the safe. Roni kept the video camera going over his shoulder, but also memorized the five number combination in case the video didn’t show the numbers clearly. When the big door opened, the first thing Roni noticed were big stacks of hundred dollar bills on the shelves at the top. A messenger bag sat on a middle shelf. At the bottom sat a file case. I’ll bet that’s loaded with secrets the FBI would be interested in, she thought.
That’s all she had time to see. Castano pulled out the messenger bag, slung it over a shoulder and closed the heavy door. He turned the wheel to lock the safe, tugging on it to be sure, then headed for the door.
Roni slipped out right behind him, no longer surprised that he paused a tiny bit while closing the door. Just enough that it didn’t bump her.
The men had gotten in two vans and a heavy truck. At about 9:30 they all drove out, presumably to meet Garcia.
Castano was in the heavy truck. It had a ladder up one side. When Castano got in, Roni climbed the ladder, thinking there would be a place on top of the truck where she could ride. There wasn’t. The top of the truck had a flat surface with slots around the edges for straps or hooks. She thought they might be used to bind down cargo. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything for a rider to cling to.
Roni had a nerve-wracking ride, clinging to the ladder and broadcasting thoughts telling everyone not to notice her.
She decided the terror of the ride had been worth it. She placed her cell phone on the bumper of one of the vans while the men waited around, evidently for Garcia to arrive. Roni’d probably need to turn the camera a little bit to point it right at the action when the deal went down, so she hadn’t started recording yet. She kept glancing at the messenger bag hanging over Castano’s shoulder, wondering what it contained.
Some headlights signaled the arrival of a Suburban and an Escalade. The Suburban turned around and backed up to the meeting site. Roni aligned and started her camera, but the picture didn’t look very good. The combination of dark surroundings and the bright headlights of the Escalade beaming toward the camera made it hard to see. She picked up the camera and walked around to one side. It was better there, though still not great. She squatted and braced the camera so it’d look like it’d been emplaced rather than jiggling like someone had been carrying it around. A couple of men got out of the Escalade and walked over to Castano where he and one of his men stood a little apart.
Castano unshouldered the bag, turned it toward the other men and held it flat. Garcia, presuming that’s who it was, lifted the flap, unzipped the messenger bag, and leaned down to peer inside. He put his hand in, evidently feeling the contents, then turned and nodded to his men. They opened the back of the suburban and folded back a tarp to reveal stacks of bales and bricks similar to those Roni’d seen in the room at the warehouse. Garcia and Castano stood there between the vehicles while their men moved the bales and bricks to Castano’s heavy truck.
Once everything had been moved, Castano handed over the messenger bag and headed back to the truck. Garcia turned for the Escalade. Having watched a lot of movies, Roni had the feeling that shooting might be about to start, but nothing exciting happened. She realized these men must do this kind of business on a regular basis. A shoot ‘em up would cramp their style. She turned off her camera and put the cell phone in her pocket.
Having decided she didn’t want to ride back on the side of Castanos’ truck, Roni walked over toward Garcia’s vehicles idly wondering whether she might be able to catch a ride in one of them. She’d like to get to a location where it would be easier to meet a taxi. Otherwise she’d be looking at quite a walk.
Castano’s vehicles had started up and were driving away. Garcia was standing by the open door of the Escalade, talking to a couple of his men. Roni looked in, wondering whether she had the courage to actually get in his vehicle. Even invisible and hard to notice, that seemed a little crazy.
The messenger bag was laying there on the seat.
The flap was facing her.
She stepped closer, lifted the flap, pulled the zipper aside, and stuck her hand in. She might not have recognized what she was touching if she hadn’t handled the bundles of cash she’d stolen from Nick Castano. She grabbed a handful of bundled cash and put it in her hoody jacket’s pocket. Garcia was still talking, so she pulled out another handful and put it in the other pocket. The men were still talking, so she unzipped a little bit of the top of her jacket and the big coat under it, then pulled out eight more handfuls, quickly stuffing them inside the front of her heavy coat. She laid the flap of the bag closed and backed away, her left arm tight against her waist to keep the money from slipping out the bottom of the coat.
Keeping her arms around the cash in the front of her coat, Roni walked away quickly and stepped around the corner. Even though she knew she was invisible, she always felt better when she was positioned so she’d be hidden from sight. She stepped up to a parked car and pulled out on the bottom of her coat to let the bundles of money spill onto the hood. A quick count showed her sixteen bundles on the car, each somewhat less than an inch thick. Evidently, each of the eight handfuls she’d pulled out had had two bundles in it. She opened the zipper on her hoody and put three bundles in each of the outside pockets of the heavy coat underneath the hoody. Unzipping the big coat, she checked it for inside pockets. She found a pocket on each side and was able to stuff two more bundles into each of those pockets.
This left six bundles still on the hood. She stuffed a bundle into each back pocket and each front pocket of her pants. They made her pants too tight and, in combination with the overstuffed coats she felt a little bit like the Pillsbury dough boy. She still had two bundles of cash. She’d wanted to keep her hands free, but shrugged and picked up both bundles in her left hand which already held her cell phone. That hand was full, but she didn’t want to leave the bundles behind either. I need some cargo pants, she thought.
She looked back around the corner and saw that the Escalade and Suburban were gone. Garcia must not have looked in his messenger bag or I suspect I would’ve heard a lot of cussin’, Roni thought.
Not being quite sure where she was, she used her cell phone’s GPS function to figure it out. She had about eight blocks to walk before she’d get to a street where she thought she could meet a taxi. After she’d walked four blocks, she called the taxi company.
Before the taxi arrived, she felt around the bottom of her jacket to make sure it hung low enough to cover the tops of the bills that were hanging out the pockets of her pants. It did, but only barely.
Roni didn’t get home until nearly midnight. She tried to climb the stairs quietly, but as she reached her room, the hall light snapped on and Tansey said, “Where’ve you been?”
Roni didn’t have to fake the tired look on her face. “Out following the Castanos around.” Keeping her left hand with the two bundles of cash down by her side, she held up her phone with her right hand, “Getting some video.”
Tansey frowned, “What did… what’d you record tonight?”
“A drug buy.”
“Oh.”
Roni got the impression t
hat her mother pictured Nick or one of the other Castanos buying some weed from a street dealer, but she didn’t want to disabuse her of the notion. She knew her mother wouldn’t be okay with Roni hanging around a big-time drug deal. Her mother tilted her head curiously and said, “Why do you still have your coat on?”
Roni shrugged, “Still cold.”
Tansey’s eyes shot down to the bottom of Roni’s coat. Roni immediately knew what’d happened. When her shoulders had lifted for the shrug, the coat had come up enough to go above the top of one of the bundles of bills and when it dropped back down it folded the bills outward. They’d popped out a couple of times on the way home. Sure enough, Tansey said, “Roni?!”
Roni opened the door to her bedroom and stepped inside, resignedly saying, “Come on in.”
Eyes still wide, Tansey followed Roni into the room and closed the door behind her. Evidently, she didn’t want to wake up Ravinder either. She spoke quietly, “What in the world?”
Roni reached behind her and pulled out the bundle of bills Tansey’d seen sticking out of her back right pocket. She handed it to her mother, saying, “They got a little careless with their cash when they were doing their drug deal.” While her mother’s attention was focused on the bundle of hundred dollar bills, Roni stepped over and opened her closet. She quickly reached in and set the two bundles in her left hand on a shelf.
Glancing back, she saw Tansey counting the bills. She unzipped her coat, then quickly pulled the bundles out of the pockets in her pants, setting them on the shelf too. She shoved them under a sweatshirt, then pulled off her jacket. She quickly hung the hoodie jacket and then the heavy coat on a hanger without disturbing the cash in its pockets. She turned back around to see her mother look up from the bundle of cash. “There’s a hundred $100 bills in this packet!”
“So, $10,000.”
“This wasn’t some small street deal for a baggie of marijuana!”
Roni shook her head.
“What was it?”
“The Castanos were buying some drugs from the Garcias. I think the Garcias are some kind of Central American cartel.”
“And you stole money from them?! Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m invisible. I just lifted some cash out of the deal. I figure if they get in a fight with each other after they count their money, it’ll be a win-win for the rest of the world.”
Her mother stared at her for a little longer, then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she said, “Promise me you’ll stay away from drug deals from now on.”
Roni shrugged. She thought she had enough drug deal evidence already, “Okay.”
Tansey stared into Roni’s eyes another minute, then stood, “I’m going to bed.” At the door, she turned and said, “I have your promise?”
“I’ll stay away from drug deals,” Roni answered, thinking that hanging around drug deals probably wasn’t the most dangerous thing she did, but not wanting to say that to her mother.
Once her mother was gone, she got the money out of her coat and stacked up the bundles. Twenty of them, all stacks of hundreds. Presuming they were all 10,000 each, they added up to $200,000. Enough for college with a bunch left over. Each bundle was about ¾ inch thick. She looked around her room for a place to hide them.
Eventually the money wound up in a shoebox. Not at all secure, she thought, and terrible protection against a fire, but hopefully Mom won’t find it until I’ve finished this and sent stuff to the FBI. It needs to be in a bank, but, she pictured herself showing up at a bank with a shoebox full of hundred dollar bills, now I really need a way to launder money.
***
There was a knock on her door and when Roni said, “Come in,” Hax pushed the door open.
He came in and sat on her bed, then leaned to the side to reach in his back pocket, “Hallie finished your keys.”
“Great! Does she think they’ll work?”
Hax shrugged, holding them and the papers with the rubbings out to her. “She’s not sure. She says they’re good copies of the drawings, but she doesn’t know how accurate a rubbing of a key is. She says if they don’t turn the lock right away, you should keep a gentle twisting pressure on while jiggling the key around in the lock. That might move the pins up or down enough for the tumbler to turn.”
“All right, tell her thanks for me.”
Hax nodded, “When are we going?”
“We aren’t going anywhere.”
Hax got a determined and obstinate look on his face, “I’m going with you.”
“You are not!”
Now he looked concerned, “You shouldn’t do this by yourself. You need backup!”
“I can be invisible. You’d stick out like a sore thumb. Not only would you not be able to help, you’d probably get killed.”
“Mom taught me how to shoot.”
Roni drew back in surprise, “Mom taught you how to shoot?!”
“Yeah, remember she said it was one of our talents. She’s freakin’ amazing! You should have seen the guy at the shooting range. You’d have thought some kind of shooting God had just walked into his store.”
“Our mom?”
Hax nodded. “Then she blew the bullseye out of the target, but later told me she was actually spreading her shots around to keep from freaking the guy out. After he left she put seven rounds through a single hole in the target without even aiming over the sights!”
Roni gave him a disbelieving look, but all she said was, “And then she taught you how to shoot?”
Hax nodded, “And I’m good. Not as good as her, but good. Plenty good enough to be your backup.”
Roni stared at him for a moment, then slowly said, “Let’s just say all this is true and not just the product of your fertile imagination. Just what the heck do you think you’re going to do to back me up? I mean, you can’t come in the warehouse with me. People’ll see you.”
“I’ll hang around outside. You keep my phone on speed dial.” He shrugged, “If it all goes in the crapper, you call.”
“Speed dial?”
“Yeah, there’s an app. You just touch an icon and it calls me.”
“And you’re gonna do what?”
“Come in after you. Shoot people if I have to.”
Shaking her head, Roni said, “I’ll be much safer by myself…”
Hax interrupted, “And, if you’re safe, I’ll be safe. But if it goes all wrong, and you need my help, you don’t want me to be back here in bed.”
Memories of the many times she’d felt scared witless despite her invisibility flashed through Roni’s mind, but she rolled her eyes anyway. “No. If they catch me, there’s no reason for you to get caught or killed too. Besides, they can’t catch me, I’ll be invisible.”
“You know something could happen. But, if they can’t catch you, and you’re safe, then I’ll be safe too. No problem.”
Roni sighed. Against her better judgment, she said, “Go take a nap. We’ll leave at midnight…”
***
Harold Thompson felt bleak. He’d made bail today. He could have made bail days ago, but hadn’t wanted to be away from the safety of the jail until his family had gotten safely out of town. He’d promised his wife he’d also flee to the in-laws house, but he didn’t want to.
He’d never run from a fight before.
Though, it seemed bizarre that he was in trouble for hurting two guys he’d never actually touched. Apparently, one of them died, so in truth he was accused of hitting one in the head and killing the other. The guy who was still alive was supposed to be the son of the local mob boss. The two guys were such well-known sons of bitches that even the cops had privately expressed the opinion that he should get a medal for taking them out.
He hadn’t touched them, but no one seemed to believe him.
On the other hand, he had no idea what had happened to the two dudes.
At present, Harold was taking some clothes over to his sporting goods store. He had a half-formed plan of hunkering do
wn in the back room with a couple of shotguns, a stack of sleeping bags, some body armor, and some night vision glasses. Then, if any of Castano’s men came around, he’d…
He wasn’t sure what he’d do, but he didn’t want to say he’d been run out of town with his tail between his legs.
He’d just closed the trunk of his car on a couple of duffel bags full of clothes and supplies when he felt an excruciating thump come from the side of his right ankle. Dropping his left hand onto the back of the car, he spun, landing his butt on the bumper and shooting his right hand into his jacket after the gun in his shoulder holster.
Three guys stood there, one with a baseball bat in his hand. That probably explained what’d happened to Harold’s ankle. The other two had guns trained on him. The guy on the right said, “Bring that hand back out here real slow like, with the gun in just two fingers.”
As he did so, Harold thought, I guess I should’ve gone out of state. After a moment, he thought, Maybe I ought to attack these assholes. They’re going to kill me and this is probably the best odds I’ll get. Harold put a little pressure on his ankle, but it wouldn’t bear his weight. Probably broken, he thought despairingly. “What do you guys want?” he growled.
“You’ve got an appointment with Mr. Castano…”
Chapter 8
Leaving after midnight, there wouldn’t be any good bus connections to get down to the area of the Castanos’ warehouse and calling a taxi left a record. Roni knew her parents wouldn’t approve, but she really felt like they needed to borrow the family car.
The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series) Page 21
