by Tony Wiley
Harris had a good nose too. He just knew he’d stuff his pockets.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“Just make sure you have enough room in your trunk,” Morrison said before hanging up.
He stared again at the three heavy duffel bags lying on the bare cement floor, bulging with the greatest pile of money he’d ever seen in one single place.
They were at a crossroads.
Now was the time to perform the most dangerous part of any criminal operation.
The money split.
Always a nerve-wracking moment, in the best of cases.
But today, Morrison had decided to throw an extra layer of complexity on top of it. It worried him, of course. And it also worried Cowgirl.
“Are you sure you still want to proceed this way?” she asked.
“Yes. It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
She nodded her approval. They had discussed the issue at length.
“It’s risky,” he said, “but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She didn’t oppose him. He knew she trusted him and that she would always give him the benefit of the doubt.
So he prepared for his final phone call.
He punched in Sheriff Sanford’s number.
When she picked up, he said, “We’re making a move now. Be ready.”
Chapter 57
Morrison loaded the duffel bags in the back of his Navigator and took to the road. Cowgirl didn’t climb aboard with him. As their plan called for, she followed closely in her own ride.
As he drove, Morrison played out the scenario in his head.
Then he went through an elaborate series of what-ifs.
You couldn’t ever plan for everything. But you had to master the most likely variations. You couldn’t afford to be surprised by them, not when the stakes were so high.
Up there on that cleared plateau, Mike’s two other big black Navigators were parked in front of the garage alongside Laura’s cute little white BMW.
In any other circumstance, he would never have elected to split the money at Mike’s place. But in this case, he didn’t really have a choice.
He checked his rear-view mirror. Cowgirl was right on his tail. As was Harris, two hundred feet further back. The wily old fox was pushing his way through the cloud of dust they had just raised.
Morrison parked behind one of the SUVs and hit the button to open the hatch. Then he looked up. The drapes in Laura’s room were waving as if somebody had just retreated behind them. He kept gazing silently at the window. Then a few seconds later, as if drawn by his stare, he saw a pale figure emerge tentatively, clutching at the side of the drapes.
Laura.
Their eyes locked briefly. Even from his position down there, he could smell her fear. Her anguish. Her desperation.
Before he got out, he put a hand under the flap of his shirt, behind his back.
Just to check.
Then he opened the door and sprung to his feet.
*
“My God, that’s a real thing of beauty,” Harris said, eyeing the bulging duffel bags at the back of the Navigator.
“Stop drooling and give me a hand, will you?” Morrison said.
“Of course,” Harris said. He looked like a six-year-old who had just been asked to carry Santa Claus’s toy sack.
Morrison and Cowgirl took care of the other two bags.
Mike was waiting for them on the stoop. He led them all to his office.
The blond guy was already sitting on a sofa in the room. When he saw him, Harris immediately addressed him. “Hey, buddy, take a hike, will you?”
“He works for me. This is my house. He stays,” Mike said.
“He’s got nothing to do with this money,” Harris said.
“Just pretend he’s not here,” Mike said.
Harris turned to Morrison. Mike did the same.
Morrison just shrugged. “Stop squabbling, guys. We have a serious pile of money to split. Let’s get to work. The asshole can stay, I don’t care.”
Harris smiled. The blond guy’s eyes threw knives at Morrison, but otherwise he remained silent.
Mike cleared off his desk, which didn’t take too long. He had only a laptop and a few magazines scattered about. Guns & Ammo plus a few military mags. Worthless rubbish as far as Morrison was concerned, but he wasn’t there to discuss Mike’s reading material.
Cowgirl and Harris each opened a duffel bag. Morrison bent down to take care of the third one. They spilled out the stacks of money on the big tabletop. Then they set about forming five equal piles. While this process went on, absolute silence reigned supreme in the room as if some mystical, quasi-religious event were taking place.
When they were done, they all stared at this mountain of money for a while. Blond asshole included.
They were all speechless, each of them privately contemplating what they were going to do with all this dough.
Mike broke the silence. “I don’t know how you made her cough up all that money, Morrison, but I have to say I’m impressed.”
Morrison shook his head. “Sanford didn’t cough up anything. Turns out she only had an indirect involvement in this.”
Mike frowned. He hadn’t expected this. “Who stole the money, then?” he asked.
“Her secret boyfriend. Steve Perkins.”
Mike arched his eyebrows. “Perkins? He’s boning Sanford? Wow! That’s the best one I’ve heard in a long time,” he said, shaking his head.
“Was boning her,” Morrison said. “I don’t think they’ll be a couple anymore. Secret or not.”
“Perkins, eh? Son of a bitch. I thought the guy was squeaky clean,” Mike said. “That’ll teach me, I guess. I bet the good people of Acton would be shocked to hear that.” He nodded toward Harris. “Your pals at the chamber of commerce would have a heart attack, right?”
“Right,” Harris said, “but nobody’s gonna hear about this, Mike.”
“Of course,” Mike said. “Of course, I’m not stupid.”
Morrison took the floor again. “Bottom line, we now have a total of eleven million two hundred thousand here,” he said, pausing for effect. “That’s eight million plus a forty percent penalty. Divided in five equal parts, that’s two million two hundred and forty thousand dollars each. Mike, I’ll leave you Tommy’s cut. I trust you’ll keep it for him until he gets out.”
Mike nodded. “Of course,” he said.
“Good. So everyone agrees with the split?” Morrison asked.
He looked around. Everyone nodded. All was good.
Morrison turned to Harris and Cowgirl. “All right then,” he said. “Let’s take a pile each and go our separate ways.”
That was the first dangerous milestone.
The moment when the big pot of money suddenly started to dissolve.
If anyone wanted to make a major claim, that’s when it would happen.
Everybody in the room knew that.
They all kind of eyed each other. Blond asshole included.
But nothing happened.
Harris, Cowgirl and Morrison each grabbed a duffel bag and filled it with their share of the money. Then everybody left the room.
As they walked down the corridor, Harris turned to Morrison. “Do you have anything else lined up?” he asked. “’Cause I’d sure like to get back in business with you.”
“No, I haven’t got anything just yet,” Morrison lied.
“When you do, let me know, OK?”
“Sure,” Morrison said. “Sure.”
They all reached the foyer. The blond guy looked like he wanted to show he was not such an asshole after all. He opened the door and held it for them. Cowgirl pushed through the doorway with the duffel bag slung on her shoulder, followed by Harris.
As for Morrison, he stopped short of the door and dropped his bag on the hardwood floor.
He had now arrived at the second dangerous milestone.
This one a lot mo
re dangerous than the first.
Chapter 58
“I left something in my room,” Morrison said. “I’ll go grab it before I leave.”
“Sure,” Mike said. “Go ahead.”
Morrison trotted up the creaky staircase to the second floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blond guy close the front door.
Staying there was dangerous.
He knew that.
The presence of Harris and Cowgirl had acted as a shield. It would have been tricky for Mike and the blond guy to attack them all. Not impossible but a lot more difficult.
Now that his friends were gone, Morrison had become a much easier target for them.
As he made his way upstairs, he felt like one of these divers that left the security of a steel cage to go swimming among the sharks. Nothing could be happening. But then again, a massive flash attack could materialize in the blink of an eye and leave you dead.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have stayed behind alone.
But he didn’t have a choice.
He could not abandon Laura to her fate.
When he reached the landing, he saw that the master bedroom door was open a crack. Laura then realized it was him, and she threw the door open.
He rushed up to her.
She still looked as bad as the last time. Battered and scared. But at least now, he could see a glimmer of hope in her face.
“Prepare a few things for you and your baby. We’re leaving soon,” he whispered.
The suddenness of the move took her by surprise. A brief moment passed before she could react. Then she nodded and whispered, “OK, I will do that.”
“Everything will be fine. Just get ready and stay in your room, lock the door and wait for my signal. All right?”
She nodded. “All right.” Then she looked him in the eye and said, “Thank you, thank you so much for doing this.”
She made a move to retreat back to her room, but he held her hand. “Wait, there’s something I want you to take.”
He put his hand behind his back, under the flap of his shirt, and retrieved a gun he had tucked under his waistband.
“Take this,” he said.
He still hated guns with a passion. But sometimes you didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t enter the lion’s den unarmed. Mike and the blond guy didn’t share his scruples. And he was on their turf.
Laura took the gun. She examined it closely.
“You know how to use this?” he asked.
“I think I do.”
He pointed to the safety catch and the release for the mag. “You hold the butt with two hands,” he said. “And you don’t squeeze the trigger. You just gently pull on it.”
“OK,” she said, taking all that in.
He tried to make himself as reassuring as he could. “You won’t need it,” he said. “But if you ever do, it’s there.”
She looked up at him. “Be careful,” she said. “They’re crazy down there.”
Morrison shrugged. “Don’t worry, I know all about them.”
Laura retreated to her room and disappeared behind the door.
Morrison crossed the hall and dove into the blue room. He picked up the book he’d brought back from Johnson’s and left there. Then he stormed out again.
As he went down the creaky staircase, he prepared to put his spin on things.
But when he caught a glimpse of the foyer, he realized it wouldn’t be necessary.
Mike had done it for him.
The bastard was standing in the middle of the place with a smug smile on his face.
Morrison went down the last few steps under his arrogant stare. Then he stopped at the foot of the staircase and looked around him.
But there was no mistaking.
His duffel bag was gone.
Chapter 59
It was a scenario Morrison had considered but didn’t think was very likely. Mike was impulsive, he knew that. And greedy, of course. Still, he didn’t think his associate would be that aggressive.
He had been wrong.
“Hey, where’s my money?” Morrison said.
“Your money?” Mike answered with that scumbag smile.
Whatever his previous thoughts had been, Morrison knew he was now on the fast track.
“Yeah, my money,” he said. “Without me, there would be none of it.”
Mike shrugged. “How were you gonna leave anyway? I’m taking back the Navigator and now Harris and Cowgirl are gone. You can’t walk all the way to town with a big bag like that. It would be like asking people to mug you. Better leave it here. In safe hands.”
While this was going on, Morrison made sure not to lose sight of Mike’s hands. For now, they hung loosely at his sides.
“We had a deal,” he said. “Go get my bag right now.”
“Pffft. In your dreams.”
Where was the blond guy? Morrison needed to have them both in the same room.
“Then tell that blond asshole to bring it here,” he said.
“I don’t think you get it, Morrison. That money is mine now.”
Oh, he got that all right. He just needed to stall this. At least for a moment.
“You’re making a big mistake, Mike. This is not gonna end well for you.”
“Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do about it, Morrison?”
Mike started to move his right hand. His shoulder rose a bit. His torso pivoted slightly. The same move gunslingers did in the old Western movies.
A gun. Shit, this is going too fast.
Morrison had no choice.
He did the same.
Only faster.
He threw his right hand to his back and grabbed the second gun he had tucked under his waistband. While he did this, he saw Mike’s eyes register surprise.
“Stop moving,” Morrison said, the barrel of his gun aimed at Mike.
Mike already had the gun in his hand, but it was still pointing at the floor. Mike ignored his warning. Shit. He continued to move.
Morrison had no choice. He fired a shot.
The surprise grew bigger in Mike’s eyes as a red blotch appeared on his shirt. Mike continued to raise the gun toward him.
Morrison fired a second shot.
Another blotch appeared on Mike’s chest and the surprise exploded in his eyes.
At that moment, Morrison had become vulnerable. Mike was pointing his gun at him and was ready to fire. Nothing stood between them.
But Mike’s hand started wobbling.
Before he could press the trigger, the gun fell from his increasingly shaky hand, and he collapsed on the floor with a last low grunt. As dead as a man could be.
Morrison immediately turned to the hallway.
“Mike?” he heard the blond guy call out from another room. “Are you all right?”
Morrison didn’t say anything. Obviously, the blond asshole had expected his boss to come out on top.
Let doubt creep into his mind.
Let it bore a nasty hole.
After a few seconds, Morrison yelled out, “Come out in the hallway with your hands on your head and I won’t harm you!”
He wanted the blond guy to hear him, but Laura too. To reassure her.
The blond guy’s answer came back quickly enough.
“Go to hell, Morrison.”
Chapter 60
Mike’s gun had landed on the hardwood floor a few feet away from his dead body.
Morrison bent down to retrieve it. He switched hands with his other gun. Then he stared down the hallway.
There were lots of rooms in this house and more than one way to reach the second floor. From his position, he was blocking the front creaky staircase. But he didn’t control the quiet one in the kitchen. Couldn’t even see it.
Now, if the blond guy had half a brain, he’d realize that Laura was his best form of leverage. If the bum managed to put his hands on her, he could neutralize Morrison. That was why Morrison couldn’t afford to stay put. He had to protect her. Thank God, at le
ast he had been able to slip her a gun. But it was meant as a last resort thing. No way did he want her to have to use it.
He pointed both guns down the empty hallway.
Held his breath.
Listened hard.
He scanned the airwaves for the slightest sound that would give away the blond guy’s position.
But he didn’t hear anything.
Either the guy was lying still or he was moving about very carefully.
Morrison had to make a quick decision.
For all he knew, the blond guy was in the office. Mike had probably told him to bring the duffel bag there. But there was no way to be sure.
Besides, Morrison had seen that there was another door in that office leading to a sitting room. Could the guy make his way to the kitchen from there without using the hallway? He wasn’t sure. He had been in that kitchen only twice and hadn’t paid too much attention. Maybe. Maybe not. He had no idea.
But he couldn’t just stay there.
The blond guy knew where he stood. With each passing moment, he was becoming more vulnerable.
He couldn’t use the staircase to go to the second floor either. The creaking steps would give him away. If the blond asshole was close enough, Morrison would become an easy target for him, without any cover in the middle of that long flight of stairs.
So Morrison did the only thing he could. He braced himself and crept ahead to the hallway on the balls of his feet.
Slowly.
Meticulously.
His senses alight.
His guns ready to fire.
On his left-hand side, there was a spacious living room abutted by a small bathroom, all the way down at the end of the hallway. On his right-hand side, there was first a small TV room, then Mike’s office, a sitting room and finally the open kitchen and dining room space.
The door to the TV room was open a crack. Morrison peered in.
He doubted the blond guy was in there. But if he was wrong and just went straight past, the asshole could gun him down through the door.
So he had to check the room.
With his back to the wall, he extended his right leg toward the door. Then he gave a sharp kick and stood back.
