Sex, Lies & Serious Money

54

Curly was watching an old movie on TV when the house phone rang, and he picked it up.

“Yeah?”

“Curly, it’s Chico.” Chico was the building superintendent.

“Yeah, Chico.”

“You gave me a hundred to tell you if the cops visited.”

“Yeah.”

“They’re on the way up, two detectives.”

Curly’s entire system went into flight mode. He grabbed a backpack containing his passport, some money, and a couple of extra false IDs, stuffed his laptop into it, opened a window, and stepped out onto the fire escape, being careful to close the window behind him. As he started up the stairs, he heard banging on his door and shouting. He ran faster. It was only two flights to the roof, and he was already there when he heard the window in his apartment open. A man shouted, “Nothing out here.”

“Head for the roof,” another voice yelled, and Curly got a running start and made the eight-foot leap to the next building. He had already measured the distance during his planning for escape. He ducked behind the stairwell entrance to the next roof and pressed his body against the door. There was too much unobstructed distance to the next building to run for it without being seen.

“Go on,” one of them shouted to the other, “go for it!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? I’m not going to get myself killed just to bag some burglar. You do it.”

“Aw, come on, we’ll go next door and take the elevator.”

Curly waited for a slow count of ten, then sprinted across the roof and jumped the parapet to the next building. He was three buildings down the street before he saw the two cops emerge onto the roof next to his own.

There was more shouting that he couldn’t understand, then everything went quiet. He peeked from his hiding place and saw no one on any roof. He had to pick the lock on the structure housing the staircase, then he walked down to the top floor and took the elevator down. He took a cap and a scarf from his backpack to camouflage his closely cropped head (he had begun to grow his hair on Maria’s advice). He looked down the street and saw what appeared to be an unmarked police car turning the corner. He walked to the nearest subway and rode downtown to the Y, where he rented a room. Then he changed and went down to the weight room. He was surprised to find Irv there, watching others work out.

“How you feeling, Irv?” Curly asked, sitting beside him on a bench.

“Not up to working out,” Irv replied. “I can’t do that with a sore ass.”

“They give you antibiotics to take?”

“Yeah. They seem to be working, too.”

“Remember to take them all. If you stop, the infection might come back.”

“I got the news on that from the nurse in the ER.”

“Good. I got rousted by a couple of detectives less than an hour ago.”

“Well, you’re still walking around, so I guess they didn’t grab you.”

“Only because I was ready, and the super warned me they were on the way up. That was a hundred well spent.”

“Are you broke?”

“I had some mad money in my bag. That’ll hold me for a while. I could use a score, though. You got anything on the back burner?”

“Maybe. What can you put in up front?”

“C’mon, Irv, I gave you fifteen Gs up front for the other job and another grand for the doctor.”

“I have met my obligations on that job, and more, and I earned that money.”

“I’m not saying you didn’t, it’s just that you’re well heeled at the moment, and I’m not. We can do a score together, and I’ll take the short side of a sixty-forty split.”

“It’ll have to be seventy-five/twenty-five.”

“Okay, okay, what’s the job?”

“I know a pawnshop with a nonworking alarm system. It’s fat — all sorts of stuff, including guns, and there’s a safe I can likely crack, where he keeps his cash.”

“Well, I could use a gun.”

“I thought you were opposed to them.”

“Most of the time, yeah, but I think somebody’s going to try to off me tonight.”

“Well, I’m not packing heat, but I’ve got a snub-nosed .38 at home that I’ll sell you for a grand.”

“A grand for a hot pistol?”

“It’s cold as ice, never been used in a crime. I found it in a desk drawer on a job.”

“I’ll give you five hundred out of my share of the take on our job.”

“Oh, it’s ‘our’ job, is it? Don’t go getting any ideas about that. You’re the help on this one, just like I was on the last one.”

“Okay, okay, but I need the piece tonight, and six rounds, too.”

“Okay, if we can do the job tonight.”

“I’ve got a late date. What time?”

“Say, eleven. We’ll be through by midnight, if the safe gives. If not, you’ll have plenty of guns to choose from. You got a place to stay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay on a bed. When and where do you want to meet?”

“Pick me up at my place in a cab.”

“You don’t have wheels for the getaway?”

“I’m gonna take only what I can carry, in a duffel bag. I’ll have one for you, too.”

“You’re gonna walk the street with hot goods?”

“I reckon it’s better than driving a hot car.”

“Maybe you’ve got a point.”

“Okay, ten o’clock at my place?”

“Sure.”

“Ring the bell twice and wait under the stoop. Don’t get seen.”

“Got it.”

“It may take me a few minutes to get downstairs, so be patient.”

“All right.”

“And, Curly?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna walk away from this one clean, and then I’m getting out of town. I’m not going back to my place.”

“Okay.”

“My point is, I’m not standing for a screwup on this job, and if you get in my way, or if you try to take something that’s mine, I’ll kill you. That’s straight up.”

Curly took a deep breath. “Understood.” He got up and left the weight room and went upstairs and stretched out on the bed.

He knew exactly how Irv felt, because he felt the same way.