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| It's Jeff's basement. |
Chapter Fifteen
The boys sat in Jeff’s basement, with the TV…
The boys sat in Jeff’s basement, with the TV turned low, although their eyes still strayed to it from time to time. The initial shock over, blank looks were turning skeptical.
“Well, you guys are just nuts.” This assertion came from Harry Morden.
“I don’t know, Harry.” Slick Wilson was trying to be objective. “It makes a weird kind of sense. We would be better off with that money than some lousy criminal.”
“It’s a hell of a boost to the retirement fund.” Jeff was all calm and cool and collected as a cucumber.
He felt a kind of power. This was a good way to take control of their lives, but he was having a hard time putting it into words.
“We owe it to ourselves.” That’s what he kept telling them. “No one will miss him.”
He figured they would know what he meant, when it was better left unspoken.
Harry, Slick and Jeff studied the clippings that Ted had printed out from the microfiche newspaper morgue at the library. The bank had been robbed in Ottawa seven or eight years ago, and now Gagnon was here. The conclusions drawn seemed a little extreme, but plausible.
Jeff got up and went into the other room, and started digging around in a drawer of his hobby and work desk. He pulled out a handful of maps. The bunch of them would come in handy. Going back out into the recreation room, he began spreading them out on the big brass and glass coffee table. The four of them sat around it, on the beige sectional couch, a study in variations on the theme of blue jeans, plaid felt bush shirts, and thick winter socks. Their coats were piled up on top of the deep freeze in the utility room, and the back hallway was a repository of dripping, stinky boots.
“This one shows the county.” Jeff smoothed it out and the boys all leaned over to study it.
There was a huge area to be covered, when they looked at it.
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| Harry: Like looking at a treasure map... |
“He might have a cabin or a house around here, out in the woods or down some side-road.” Hiltzy had a long look. “He doesn’t even need to own it, really. He just has to know where it is, so he can find it again.”
It was a strange feeling, like looking at a treasure map. There was just a hell of a lot of empty space, all trees and rock and rivers and swamp.
“We have to try and pick up his trail tomorrow.” Harry appeared to have bought into the scheme with some reservations.
“He might still be shoveling snow today.” Jeff was actually using Ted’s notes, a bit of a revelation. “But I doubt it. He usually knocks off by noon or one o’clock.”
The boys seemed impressed at this intelligence.
Harry and Slick looked at each other, and then shrugged. It seemed they were in.
The air in the basement was getting thick and blue with smoke. McCabe went to crack open a couple of windows, grateful that it wasn’t too cold out. It was maybe minus two degrees Celsius. A crow somewhere nearby croaked out its one-note song. The sun was out for once, but he could see by the shadows that the next bank of low clouds was due soon.
“That bastard might not go for the money until spring.” His guts churned at the idea of waiting, now that they were in. “That’s a real pain in the ass. On the other hand, it gives us lots of time to plan.”
“If we grab him, we can’t use our real names in front of him.” Ted had been reading a book or something. “So I got that worked out too. Jeff’s One, I’m Two, Harry’s Three and Slick’s Four.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sakes.” Jeff groaned.
Slick, working on his third beer, just grinned.
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| Teddy gives a briefing. |
“No, I’m serious.” Ted, always full of ideas. “You guys can’t be saying, ‘here Ted, hold the rope,’ or dumb shit like that.”
Harry didn’t have much to say, no questions. His eyes were downcast, unreadable.
“So we divide up into two shifts.” Ted went on with his briefing. “Keep an eye on this guy and get to know whatever routine he follows.”
Yes, he’d been thinking.
“The smart thing for him to do would be to get some kind of shit job and start trying to blend in.”
It was enough to hold the crew’s rapt attention. Harry and Jeff held each other’s eyes for a moment. Harry raised an eyebrow and Jeff just grinned.
“You have to admit, it is doable.” Jeff held his eyes for a moment...
Harry just blinked and nodded, and sucked up his beer, and lit another smoke.
“Once we know his habits, we can decide if one place or another is better, for when we grab him.” Ted was making it up to some degree as he went along.
“At this point the idea of ambushing Gagnon, it all seems rather academic. What if the guy won’t talk? What if he tries to be a hard case?” Harry had some sensible questions.
“Maybe we offer him his life and a share of the money.” Hiltz had his answer, but they all objected to that.
“It’s only twenty-five grand each.” This might have been good psychology on his part, as one thing for sure, they weren’t too interested in that one.
And it was like Teddy just wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.
“We have to put ourselves in the mind of our quarry.”
‘Aw, for fuck’s sakes.’ Thought Jeff.
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| It's all so unbelievable. |
“When we go to do the job, we need to have a fail-safe point where we can abort and try again later…without causing no undue outside interest…” Ted was still going.
Holy crap, thought Harry, and Slick just listened silently.
It was all so unbelievable.
END
Images. Louis.
Louis has books and stories available from iTunes. He has some pictures on Fine Art America.
Thank you for reading.
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