“It’s that easy?”
“These salespeople work on commission, so they want the sale. You’re the trophy wife. Everyone assumes you’re innocent. Act innocent. Err on the side of being clueless.”
She pushed through the door. She was the only customer. Glass display cases filled with jewelry ran down both sides of the space. The middle-aged saleswoman behind the counter on the right gave her a hopeful look. “Can I help you?”
Carol smiled. “I’m interested in women’s watches.”
“Any features in particular?”
“Just something very nice.” Was the woman noticing her earrings?
“Yes, ma’am.” The clerk led her to the women’s watches display case.
Carol peered into the case. “Let me look at the Rolex and these other two.”
“The Longines and the Omega?”
Carol nodded.
The woman set a velvet board on top of the glass case and placed the watches on the board. “You have a good eye.”
“They are all so beautiful.” Carol picked them up one at a time to examine them. The prices were in the right range. She looked up at the woman. “I think I deserve all three.”
“All three?” The woman smiled.
Carol dug around in her handbag and took out a Visa card in the name of Penelope Davis. The woman read it. “Driver’s license?”
Carol made a show of looking through her handbag. “Darn. It must be in my other bag.”
Carol watched the sales clerk set the credit card on the glass. She seemed disappointed. How bad did she want this sale?
Carol continued. “Do you really need the ID?” She put on a vulnerable expression and a crumpled smile. “I’m getting some payback on my husband. He’s been a snake, and this is how he starts making it up to me.” Her eyes watered, and she blinked as if she were about to cry.
The woman looked as if she felt sorry for her. She picked up the credit card and tapped it on the glass. “Okay, just this once. Next time, be sure you have your ID.”
Carol blotted her eyes with a tissue. “Thanks so much.”
Carol came out of the jewelry store carrying a fancy blue bag. Roy started the car before she got in. “You were right,” she said.
“That confidence feels good, doesn’t it? Any bumps?”
“She asked for ID, but I hinted that my husband had been cheating on me. I think she completely understood.”
“Thinking on your feet. Good job.”
“What’s next?”
Roy backed out of the parking spot. “It’s too close to five to try anywhere else, so we’ll have to wait till tomorrow.”
* * *
Later, after supper, Carol was leaning back in the passenger’s seat watching Roy drive. She’d been with him two days, and she’d learned two new skills—pickpocketing and working stolen credit cards. She’d eaten every meal in a restaurant, she had new clothes, and he hadn’t criticized her or raised a hand to her. In every way her life was a step up from what it had been.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Fire away.”
“You get off on the con.”
“Of course. Tell me you don’t enjoy the rush of being on the inside of the game.”
“How do you decide who to play?”
“It’s always easier and safer to work someone who’s breaking the rules. You can lead them right where you want them, and they probably won’t go to the police. The person who’s really honest is a difficult play. Even the jewelry store clerk. She wanted the sale enough to break the rules. My last job with my old partners capsized in part because the mark was too honest. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“But Penny?”
“Yeah?”
“Why her?”
“How do you feel about mugging drunks?”
“Well, they want to take advantage of me, and most of them are married.”
“And Penny is different how? It wasn’t a home invasion. She was looking to cheat on her husband. She got screwed over for being a bad player.”
“And you fucked her.”
“Or she fucked me. I hope I showed her a good time. She never told me to stop or asked me to leave. And, hey, I enjoyed it. Why not?”
“So you’ll seduce a woman to set a con in motion?”
He gave her a quick glance. “Where’s this going?”
“I don’t know. I just never met a guy who—”
“Wasn’t the muscle? Or trying to be your pimp?”
“Yeah.”
“Glad to broaden your horizons.”
* * *
Jacob sat in his white Sentra at the freeway rest stop just north of Roosevelt Heights, Ohio. He was parked facing out by the concrete picnic table on the back side of the building. A friend of a friend, a guy he trusted from prison, had told him about a possible job opportunity, one that didn’t require a con artist to close the deal, so he’d come here for a meet and greet. The pistol holstered at the small of his back aggravated the pain in his lower spine, but that couldn’t be helped. He sipped his coffee and watched the cars pull in, passengers go into the rest stop, come out, and drive off. His contact was late. He was about to give up when a Harley Davidson rolled up and parked next to him. The rider wore a black leather jacket. He took off his helmet. His long hair was in a ponytail, and he had tattoos on the back of his hands. Jacob climbed out of the Sentra.
“You Darius?” he asked.
Darius smiled. “You must be Jacob.”
“Who’s our mutual friend?” Jacob asked.
“Milt Jackson. Where did you first meet him?”
“Prison transport van. I hear you need partners for a job. Why not use your own people?”
“’Cause the job is ripping off my people. You heard of Jimmy Shane?”
“He’s the man in Roosevelt Heights, isn’t he?”
Darius nodded. “I want to rip off his weekly take.”
“How much?”
“Usually about forty thousand.”
“I hear he’s an unforgiving bastard.”
“You heard right.”
“Plan better be tight.”
“It is.”
“What’s my end?”
“I take a quarter; your crew splits the rest. You’re responsible for your own overhead.”
“And you get paid for?”
“Knowing everything that needs to be known.”
“How’s that?”
“I’m the one transporting the money.”
“So you’re staging the robbery?”
“Yep.”
“Why do you need us?”
“It has to look legit. So there has to be an actual robbery.”
“Okay. I’ll collect my guys. You got a phone number I can reach you at?”
Darius gave him a phone number. “You need to call around seven p.m. How long is it going to take to pull your crew together?”
“A couple of days maximum.”
* * *
Carol scurried down the hallway in the pitch black. She ran into a door, bounced off it, fell to her knees. Her heart was pounding so hard that she gasped to breathe. She gripped the door handle, jerking it up and down while she banged her shoulder against the door, but it wouldn’t open. She could hear shuffling, like footsteps, coming behind her. She fumbled for the light switch on the wall and flipped it up and down. Nothing. She looked over her shoulder, struggling to see in the black. The door. She had to open the door. Something knocked her down. It was on her, touching her, feeling inside her, cold, cold and dead. Its hands were moving up her body to her throat. She screamed.
* * *
Carol’s eyes snapped open. Where was she? Light from the streetlights bled into the room from around the edges of the window blinds. A clock radio sat on the upturned box beside her bed. Roy’s apartment. She took a deep breath and ran her hands over her body. She wasn’t hurt. She was safe. She wasn’t in the nightmare anymore. Her T-shirt was wet with sweat. She looked at th
e time. 3:00 a.m. She hugged Terry’s pillow to her chest. How to stop the nightmares? She closed her eyes and pictured a beach. The tide rolling up the sand, the water advancing and retreating. She tried to breathe along with the waves. Suddenly, the beach was dark. The wind started to howl.
She got up and went down the hall to the bathroom. She used the toilet, rinsed her hands, and drank from the faucet. The apartment was quiet. Was Roy asleep? She went to his room and eased the door open just enough to peek in. She could hear the steady rhythm of his breathing in the dark. What would he do if he found her in his bed? Yell at her? Try to fuck her? He hadn’t laid a hand on her thus far. She couldn’t go back to her room. She couldn’t sit awake waiting for the morning. She padded across to his bed, lifted the covers, and slipped in next to him. He shifted slightly, but he was still asleep. She began to relax. She listened to his breathing, felt his warmth beside her, and closed her eyes.
* * *
In the morning, Roy found Carol in bed beside him. She looked like a little kid, her hair rumpled around her face and a dab of drool at the corner of her mouth. There was definitely something broken in her. She’d snuck in here and hadn’t tried to seduce him, the need to lie beside him greater than the fear of what might happen if she did it. Was this brokenness fixable? Was it going to interfere with his plan to get even with his old partners? Or was it just a quirk he’d get used to, like somebody putting ketchup on scrambled eggs? It certainly put their relationship into a strange place, like he was her father or older brother. If he could keep his hands off her, maybe he could work that.
She opened her eyes, saw him watching her, and rolled away from him. “Oh, my God, I thought for a second that it was a dream. But I guess I really did come in here last night.”
“I told you that you had to sleep in your own room.”
“I can’t sleep by myself.”
“Are you being straight with me or are you trying to play me?”
She rolled back over to face him. “I’m…I’m being straight with you.”
“How long have you been on your own?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze. “Since I was fourteen.”
“Bad home life?”
“I don’t remember much.”
“How old are you now? Tell me the truth.”
“Seventeen.” She gave him a determined look. “I can pull my weight.”
“I know it. I don’t carry anyone’s water, Carol. Just let me ask you this. You afraid someone will hurt you in the night?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t know why I can’t sleep by myself. I get nightmares.”
“I told you when you partnered with me that I wouldn’t hurt you, and that’s no bullshit. Do you believe me?”
She nodded.
“You got anything else to say?”
“Can I sleep here tonight?”
“Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
“I know.”
“Okay, I can’t promise forever, but you can sleep here tonight.”
* * *
After they got ready for the day, they got into the Cadillac and pulled out of the apartment complex parking lot. It was a beautiful September morning. The sun was shining, and the grass was green. Children were waiting at the school bus stop in their shorts and T-shirts. On the main thoroughfare, the morning traffic was just beginning to pick up.
“Going to keep working the credit cards?” Carol asked.
“Yeah,” Roy replied. “But first we need to go to the Mobil station at the corner of Grand and Lexington. That station has pay-at-the-pump, so we can find out if the card has been cancelled without talking to anyone. That way, worst-case scenario, there’s no one to give a description.”
They topped off the gas tank at the Mobil station, and then went to breakfast at the Cup-N-Sup. The place was busy with the before-work crowd, but the hostess found them a booth at the windows. The waitress, a sturdy, middle-aged woman dressed in a yellow polyester uniform with a short apron, brought an insulated thermos of coffee and poured coffee for them before she took their orders. Carol ordered scrambled eggs and one piece of toast. Roy ordered the Texas omelet with hash browns.
As soon as the waitress was gone, Roy said, “We’ll use the second card here. Then we’ll go to a pawnshop, pawn the watches, go to another jewelry store, use the second card, go to another pawnshop, go to another Mobil station with pay-at-the-pump.”
“Why not do all the shopping first?”
“If anyone calls the cops, we don’t want to be in possession of a lot of jewelry. Three watches is explainable, but nine watches?”
The waitress brought their food. “Anything else right now?”
“Could I borrow your phone book?”
While they ate, Roy looked up the addresses of jewelry stores and pawnshops and wrote them down.
“Why so many?” Carol asked.
“We need upscale jewelry stores and shady pawn shops. We can’t walk in just anywhere. We need to increase the likelihood of success.”
“And you learned all this how?”
“Partnering with people who knew more than me—people who needed my skills.”
“Like your old crew that we’re going to rip off.”
“Yeah.” Roy sipped his coffee. “And I wouldn’t be after them if they hadn’t screwed me.”
The waitress dropped off their check and took the phone book.
“Why did they do it?”
He shrugged. “I was the odd man out. They got greedy and thought they could get away with it. They were right.”
He looked at the check and put some money on the table. “Let’s go.”
“That’s a big tip.”
“I’m a big tipper.”
They paid at the cash register. When they were back in their car and on their way, Carol asked, “Have you ever been in jail?”
“You’ve got a lot of questions this morning.”
“Yeah.”
“You ever been in jail?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“I’ve been inside twice. Stupid little mistakes. Not making them again.”
* * *
Best Deals Pawns was a storefront located between a vacant lot and Rudy’s Tap just north of the downtown. The accordion gate across the front door and windows was open, revealing a display of TVs and radios. Roy pulled into an empty space at the curb. “You know what to do?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me.”
“I go up to the counter. I take out the watches one by one, looking at them and hesitating like I don’t want to give them up. They should want to give me about a thousand for all three. Too much lower, I walk.”
“I’ll be just outside, watching through the window. If there’s any trouble, I’ve got your back.”
“You sure this will work?”
“It’ll work. Just be your usual charming self.”
She went into the pawnshop. The window display cases were locked. The shelves were loaded with small appliances and tools. To her right, a heavy-set, dark-haired man with slicked-back hair stood behind a counter enclosed with wire mesh with his hands resting on his beer belly. Jewelry and guns were displayed on the shelves behind him. He grinned. “Can I help you, miss?”
She played her part, reaching slowing into her handbag to take out the watches, trying for a defeated, resigned look. She set them on the counter at the pass-through opening. The pawnbroker watched her hands as she neatened the watches into a row. “I won’t be able to give you what you think they’re worth.”
She sighed. “What’s your offer?”
The man folded his arms. “Seven hundred.”
She looked up into his face, her eyes pleading. “Is that all?”
He smirked. “You make it worth my while, and I might go up to eight.”
“Seven-fifty?”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “Eight hundred with a blowjob.”
“I’m leaving.” She reached for the wa
tches.
He grabbed her wrist.
“Let go of me,” she hissed.
He continued in a low voice. “I bet they’re stolen, missy. You cooperate, and I won’t call the cops. Only now it’s six-fifty for the watches and a blowjob. Best deal you’re going to get.”
Roy pushed through the door with his .38 in his hand. “Let go of her. Keep your hands above the counter if you don’t want to get shot.”
The pawnbroker raised his hands. “You can have all the money.”
“I don’t want all the money. You’re the boss here?”
He nodded.
“So it would be a problem for you if this place burned to the ground?”
“Mister, I’ve got a family to take care of.”
Roy glanced at Carol. “What was the deal?”
“Eight hundred if I blew him.”
“Eight-fifty it is.” He reached into his pocket for his car keys. “Go start the car.”
Roy kept his gun trained on the pawnbroker while he counted the money out of the cash drawer. “You call the cops, you get burned down. It’s that simple.” He scooped up the cash. “Have a nice day.”
He backed out of the pawnshop, sprinted across the sidewalk to the Cadillac, and hopped in. Carol pulled out of the parking spot while he was still closing his door. “Hell of a start to the day.”
She turned right at the corner. “I could have walked away.”
“I wasn’t going to give him the watches. Besides, he put his hands on you.”
“We could have robbed him.”
“Why? So we could get the cops after us? He was a pain in the ass, but as long as he wasn’t afraid for his life, he wasn’t going to reach for the shotgun under the counter. He’ll still make a profit on the watches. His feeling are hurt, but he’s going to keep his mouth shut.”
She stopped at the red light. “I’m sorry about screwing up.”
“How’s that?”
The Double Cross Page 6
