by Jeff Shelby
“What is ridiculous ?” Johnny asked, focusing on the traffic on Main Street.
“This,” I said, waving a hand in front of me. “Going to meet with some guy about some stolen computers. We don't even know th at they are ey're the Prism ones and even if they are, what are we going to do about it? Make a citizen's arrest?”
“Is that a real thing? A citizen's arrest?”
“I have no idea.”
He laughed and changed lanes, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Well, we can turn around and go back. We don't have to go.”
I sighed. I knew that. I also knew we wouldn't. I had already committed to the insanity and there wasn't any turning back. My curiosity always won out. Maybe Jake was right. Maybe I really would have to look into getting my private investigator's license. Or my spy card.
“No,” I told him. “We're going.”
“Awesome,” Johnny said, barely able to contain his excitement and squirming . He squirmed in his seat. “Hey, did Brenda clear next Friday night with you?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I said. “We have your kids that night, correct right ?”
He nodded. “Yeah, if you can.”
“Of course,” I said. “We have to start paying you back for this week.”
“Aw, it's been fine,” he said , shrugging . “They all get along and they've had fun. We might be a little late dropping them off next week Friday , though. I've got a contractor guy coming by and he can't get there until the afternoon. Not sure how long he'll be.”
“Are you having some work done to the house?”
He shook his head. “No , we're t anything major. We're just having some holes patched. Derek likes to punch the walls in his bedroom.”
I looked out the window so he couldn't see me laughing. “Gotcha.”
“I need to get him into boxing classes or something,” he said. “Maybe some mixed martial arts. Something to burn off all that energy.”
“Probably be cheaper than wall repair.”
He laughed. “For sure.”
He navigated the traffic on Main and cut over to the other side of town.
“Where exactly are we going?” I asked, realizing I hadn't asked before we'd left.
“Some computer place,” he said. “Just up the road here, above the highway.”
I nodded , distracted ly. , now worried that Worry was beginning to set in as I realized we I should've called Jake and told him where we were going. What if it went bad and no one knew where we were? I hadn't even told Will where we were headed. I had visions of them all trying to piece together our whereabouts based on Phil Johnny 's phone call cell phone log and my interactions with the Prism teachers.
They'd never find us if it went bad.
Maybe I wasn't really cut out for the spy/investigator business.
“This is it,” Johnny said.
I snapped out of my ruminations and looked up.
And did a double-take.
“This is it?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“This is Data Dork,” I said, staring at the sign.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “This is where he said to meet him.”
“At Data Dork?”
“Yeah,” Johnny said, looking at me like I'd lost my mind. “Is that not okay?”
“I...I just wasn't expecting to be...here,” I said. “Are we meeting with Harold?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “ Who's Harold?” We're just meeting in the strip mall . He didn't say anything about the computer store. Or Harold.”
“ The guy who owns Data Dork. His wife is the president of the PTA at Prism. I came over here to talk to him the other night.” Are you sure it wasn't Harold you talked to?” I quickly told him about my visit to the store.
Johnny adjusted his glasses. “ Oh, wow. I didn't know any of that. Obviously. This guy's name is Nate. Or at least that's what he told me.” He pulled the car into the lot and parked at the end of the strip mall. “He said he'd meet us down here at the end of all the stores.”
My head was spinning. Did this mean that the Hollenstorks did have something to do with the computer theft? Who was this Nate guy? Was Nate actually Harold?
“I don't know why he said here,” Johnny said. “This was just the place he gave me and I knew it was close, so...” His voice trailed off.
I was still trying to sort it out in my head when a guy in his late twenties in an oversized Vikings sweatshirt popped out from around the corner of the building s . He stood there for a moment, rubbing the scraggly goatee on his chin, squinting at us. Johnny rolled down his window and waved. The guy stood there a second, then headed our way, checking over his shoulder as he walked.
He peered down into Johnny's window when he reached the car. “You Johnny?” he asked,leaning close. The breeze blew his long black through the open car window.
“Yeah,” he said. “And this is my friend Daisy.”
He glanced quickly at me and smiled. His teeth were coffee-stained crooked and his nose was crooked just off-center , like it had been broken once or twice. “Hey. I'm Nate.” He moved his gaze back to Johnny. “So.”
“ Uh, so.”
“We still looking to make a little deal here?” Nate asked , raising his bushy eyebrows. .
Johnny's cheeks colored. “Uh...”
“I'm actually the one,” I blurted out. “The one that's looking to buy. The computers.”
Nate nodded a couple of times , assessing me . “Cool, cool. Alright. So, you're interested?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to think fast, then pointed at the Data Dork sign. “Are the computers in there?”
Nate turned around like he didn't know what I was pointing at. to look. When he turned back around, he had kind of an amused look on his face.
“In there?” he said, then shook his head. “No. No way.”
“It's a computer store,” I said.
“Yeah, but it's, like, totally legit,” he said, frowning. “Dude that runs it, he'd never be in on any action like this. Speaking of that action — ”
“So he has nothing to do it with it?” I interrupted him. “The guy who runs the store?”
“Nah.”
“Why are we meeting here , then?”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I work there part-time. I just finished my shift a little bit ago. Trust me . T , t hat guy has no clue about this kind of stuff.”
Okay. I felt a little better than Harold wasn't involved. For some reason, I didn't want him or Harriet to be the culprits. I liked him and his old little store and I really hoped he wasn't getting into something like stealing to keep his store doors open.
“You said the computers aren't here?” Johnny asked.
Nate shook his head. “ Nah. They're in a safe place, you know? Can't just be lugging them around with me, meeting strangers in parking lots.” He chuckled. “That wouldn't be very good business.”
“So how , uh, do we know what we're buying?” I asked.
He reached into the front pocket of his Vikings sweatshirt and handed Johnny a couple of photos. Johnny scanned them, nodding, then passed them to me.
I looked at the pictures. They were computers. I didn't see anything that identified them as the ones stolen from Prism, but they looked like computers that could've been in a computer lab.
“Cheap systems,” Johnny said to Nate. “Like they were purchased in bulk, yeah?”
Nate nodded.
“Like for a church or a school or a library, yeah?” Johnny asked.
Nate hesitated, then nodded again. “Pretty much, dude.” He ran down the specs on the computers, rattling off a bunch of numbers about memory and speed and software. “Standard stuff.”
Johnny nodded, then glanced at me. He adjusted his glasses. “I think it sounds like what you're looking for.”
I wasn't certain because Johnny and I hadn't exactly run any secret spy missions in the past, but I was pretty sure he was telling me that he thought the pictur
es were of the Prism computers.
“We'd need to see them,” I said. “Before I buy any of them.”
Nate rubbed at his chin and nodded like he'd expected that. “ Cool, cool. Alright. Well, h H ow many you think you want? Just one? A couple? What are your needs?”
“How many do you have?”
He raised the bushy an eyebrow. “How many like the ones in the pictures?”
“Yes.”
He pursed his lips. “About thirty.”
“Okay,” I said. “I want them all.”
“All of them?” he asked. “For real?”
“For real,” I said , resisting the tempation to add another word or two in a sad attempt to sound hip and cool. .
“Whoa,” he said, scratching his head. “Wasn't expecting that. But that's cool. We can do that, for sure.”
“But here's the deal,” I said , quickly. “I want to see them all. Tonight.”
“Tonight? Serious?”
“Serious,” I said. “I want to see the merchandise before I purchase.”
Nate pursed his lips for a moment again, then said , “Yo, give me a minute.” He walked away from the car, pulled a phone from his pocket and made a call.
“You think I was too aggressive?” I whispered to Johnny.
“No, no,” he answered. “That was smooth. Those are definitely the computers you're looking for.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded quickly. “Yeah, the specs he gave are exactly what you'd find in bulk-bought systems for a school. I guess there's a chance it might not be from the school, but I'd be pretty surprised because I didn't hear about any other heists.”
“Heists?”
“I like that word,” he said, watching Nate through the windshield. “It's a good spy word.”
I wasn't sure what a good spy word was. I was too preoccupied with watching Nate on the phone. And with figuring out how I was going to tell Jake that our night might be a little busier than we'd originally planned.
“I wonder if I should grow a beard,” Johnny said, looking in the rearview mirror.
“Why?”
“To disguise my appearance,” he said, running a hand over his bare chin. “For when I have to go incognito.”
“Uhh...”
“Brenda hates beards, though,” he said. “She probably won't let me. I'll need to think of something else.”
“ Um, yeah, p P robably.”
“Here he comes,” Johnny whispered.
Nate tucked the phone back into his pocket and walked back to Johnny's open window. He peered inside d . “Hey, yo, I gotta ask. You guys aren't cops or anything, right?”
“Come on, bro,” Johnny said. “Do we look like cops?”
Nate shrugged.
“We aren't the police,” I said, worried that we weren't fooling him. “I promise.”
“Yeah,” Johnny said, nodding. “We aren't. I'm just an I.T. guy trying to help out my friend here.”
“Cool, cool,” Nate said. “My brother, though. He said I had to ask.”
“Your brother?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” he answered. “He's the one that's got the stuff you need.”
“Oh. Alright. So can we see it tonight?”
“Yeah,” Nate said. “Long as you don't mind driving.”
“Driving?”
“It's kind of a ways out,” he said. “But that's the best I can do.”
Johnny looked at me. “It's no problem.”
I could think of about thirty problems, but we'd come this far. I didn't want to lose out now.
“Okay,” I said. “Where do we need to go?”
Nate smiled. “You like gambling?”
THIRTY SIX
“We're going where?” Jake asked, looking at me like I'd finally lost my mind once and for all.
“River Star,” Johnny Witt said from behind the wheel of the Witt family minivan. “The casino.”
“I think it was rhetorical, honey,” Brenda said from the passenger seat, patting him on the arm.
Johnny shrugged and focused on the road.
When Nate told us that the computers were at River Star, I immediately thought we were in trouble because I didn't see any way we could get up there that night. But Johnny quickly talked me down from the ledge, telling me it was no problem. If Emily could babysit all the kids, we could make a double date out of it. And check out the computer situation at the same time.
“I know Brenda will be in,” he said. “She loves the casino.”
“She does? I didn't know that.”
“She never tells anyone. But put her around slot machines and I have to take away her ATM card.”
“That doesn't sound like Brenda at all .”
“Trust me,” he said. “She's a gambler.”
So then I just had to figure out how to enlist Jake. I called him and told him that the Witts needed a night out and they wanted us to come along. He was surprisingly enthusiastic, probably ready to blow off a little steam after a week of not having me at home and . Emily was excited about the prospect of lording over her siblings and the Witt kids for a certain amount of cash. Johnny dropped me at home, I got ready and we headed to the Witt ' s house, where Johnny offered to drive.
And we were just getting around to our destination.
“River Star,” I told him. “Like Johnny said.”
“You hate gambling,” Jake said, eyeing me. “Why are we going to a casino?”
“Well, Brenda likes to gamble.”
Brenda twisted in her seat. “What? Who told you that?”
“You're like one step away from Gamblers Anonymous,” Johnny said.
“That is an exaggeration,” she said, frowning at him. “I just like to play the slots once in awhile.”
“Remember that time in Vegas when you learned there was a slots tournament and you had to play and you ended up screaming at that old woman for taking your lucky machine?” Johnny asked.
Brenda's mouth twitched and she turned back around in her seat. “I'd staked it out. She knew it was a lucky machine. There's etiquette, alright? People without etiquette are terrible.”
Jake ignored them. “Daisy. You don't like casinos. Why are we going?”
“Because they needed a night out,” I said, smiling at him. “Like I told you.”
“And the computers,” Brenda said over her shoulder. “We're going because of the computers.”
“The computers?” Jake asked. “What computers?”
“The ones from Emily's high school,” Brenda said. “She and Johnny think she found them.”
“You would be a terrible spy,” Johnny muttered, shaking his head.
Jake stared at me. “Spill it. Now.”
I sighed and told him what Johnny and I had learned.
When I was done, Jake rubbed at his temples like his head hurt. “So we're going to buy stolen computers?”
“Well, no. Duh. Of course not. We aren't going to buy them.”
“So exactly what exactly are we doing , then?” he asked. “Why are we going to meet with Stolen Computer Guy's Brother and pretend like we want to buy his stolen computers? What exactly is this going to accomplish? And what's going to happen when Stolen Computer Guy's Brother realizes we are no n' t serious buyers?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “But we'll figure something out.”
“We'll figure something out,” Jake repeated. “That will look great on your tombstone.”
“So dramatic,” I said. “Come on. This will be fun. Maybe. ”
“And exciting,” Johnny said added . “It's pretty exciting getting to be a spy. Dude, I used the word heist earlier. It was cool.”
Jake shook his head and turned to look out his window.
I knew 'd known he was going to be irritated, but I wasn't sure what other choices we had I didn't have many oth er options . Sure, we could've called the police, but I didn't know if they'd take me seriously and I wasn't sure where we'd tell them to go. We didn't know Nate'
s brother's name yet and we didn't know if the computers were at the casino or someplace else. The way I figured it, I thought we'd just get to see the computers, then settle on a price, then set up another time to meet with them and then we'd involve the police and they could do the rest of the work. And as much as I wanted the school to the get the computers ir stolen equipment back, I was also focused on who took the computers. I wanted to see the person who broke into Prism and stole the electronics. I wasn't sure if Nate's brother was the guy, but I was pretty sure he could point us to who did.
We rode in an uncomfortable silence the rest of the way until the giant neon lights of the casino lit up the darkened sky.
The River Star hotel and casino was built to Las Vegas specifications. Big bright lights, tall sprawling buildings and a massive billboard that you could see for a mile in either direction so you'd know where to pull off the highway and lose your money. The highway exit was decorated with all sorts of signs promising big jackpots, large buffets and even bigger jackpots. The traffic backed up on the offramp, the product of a Friday night crowd. We snaked along with the other cars until we reached a six - story parking garage and Johnny maneuvered the minivan into a spot on the top floor.
“Fine,” Jake said, turning to me. “If you get to play cop or investigator or whatever it is you're playing, then I get to gamble.”
A tiny, ethical knot took up residence in my stomach My pulse quickened and a knot formed in my stomach . I hated gambling on principal president and it was one of the reasons we avoided the casino. Thornton, my ex, had dumped a sizable amount of his time – and our money – into local casinos and the whole idea of gambling pretty much left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought it was wasteful, like throwing your money into the mouth of a volcano. Jake, however, thought gambling could be fun and had, in fact, spent many weekends in Las Vegas prior to our getting married. He'd tried to get me to go, but I'd steadfastly resisted. respected my desire to avoid them and here I was, b ringing him directly to the one place I despised.
“Alright,” I said, knowing I didn't have much choice.
He leaned closer to me. “ I'm going to get one So I can get a hundred dollars out of the ATM . ? ”
