Outsourced

14

Dan spent the four days leading up to the robbery taking his family on day trips. Nothing that cost more than a few bucks; a couple of trips to the beach and once to an amusement park, but everyone seemed to have fun. One night he splurged and took Carol and the kids to a minor league ball game. He was amazed at how fast the time flew by. The past year he had felt a growing estrangement from his wife and daughter, but during those four days it was as if they were a family again. As if all past sins had been forgotten. Susie most of the time seemed happy, letting her guard down and laughing the way she used to. She even sat on Dan’s lap a few times with her arms wrapped around his neck – something she hadn’t done in ages. Carol surprised Dan even more. He didn’t know how she would be after losing her job, but she acted the way she used to – relaxed, affectionate with the kids and playful with him. Gary was Gary. He was always a good-natured kid, and had seemed oblivious to the tension and financial strain that had been pulling the family apart. Now, though, he had picked up on the general good mood of the rest of them and acted more rambunctious and good-natured than ever.

At first Dan was confused about Carol’s behavior. He thought maybe she was putting on an act, trying to be positive for the kids, but eventually he realized that she was in denial. Maybe she had convinced herself that he was going to be offered the position that she thought he was interviewing for, or maybe she simply couldn’t deal with worrying any more. Whatever the reason for her change, he was grateful for it. A few times he caught her staring off into the distance while a brittle look formed on her face, but she seemed to snap out of it quickly.

When Wednesday morning came he felt the way he always felt whenever he had an unpleasant task to do, like a trip to the dentist or filling out tax forms. Something you just had to suck up and get over with. Mostly, though, he felt okay. Maybe some nervous energy and a little tightness in the stomach, but not too bad. Probably more anxious than anything else.

He squinted at the clock radio and saw it was eight minutes to eleven. At first he refused to believe it was that late, and then with kind of a knee-jerk reaction he reached for Carol and realized that he was alone in bed. He had set the alarm for seven thirty. Somehow he must’ve slept through it. There was no way he would be able to meet Gordon at eleven as planned. Everything had been timed out to the minute and he couldn’t afford to be late, not even ten minutes.

Stumbling out of bed, he dressed quickly. As he headed down the stairs Carol yelled to him from the kitchen.

“You’re up finally,” she said. “You looked so dead to the world that I thought I’d let you sleep. Why don’t you join me in the kitchen. I’ll make you a late breakfast.”

So she had turned the alarm off. Great. He checked his watch and felt the tightness in his stomach intensify as he saw it was three minutes to eleven. He went into the kitchen and told Carol he was supposed to meet Shrini in a few minutes. Shrini was a safer choice. He knew he wouldn’t be able to explain needing to meet Gordon.

“I was hoping we could spend the day together,” she said. “After all, if things go well we might not have another chance to spend time like this during a weekday.”

He looked at her dumbly before realizing she was referring to the interview she thought he was going to be having the next day. He told her that he’d like to spend the day with her, but he had promised Shrini that he would meet him. Carol had brewed a fresh pot of coffee and he poured a cup into a travel mug. “We want to talk over some possible business ideas,” he continued. “I should keep my options open in case things don’t work out tomorrow.”

“I thought you said the first interview went well?”

“It did, but you never know with these things.”

“Do you think there’s a chance you won’t get an offer?” The same brittle look that he had caught glimpses of over the last few days had resurfaced. He felt a pull on his heart as he forced a reassuring smile. “I know you hate it when I say this, but I’m sure everything’s going to work out fine. I really have to get going. I’ll try to be home by five.”

He gave her a quick kiss. On his way out the door, she told him that she was going to miss him. “Be careful, please, darling.” There was a heartfelt concern in her voice that almost stopped him and made him turn back to her. Instead, he took a deep breath and kept walking.

While he drove to meet Gordon, he couldn’t help feeling bad about leading Carol on. He didn’t have any choice, though. She’d be freaking out otherwise. Also, while his plan was to use Shrini’s future company in India as a way to funnel his cut of the robbery back to him, that could take six months or longer. He was going to need access to some of the money before then and he was playing around with the idea of using a bogus software contract as a way to explain the money he would be bringing into the house.

He thought about her plea for him to be careful. She had always been very intuitive and must have sensed that something was up. What exactly she thought he should be careful about he had no idea. She probably didn’t either.

When Dan arrived at Gordon’s complex, he found Gordon waiting for him in the parking lot, pacing furiously. He pulled the car up to him.

“Jeez, Dan,” Gordon said, worry lines creasing his forehead. “You’re late.”

Dan glanced at the cell phone Gordon had in his hand. “You didn’t try calling me, did you?” he asked. “We agreed no phone calls.”

“No, but I almost did. You’re twenty minutes late. I told you I need a full hour.”

“I know you did. I’m sorry. Let’s go upstairs and get started, okay?”

While they walked to Gordon’s apartment, Gordon complained how he needed at least an hour to do the makeup. Dan just murmured along agreeably. He had heard this same type of complaining countless times from Gordon over the years. Gordon was okay with deadlines as long as he could set them and make sure there was enough fat in his schedule to provide a comfort zone, but if you tried pushing him he would go to pieces.

When they got to his apartment, Gordon had Dan sit next to the computer while a set of photos of Raymond Lombardo were displayed on the monitor. His hands shook as he started to apply a compound to Dan’s jaw.

“Relax,” Dan told him. “Take a deep breath, okay? You have the full hour. I’m not going to rush you.”

“What about your schedule?”

“I padded it,” Dan lied. “We’re fine. Don’t worry about the schedule.”

Gordon slowly relaxed into his old goofy self. His hands moved faster and steadier as he made a thicker jaw and nose for Dan. As he worked, he talked incessantly about the twenty-eight-year-old dental hygienist from Sao Paulo that he was thinking about contacting. After finishing the jaw and nose, he attached a wig to Dan’s hair using pins and then glued on sideburns and a mustache. He finished the job by adding acne scarring along Dan’s cheeks. When he was done, Dan popped in his cosmetic lenses and studied himself with a hand mirror. The resemblance was good. If he looked hard enough he could tell the nose and jaw were fake, but when videotaped from a distance the disguise would work fine.

Gordon handed him a ski mask. “Try taking this off a few times. I want to see if the compound holds.”

Dan did as he was asked. The compound held. “Let’s get the overalls on,” he said.

Gordon helped him into them. With the extra padding, the overalls were somewhat clunky, but he was able to move around in them okay. “What do you think?” Dan asked.

Gordon appraised Dan slowly, nodding. “You look enough like him to fool a security video.”

Dan checked his watch. Gordon had finished fourteen minutes early. They were almost back on schedule. “You’re straight on where you’re meeting us?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.” Gordon exhaled, made a face as if he had bitten into a lemon. “By the way, I went to the Jersey Shore for the last time this weekend. I don’t know, that place has lost its appeal for me.”

“Why don’t we talk about this later.”

“Sure, I know, I better let you get going.” Gordon handed Dan a rolled-up paper bag. “The ski masks and everything you need to remove the makeup are in the bag.” He hesitated, rubbing a hand across his jaw. “I need a favor, Dan. This weekend I’m going to fly down to Sao Paulo. I’m not planning on coming back. I have over four thousand dollars left. That should leave me enough for six months if I’m careful. When the bank money is safe, I’m going to need you to wire me my cut.”

Dan nodded. The request didn’t surprise him. “I’ll take care of it, buddy. You’re meeting us at one-thirty sharp, right?”

“Righto.”

They shook hands. As Dan left he couldn’t help feeling a bit nostalgic. Gordon, Shrini, Joel; he had known them for years and they were all going to be out of his life soon enough. When the robbery was finished, that was it. But there was more to it than that. There were so many more aspects of his life that were going to be shut off forever. He felt a panic start in his chest. He took several deep breaths and tried to block out his thoughts and simply concentrate on the road. He opened both front windows, afraid that he might pass out if he didn’t have fresh air blowing hard on his face.

When he arrived at Shrini’s, Shrini was wearing his overalls and gloves and waiting where he was supposed to. Dan pulled up alongside him. From the driver’s seat of his Honda Civic, Shrini gave a big shit-eating grin as he looked at Dan. “Hey, Raymond Lombardo, how’s it going, dude?”

Dan got out and took the passenger seat in the Civic. He was still shaken from his near panic attack and waited until Shrini pulled out on to the street before answering him. “Great day for a bank robbery,” he said, trying to force a bravado but his voice sounded flat and lifeless to him. “You have everything in the trunk?”

“Everything’s there, dude.” Shrini took a quick sideways glance at Dan. “Believe me,” he said. “Gordon is truly an artist. He should be working on Broadway, or better yet, Hollywood.”

Shrini handed Dan a piece of paper. Written on it were addresses of cars they had scoped out. All the addresses were in Revere. If none of the cars were available, that was it, the robbery was over. The deal they had was if anything went wrong they would walk away from the robbery if they could.

Dan directed Shrini to the first three addresses on the list before they found what they were looking for. He got out of the car, took a slim jim and a screwdriver from the Civic’s trunk, and walked over to a rusted-out older model Chevy Camaro that was parked on the street. Sliding the slim jim between the window and door panel, he had the car unlocked in seconds. He pressed the trunk release. While he pulled out the ignition wires with the screwdriver, Shrini transferred the contents of his trunk to the Chevy’s.

A minute later he had the ignition wires clamped together and the car engine running. By using a clamp, he could easily turn on and off the ignition. He put the car in drive and pulled into the street. Shrini trailed behind in his Civic. All the practicing paid off. While he had been unable to figure out the newer cars, older cars like this Camaro he could unlock and start in less than two minutes.

Dan checked his watch as he entered the Revere Mall parking lot. Shrini was still behind him, but he tailed off as they had agreed. He kept driving until he spotted Joel and Hoffer sitting in Joel’s car. He pulled up next to them and they quickly left their car and got into the backseat of the Chevy. Both of them were carrying what looked like large gym bags. Joel was wearing his overalls, Hoffer had on an old running suit.

Dan next drove to the area of the mall parking lot where Gordon was supposed to be and spotted him pulling up as they got there. He checked his watch again. They were only a couple of minutes off schedule. Gordon took the front passenger seat and made eye contact with Joel and Hoffer before facing front.

Dan drove to where Shrini was waiting and stopped so that Shrini could squeeze into the backseat next to Hoffer.

“Okay, dudes, let’s rock and roll,” Shrini said. No one bothered to answer him. Gordon and Joel both seemed deep in thought. Hoffer still had his stupid grin plastered across his face. As they headed towards Lynn, Joel remarked to Gordon how he’d done a fucking fantastic job making up Dan. “Our son of a bitch friend up there actually looks like that Mafioso,” Joel said. “I also have to tell you, you impressed the hell out of me the other day with your shooting.”

Gordon looked back, nodded soberly. “Thanks, Joel. Believe it or not, that means a lot to me coming from you.”

“All right,” Dan interrupted, trying to sound both confident and in charge. “Before we all start crying and joining in a group hug, we’re five minutes from the bank. As of right now, thanks to some crappy work by an Indian contract house and a little help from yours truly, their alarm system will be disabled for the next twenty-eight minutes. That should give us enough time. We’ll go in there and get this over with fast.” Pausing, he added, “No shooting, understood?”

“Unless we need to,” Joel snapped.

“Unless one of our lives is at stake,” Dan corrected him. “But if something goes wrong and we’re in a position to surrender peacefully, that’s what we do. Agreed?”

Joel sat glaring, his lips pressed into tight lines.

“Joel, you already agreed to this last week. Agree again or I turn around.”

“All right, all right. I don’t like it but I agree.”

Dan drove past the side street that the Lynn Capital Bank was on and instead took the next right. Next he swung into a parking lot for a vacant storefront. Directly behind the parking lot was the bank’s lot. Cut through shrubs separating the two lots and you had a ten-second run to the bank lobby. Thanks to its location, the bank had little foot traffic. While they were taking a small chance someone would see them during those ten seconds, Dan thought it unlikely.

Joel handed out forty-five caliber pistols along with extra magazines. “That gives each of you fourteen shots,” he told them. Dan stuck his gun in a front pocket and then passed out the ski masks. Gordon had added hair to the edges of the ones that both he and Joel ended up with, making them look like they had long black curly hair. Shrini slipped on a pair of tinted aviator glasses and put his ski mask on over them. They all sat for a moment collecting their thoughts and then Dan whistled to get their attention. He got out of the car and took a duffel bag from the trunk. Shrini followed, also taking a duffel bag. Joel and Hoffer both opened their bags and brought out Kalashnikov rifles.

“Fuck it,” Joel said. “Let’s get moving!”

He led the way, pushing though the shrubs and running at full speed towards the bank. Dan followed behind. He felt strange, almost as if he were watching himself from outside his body. Dreamlike more than anything else.

The scene didn’t seem real to him as they descended on the bank, guns drawn. Customers and bank employees looked on with confused and shocked expressions. An older woman started screaming. Joel smacked her on the back of the head with the rifle barrel. That shut her up as she sat on the floor holding the area where she’d been hit. As Dan looked around he could see the light going on in some of their eyes as they realized what was happening. Two of the tellers had their hands below the counter. He knew they were pressing the alarm signal. One of them showed a thin smile, as if he had some joke over them that they didn’t know about. Of course, the alarms were disabled, but they didn’t know that. Joel and Hoffer were rounding them up, making them lie on their stomachs while Gordon wrapped their wrists and ankles with duct tape. Dan ran to the bank manager’s office. The manager looked up at Dan, scared, and told him the silent alarm had been pressed.

“You might as well leave now while you still can,” he said. “Before someone gets hurt.”

This was the same manager who had made the decision to farm the software development to India instead of letting Dan build it. Dan signaled with his gun for him to stand up. As he got out of his chair and started for the door, Dan pushed him hard from behind. The manager tripped and fell to his knees before stumbling back to his feet. Joel spotted him, ran over and dragged him to the others.

Dan caught Shrini’s eyes. The two of them made a beeline towards the room where the safety deposit boxes were kept. That was what they were after. The robbery plan had come together once Dan hacked into the bank’s customer database and saw that one of the customers owned eight safety deposit boxes. After researching who this customer was and realizing he was a renowned Russian mobster it had all clicked. This man, Viktor Petrenko, wouldn’t be able to go to the police about what was stolen, and without that, how could the police catch them? And why would they ever suspect a bunch of geeky software engineers of pulling this off – especially if they had physical evidence linking the robbery to a reputed Mafia member?

There were electric outlets in the hallway. Dan and Shrini both opened their duffel bags and took out extension cords, plugging them into the outlets. The door to the room containing the safety deposit boxes was unlocked. If the alarm had been working, the door would’ve been bolted shut.

Inside, the two of them took high-performance power drills out of their duffel bags, plugged them into the extension cords and went to work. Dan had bought the same make of safety deposit box over the Internet. They were paid for with money orders and delivered to an address in Revere, a block from Raymond Lombardo’s home; he had been able to pick them up without anyone knowing about it. He and Shrini had practiced on those boxes and learned how to open them. There were three bolts that needed to be drilled through and then the boxes slid out easily. It still seemed like a dream as he drilled open the boxes belonging to Petrenko and dumped the contents into his duffel bag. There seemed to be a lot of money in the boxes, mostly packets of hundred-dollar bills held together by elastic bands.

Both of them were finishing up when they heard a gunshot. It was louder than Dan would’ve ever imagined and just seemed to echo on forever. They both shut off their drills.

“Is that what I think it is?” Shrini whispered.

Dan held up a palm for him to be quiet as he tried to listen to what was going on. He heard a woman yelling and then another shot.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he told Shrini.

“Wait a second.” Shrini turned his drill back on and finished cutting through the last bolt. Dan stood and watched, feeling like his heart was going to explode. After Shrini dumped the contents into his duffel bag and zipped it shut, the two of them grabbed their bags and headed back to the lobby.

What was going on there didn’t make any sense to Dan. There were no cops, no reason for any shooting, just Joel and Hoffer standing with their rifles while Gordon stood over two women, his body rigid, his arm fully extended as he pointed his gun at them. A large red puddle was leaking outward from one of the women. She couldn’t have been much older than twenty. Her shirt looked like it was drenched in blood. Her eyes were closed. Her skin bloodless. There was no question she was dead. The other woman, maybe in her forties, moaned loudly as she squirmed on the floor. She had been shot in the stomach. Gordon asked her several times if she had anything else she’d like to say to him.

Dan looked over at Gordon and then at Joel, trying to figure out what had happened. Joel shook his head angrily and headed quickly towards the lobby door, Hoffer joining him. Dan followed, his head buzzing, trying to understand how those two women got shot. As he was running, Shrini grabbed him and gestured towards his ski mask. Still in a daze, Dan took his mask off near one of the hidden security cameras. That was a big part of the plan since he knew the location of all the hidden security cameras. He paused for a moment and then kept going. When he got to the Chevy, Joel was waiting for him, livid.

“I told you not to bring him,” he spat out through clenched teeth.

“What the hell happened in there?”

“Ask your loon buddy.”

Gordon was pushing through the shrubs, breathing hard.

“Gordon, what the hell…?”

“Dan, you should’ve heard what those two said to me.”

“We have to get out of here,” Joel said, taking the ski mask from Shrini and collecting his gun. Dan blindly handed Joel both his gun and mask.

“Gordon, do you realize what you did to us?”

“Come on, Dan, I didn’t do anything to us. What difference does it make if I shot those two?”

“What difference…?”

Joel interrupted Gordon, slapping him on the arm. “Hey, loony, give me your mask.”

Annoyed, Gordon threw his mask at Joel before turning back to Dan. “Anyway, what did you expect?” he asked. “You invited me along and gave me a gun. Jeez, you should’ve known I’d do something like that.”

All Dan could do was stare at him. Joel moved forward, his hand out in front of Gordon’s eyes as he snapped his fingers. “Your gun, now!” he barked. Gordon turned to him, his face red. “What is your problem!” he yelled back, shoving the gun, barrel first, into Joel’s outstretched hand.

Joel without any hesitation flipped the gun in his hand and shot Gordon in the middle of his forehead. Gordon rocked back and forth on his heels and then fell straight back as if he were a piece of timber that had been cut.

Joel pointed the gun at Dan. From the corner of his eye, Dan could see Hoffer aiming his rifle at Shrini, his plastic grin now a hard sneer. “Take his overalls off,” Joel said softly. “Both of you.”

“Joel, what are you doing?”

“You got twenty seconds,” Joel said, his face white, his eyes glassy. “I’m counting now. Otherwise, I’m leaving you and your Indian buddy here with this loon.”

He started counting. Shrini moved first, kneeling by Gordon’s dead body and unzipping the overalls. Dan joined him, his hands shaking. He could hear Hoffer standing behind him laughing softly. Somehow they got the overalls off before Joel finished counting. Underneath, Gordon had on a Grateful Dead T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Hoffer balled the overalls up and threw them into the Chevy’s trunk, along with the duffel bags.

“Take his car keys,” Joel ordered.

Dan went through Gordon’s pockets and pulled out both his wallet and keys.

Joel waved his gun at Dan. “We’re getting out of here now. Dan, you drive, Gunga Din here can sit in the back with Eric.”

They moved quickly into the car. Dan could feel himself trembling as he gripped the wheel, not out of fear but from a white-hot rage. He pulled the car on to the street and headed towards the highway.

“You would’ve shot me back there,” he said.

“If you didn’t get those overalls off in time, yeah.”

Dan drove another minute stewing in silence. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m calling for an ambulance. That woman in the bank, the one shot in the stomach, needs one.”

“Forget it. I’m sure someone heard the gunshots, and I’m sure plenty of ambulances are on their way.”

Almost prophetically the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance. Within seconds the noise grew louder until it was almost deafening, and then just as quickly it faded. The police cruisers and ambulances must’ve traveled past them on a parallel street.

“You fucked us,” Dan said to Joel after it became quiet again. “It was bad enough what Gordon did, but what you did fucked us. The police are going to tie him to the robbery. You screwed up the frame we had in place for Lombardo.”

Joel squeezed his jaw with one hand while he used the other to hold a gun on Dan. “I made an executive decision,” he said. “No way I was going to trust my life with that loon, not after seeing what he did in that bank. Fuck him anyway, he got what he deserved for what he did to those two women.”

“You still fucked us.”

“I didn’t fuck anything. I used the same gun he used. That means ballistics are going to match up and the cops are going to figure that he was shot by the same bank robbers, probably so they could take his car. They’ll look at him as simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“That’s right, chief,” Hoffer snickered from behind. “Nothing at all to worry about.”

Joel glanced back at him, giving him a look to shut up.

“What happened in there?”

“Exactly what you should’ve expected.” Joel showed a pained expression, shook his head. “Even worse, exactly what I should’ve expected. I never should’ve agreed to let you bring Gordon.”

“He just started shooting them?”

“Pretty much. He started talking to that girl, the one he shot in the chest. I don’t know what the fuck he was saying to her, shit about Brazil and the Jersey Shore and God knows what else. She called him a couple of pretty rough names and he flipped her over and shot her in the chest. Then that other woman started mouthing off, and he flipped her over and shot her also.”

“You couldn’t stop him?”

“How?” Joel asked. “What could I have done?” He shook his head angrily. “No, pal, this is your fault. You insisted that he be part of this. You promised me you could control him for ten lousy minutes.” His voice choked off as he stared at Dan, his features hardening, making him look like an old man. Then, softly, “I didn’t sign up for a felony murder rap. Sorry, Dan, but this changes everything. You’re going to drive to your buddy’s car, the two of you are going to get out and you’re going to forget about any share of the money.”

“This isn’t right, Joel.”

“The price you have to pay, Dan.”

“What about me?” Shrini asked from behind.

“Sorry, Gunga, but that’s your price also. As far as I’m concerned Gordon was as much your mistake as Dan’s. My advice, go back to India and forget this ever happened.”

Dan turned into the mall parking lot where they had left their cars. He pulled up to Shrini’s Civic.

“This is not a good idea, Joel.”

“Why not? You’re going to tell the police on me?” Joel made a face. “I don’t think so.” His eyes glazed over as he trained the gun on Dan’s chest. “If either of you do anything other than quietly get into that car, I’m going to cut the two of you down right here and take my chances. Have a nice life, okay, pal.”

“Nice seeing you again, chief,” Hoffer added.

Dan sat frozen until he felt the barrel of Joel’s forty-five push into his ribs. He turned to say something, but the look in Joel’s eyes convinced him that it would be useless. He got out of the car. Shrini stared helplessly at Dan before joining him. They stood and watched as Joel slid over into the Chevy’s driver’s seat and Hoffer moved up front. As they drove off, Hoffer rolled down his window and saluted them with his middle finger.