Dog Tags

CHAPTER 5

JERRY HARRIS HAD ALWAYS TAKEN PRIDE IN HIS WORK. Since that work usually consisted of theft and murder, he understood that most people would have trouble understanding the gratification he felt when a job was accomplished smoothly.

But Jerry realized that sometimes events beyond his control got in the way, and that’s what had just happened. First there was that dog, and then that other lunatic who attacked him. It seemed like they had been waiting to make their move, though he had no idea who they were or why they were there.

So when it was time to report back to his employer exactly what had transpired, he felt some regret that he couldn’t claim total success. It wasn’t a complete failure, the target was effectively eliminated. But the point of the operation, securing the envelope, simply did not happen.

Jerry sat in his car at three in the morning behind a strip mall in Hackensack, the meeting place that had been designated last week, when he had been hired. At that time he had been given one hundred thousand dollars, in cash, with the promise of another hundred to follow the successful completion of the job.

The second hundred, Jerry understood, would now be the subject of a negotiation.

A Lexus pulled up alongside him, and his employer got out. It irked Jerry that he did not even know the man’s name, or what his interest was in all of this.

Jerry had mentally nicknamed him Smooth, since he conveyed a calm, unruffled demeanor. He wore expensive clothes and jewelry, with a watch that probably cost more than Jerry’s car. “Smooth” was obviously used to getting what he wanted, but that wasn’t going to happen this time.

It might be unpleasant, but Jerry would handle it. He’d handled a lot tougher situations before.

Smooth entered the car and sat in the passenger seat without saying a word. His real name was Marvin Emerson, called M by the few people who knew him well. Not even Marvin himself really remembered if that started because it was his first initial, or the sound at the beginning of “Em-erson”. In any event, he had never given his name or nickname to Jerry, and saw no reason to do so now.

“Hey, how ya doin’?” said Jerry.

“Please report on the evening’s events.”

“Well, we had a bit of a problem. It’s going to sound nuts, but right after the guy gave me the envelope, I put a bullet in him, but then this dog comes out of nowhere and grabs the envelope and runs off with it.”

“A dog…,” M said. It was a way to prompt Jerry to finish the story, although M already knew everything that happened. He’d had a person in place, hidden across the street, who saw the entire thing.

“Yeah, and then some guy comes charging at me as I was trying to shoot the dog. He grabbed the gun, and I got the hell out of there.” Jerry decided to leave out the part about getting kneed in the groin; it was humiliating and would cast him in a bad light.

“That’s quite a story,” M said. “Did you know this man?”

Jerry shakes his head. “Never saw him before. But the guy who gave me the envelope won’t ever bother you again.”

“The envelope is what was important. I thought I conveyed that to you.”

“Hey come on, I did the best I could. How could I know that dog would do that? For all I know, you set it up.”

“You’ll get the remainder of the money when I get the envelope,” M said.

Jerry was now annoyed. “That’s bullshit. How the hell am I going to get the envelope now? I don’t know where the damn dog went. You tell me where it is, and I’ll go get it.”

By now M was convinced that Jerry was telling the truth—that he really had no more knowledge of the dog or the other man than he said.

So he reached into his pocket, and in one remarkably swift motion took out a gun and shot Jerry in the right temple.

It didn’t give him pleasure, or make him feel better. Jerry was a loose end that had to be removed, no more, no less. But killing him did not solve M’s problem; only finding the envelope would do that.

M got out of the car and signaled across the street to two men who would come over and do the cleanup, getting rid of the body and car so that they would never be found.

M then got into his own car and drove away, already focusing on the next step, which had to be getting his hands on that dog, and the guy who owned it.