Los Angeles
September 2000
Gunnar was in. Of course. It was his crazy idea to begin with.
Julian and Ramona were out. No surprise there, either.
“I told you before, it’s suicide,” Julian said. “You know it is.”
“It’s foolproof,” Gunnar said. “We hit, we run. We have our tracks covered. Four million dollars.”
“You don’t think they’re gonna know in two seconds who took the money? You might as well draw a big fucking neon arrow from that boat to this house.”
“No,” Gunnar said. “You don’t get it. I told you, I’ve got another contact on the boat.”
“Who’s this contact you keep talking about? Give me a name.”
“You don’t know him. His name won’t mean anything to you.”
“How did you meet him?”
“I was doing a tattoo on this one guy who knew this other guy who was gonna be going on this big boat, he said. Being a bodyguard. So I followed up on it. You know, the same thing that you do all the time.”
“You’re insane,” Julian said. “You’ve totally lost your mind.”
“You just don’t want to face the fact that I was the one who set this up. For once, it’s me who puts together the perfect score, and you can’t take it.”
Lucy watched them going back and forth. She was as silent as I was. Eventually, she went upstairs and didn’t come back down until the evening. By then, it had come down to one simple declaration. Anybody else in the house was welcome to join us, but if we had to, Gunnar and I would do it alone. I knew it was a bluff and Julian and Ramona probably knew it, too. But in the end… they were in.
It was just too much money to turn down.
And if you thought about it long enough, you had to admit… if we did this just right, we might actually get away with it.
So the next few days were all about preparation. Putting the goods together, first of all. The wine, the cigars. Everything. Julian had done this once before, of course. He had delivered it all as part of his repayment to the man from Detroit, in exchange for being allowed to walk off that boat without a bullet in his head. Now he just had to come through again, with a little help from the rest of us.
It wasn’t expected, mind you. No official promise had been made. Still, it was a reasonable cover story. It was a way to walk right onto that boat like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was also a card to play if everything fell apart and we were asked what the hell we were doing there.
We cased out the marina itself. Even though Julian already knew the place, he wanted nothing left to chance. He wanted to know the exact slip where the boat would be moored. The exact schedule. Who would disembark and when, where they’d go, how long they’d be there. So we could put together our plan, choreograph every last movement, down to the second.
We went over it again and again. Until everybody knew exactly what they had to do.
Now all we had to do was wait for the boat to arrive.
Lucy was acting strange. After what had happened between us… that one single afternoon… she was distant to me. She wouldn’t come over in the afternoons to hang out anymore. At dinner, she barely looked at me. I started to worry about her. Is she really ready for this? Will she be able to carry off her part of the operation?
The night before the big day, Julian was walking back and forth from one end of the house to the other, muttering to himself. Ramona didn’t want to be alone, but she didn’t want to talk, either. She spent the last hours putting together the gift baskets, with all of the expensive goodies spread out on the table. The wine, the single malt whisky, the Cuban cigars, the Dunhill cigarettes. She wouldn’t let anyone help her. God help you if you came within three feet of that table.
Gunnar was doing a light workout in the yard. Alone in the darkness. Lucy sat in a chair with earphones on, listening to music.
Me? I spent the time drawing, of course. I was trying to capture everything about that one last empty evening. The way we all looked as we were getting ready. For better or worse, nothing would ever be the same again.
Midnight came. We tried to sleep.
Then the next morning… Gunnar got the call from his contact. The ship had changed its plans. It wasn’t docking at Marina del Rey, after all. It was heading directly to Mexico.
“Four million dollars,” Gunnar said. “Four million dollars on that fucking boat and it’s not coming to shore? Can you fucking believe this?”
“Maybe they got tipped off,” Julian said. “They know something is up.”
“Don’t be an idiot. These guys are smart, but they’re not psychic.”
“Maybe the card game’s getting serious,” Julian said. “Maybe they just want to skip all that other shit. Coming ashore and golfing, or going to Vegas…”
“We should just get our own boat,” Gunnar said. “Something fast. Ride out there and take them down, right on the ocean.”
“Yeah, that would work. That’s a great idea.”
“I’m serious, Julian. I’m not fucking around.”
“You go ahead, give that a try. They’ll cut you in half and feed you to the sharks.”
“I’m glad we’re not doing this,” Lucy said. She had taken her earphones off. It was the first time she had spoken in two days. “I had a bad feeling about it.”
Gunnar stared her down for a long moment. Then he picked up one of Ramona’s carefully wrapped gift baskets and threw it across the room. It exploded against the wall, filling the room with cigars and crinkly green tissue paper and the warm scent of whisky.
After that, everyone drifted off in their own direction. Nobody ate dinner together.
Just before he went to bed, Gunnar got the second call. The boat would be stopping in San Diego in the morning, his contact said. At one of the marinas in Coronado, at the north end of San Diego Bay. If we were there bright and early, we just might catch it.
Julian drove. Ramona sat beside him in the front seat. Gunnar and I were in the back. Lucy was between us. The sun was just starting to come up.
“This will work,” Gunnar said. “They’ll never see it coming. It’s just like you always say. Hit ’em where they ain’t looking, right? Eight heavy hitters with a half million each? What will they be worrying about? Pirates at sea? The banditos in Mexico? What’s the one time they’ll have their guard down? On a spur-of-the-moment stop! Their last stop in America!”
“We’ve never even been down here,” Julian said. “We have no idea what we’re getting into.”
“For once in your life,” Gunnar said, “you have to improvise a little. You move fast, you’re in, you’re out. Then you’re gone. We can do this.”
“What do you think?” Julian said to Ramona.
“Now you’re asking my opinion? While we’re already on our way down there?”
“Yeah. Now I’m asking.”
“My opinion is we go make our deliveries. If it doesn’t feel right, we can bail out. Nothing lost.”
“Four million dollars,” Gunnar said. “That sounds like a hell of a loss to me.”
“How about your life?” Ramona said. “How’s that for a loss?”
“It won’t happen.”
“You’ve never met this guy,” she said, turning to face him. “You’ve never looked him in the eye like I have.”
“Everybody stop talking,” Lucy said. “Just stop right now.”
They did. They all stopped talking and joined me in the tense silence. Julian kept driving. For all of his doubts, he was the one taking us there at a mile a minute.
The sun broke over the San Marcos Mountains just as we got close to the northern end of San Diego Bay. From one moment to the next, the ocean was suddenly glittering in the sunlight. We took the bridge to North Island. As we pulled up near the marina, we could see the yachts all lined up in a row. We parked at the service entrance. Julian popped the trunk, and we started carrying our load down onto the dock. The crates of wine. The gift baskets.
We were all in our game day outfits, of course. Julian, Gunnar, and I in identical black pants and white golf shirts. Looking as nondescript and interchangeable as possible. Like every other faceless man who spends his working day waiting on people.
Ramona and Lucy, on the other hand, stripped down to their short shorts and bikini tops. For maximum distraction.
We walked out onto the long dock, each of us with our arms full. As we walked by each ship, we saw crew members hosing off the decks. We saw rich people with tanned ankles and docksiders, sitting high above us, enjoying their breakfasts while the seagulls screamed for handouts. We kept walking.
“I don’t see it,” Julian said. “Where’s the fucking boat?”
Down toward the end, there was a long gangway leading up to the biggest boat of all. It had to be two hundred feet long. It was parked facing out, with a gangway leading up to the stern’s second deck. There were two men standing there at the foot of the gangway. Both large, both dressed in black. Both doing a professional job of looking unfriendly.
“This isn’t it,” Julian said. “This isn’t the boat.”
“It has to be,” Gunnar said. “Let’s check it out.”
Gunnar went up to the two men, slipping into his role. A not so bright delivery man, just trying to get rid of his packages.
“Hey, guys, what’s up? Is this the boat we’re looking for, I wonder?”
One of the men raised an eyebrow.
“We might be looking for another vessel,” Julian said, stepping into his role. “These guys were on the Skylla.”
“That was last year,” one of the men said. “This is the new boat. Excuse me, the new ‘vessel.’ ”
The two men exchanged a look. Then they started noticing Ramona and Lucy, and everything tipped in our favor.
“We’ve got all this stuff to set up on the boat,” Gunnar said. “If you don’t mind…”
“Yeah yeah,” the man said. “Go ahead. Take your time.”
Gunnar went up the gangway. Julian and I followed while Ramona and Lucy lagged behind for a little extra face time. There were a few feet of clearance between the dock and the back of the boat, so I couldn’t help noticing when we were directly above the water. The gangway trembled beneath my feet with every step. When we were finally on deck, we put our crates down on the bartop.
“I don’t know this boat,” Julian said. “This might be a problem.”
“So what the fuck,” Gunnar said. “It’s gotta be the same setup, right? We just find the safe.”
Ramona and Lucy arrived on the deck.
“One hell of a boat,” Ramona said.
“It’s even bigger than last year’s,” Julian said. “Just remember to split up when we start going back.”
Julian and Ramona stayed at the bar, taking their time unpacking the wine and keeping a lookout at the same time. Lucy, Gunnar, and I went down the hall to the staterooms. Lucy pushed open the first door and set down her gift basket. The room was small but comfortable. One bed. A television. Everything done in fine wood and polished brass.
Gunnar opened the next door, gave a quick look up and down the hallway, and pointed me to the last few doors. He took the gift basket from me and left me there in the hallway.
I poked my head into each room. I saw more beds, more fine wood, more luxury.
No safes.
“We can’t stay on too long,” Gunnar said when we were both back in the hallway. “It’ll look suspicious.”
We went back out to the bar and down the gangway, Gunnar giving Julian a quick shake of the head as we walked by. Julian waited a few minutes, then followed us. When we were back at the car, we all loaded up with wine crates and gift baskets again.
“You guys go first,” Julian said. “We’ve got to keep it spread out.”
Gunnar and I walked back down the dock. Ramona and Lucy were chatting up the guards now, asking them where the boat was going, who was on board, how often they worked out to get such nice bodies. The two men were eating it up.
I noticed the water again as I passed over it, found myself taking a step too close to the edge and feeling the weight in my arms pulling me over. I regained my balance and kept going, suddenly rattled in a way that never happened when I was on the job.
This time we went downstairs to the lower level. The first room we looked in was by far the largest we had seen so far. A pool table was pushed all the way over to the side of the room, and a half-dozen army cots were carefully arranged to maximize every square inch. This must have been the room Sleepy Eyes had told me about, where all of the bodyguards bunked together and drove each other insane.
He slept right here in this room, I thought. I couldn’t help feeling a shudder run down my back.
Gunnar looked into the next room, but I was already focused on the door at the end of the hallway. I could see that it had a better lock than all of the other doors. When I went down and turned the knob, it didn’t move. So I got down on one knee and took out my lock picks. Tension bar in. Quick rake and boom, it was open. Our first lucky break of the day.
I stepped inside and saw enough scuba gear to outfit the Navy SEALs. On another wall there were a dozen high-end deep sea fishing poles. Then against the far wall, a safe. Our second lucky break of the day.
I shook out my hands and stepped up to the safe.
There was no dial. Only a touchpad.
It was an electronic safe.
Now, there are ways to break into an electronic safe. Apparently, somebody figured out how to program a computer to send out a special wireless signal to the locking mechanism in an electronic safe, working at lightning speed through each possible combination until the right one is hit.
Of course, I didn’t happen to have a computer with me at the time, programmed to send out a special wireless signal or otherwise. In other words, I was totally fucked.
I stood there letting the reality soak in for a while. Then I left the room and closed the door behind me. Gunnar was just coming down the hallway with another gift basket. His eyes got wide when he saw me.
“What’s the problem?”
I motioned him over to the door, opened it for him, and pointed to the safe.
“What? What is it?”
I made a stabbing motion with my finger, like I was keying in a combination on the touchpad. He looked back and forth a few times. Me. The safe. Me. The safe. Then he got it.
“Oh, fuck. Are you kidding me? You can’t open that thing?”
I shook my head.
“There’s got to be a way.”
I shook my head again. He looked like he was about to do his patented gift basket throw again. Then he got his composure back in the next second. He opened up the nearest stateroom door, slammed the basket down on the little table next to the bed, then went up the stairs to the second deck.
Gunnar, Julian, Ramona, and Lucy were all standing at the bar when I finally went up there. I could tell that Gunnar had already told them the news.
“This is all a joke,” Julian said. “You guys are playing a joke on me. There’s not really an electronic touchpad down there.”
“Yeah,” Gunnar said. “It’s a joke, all right.”
“The other boat had a regular safe. I swear.”
“Well, good. Let’s go find that boat and rob it. Whaddya say?”
“What do we do now?” Ramona said.
Julian took the last bottle out of his crate and set it down on the bartop. “We finish our deliveries like good little boys and girls. Then we leave.”
“Four million dollars,” Ramona said. “In a safe. On an empty boat. And we can’t touch it.”
“We could hijack the whole boat,” Gunnar said. “Just take it.”
Julian just looked at him.
“It’s all right,” Gunnar said, slapping my shoulder a little too hard. “I should have known it was too good to be true.”
“Give him a break,” Ramona said. “It’s not his fault.”
“Yeah. I know. They didn’t cover this in safecracking school.”
He walked away from us. He left the ship, went down the gangway, paused for a half second at some smart remark from one of the two guards, then kept walking down the dock.
The rest of us followed. When we were all at the car, we got the rest of the stuff and carried it back on board. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Gunnar just sat there in the car and let us finish the job without him, but he grabbed a big crate of wine and carried it back to the boat. When we were all on board again, we split up to distribute the rest of the baskets. Nobody said a word.
I took my basket down to the lower level. As I walked into one of the rooms, I couldn’t help noticing the faint aroma. The exotic cigarettes, mixed with the cologne. This was his room. The man who owned me and apparently would keep on owning me. Forever.
It felt strange to be standing there, right next to the bed where he would be sleeping every night. A half million dollars of his money just next door in that safe.
I put the basket down on the table. The only thing I would accomplish that day, a thoughtful delivery of various amenities to make his trip a little more enjoyable. Some fine Cuban cigars. A bottle of Lagavulin, aged sixteen years. A German Birko straight razor, complete with shaving brush and shaving cream. A can of L’Amande talcum powder, from Italy. May you enjoy it all, sir. Glad to be of service.
I left the room, went halfway down the hall.
Then I stopped.
I went back to the room and looked at the gift basket. I loosened the cellophane wrap and took out the can of talcum powder.
Then I went back out. To that last room. I opened the door.
“Michael!” It was Lucy’s hushed voice, from somewhere behind me. “Where are you going?”
I went to the safe. I poured out some talcum powder into my hand. Then I held the powder up about two inches away from the touchpad. And blew.
“What are you doing?” She was standing right behind me now.
I looked around the room and found a flashlight in one of the drawers. I brought it back and shined it on the touchpad. I played around with the angle, moving my head, moving the flashlight, until I finally achieved the effect I was trying for.
“Are you telling me…”
I nodded without looking at her.
“I’ll go tell those guys to stall a little bit. Good luck!”
She left the room. It was just me now. Me, the touchpad, the flashlight, some powder, and four visible fingerprints on four of the numbers.
I knew how to do this last part. It was just like when I would narrow down the numbers on a dial, and then go back and try out each possible combination. With four numbers, that meant twenty-four possibilities, assuming each number was only used once. I started going through them, hitting the ENTER button and then watching the little indicator light. Around the fifth try, I started to wonder if there would be some kind of lock-out mechanism if you tried too many incorrect combinations.
I held my breath and tried the sixth possibility.
Or you know what? Maybe too many incorrect tries sets off an ear-splitting alarm. That would be fun.
I tried the seventh combination.
Right about now, I thought. If this next one is wrong, something bad is going to happen. The alarm will go off, and those huge men will come storming onto the boat with guns.
I tried the eighth combination. The little light went from red to green. I turned the handle and opened the safe.
Now, I know what a stack of hundred-dollar bills looks like. A hundred bills in one stack equals ten thousand dollars. A hundred stacks equals one million. Off the top of my head, I was guessing we could fit a hundred stacks into one empty wine bottle crate. So I left the safe open and hurried back up to the second deck. And walked right into a party.
The two guards had come up the gangway and were standing at the bar now. Each with a bottle of Mexican beer. The women were still smiling and laughing, still playing their parts, but as I caught Ramona’s eyes I saw the flash of helpless desperation. Julian and Gunnar were still rearranging everything on the bar, moving all the wine bottles around and otherwise trying to look like they still had a good reason to be there.
I knew we needed several empty wine crates downstairs, as quickly as possible, but there was no way we could take them down there and fill them with money. Not while these guards were here.
“You guys about done?” one of the men said.
“Oh, just about,” Julian said. “Making sure everything’s perfect.”
“Maybe you need to show us around the boat,” Ramona said. “As long as we’re here…”
“That could be arranged,” the man said. “For a reasonable fee.”
She gave that one a little laugh. I could see the muscles in Gunnar’s forearms straining as he slammed a wine bottle down on the bar.
“Show us what’s up here,” Ramona said, pointing to the upper deck. “Like, is there a place where you can get a good tan?”
“We can show you the sundeck, sure. Maybe the staterooms, too?”
Ramona was practically pushing the man up the stairs. Lucy followed with the other, giving Gunnar a quick look as she did.
“Come on, let’s go,” Julian said, when they were gone. He grabbed two of the empty wine crates and headed down the stairs.
Gunnar didn’t move.
“We’re wasting time,” Julian said. “You gotta focus here.”
“I will fucking kill that guy if he touches her,” Gunnar said, grabbing two more wine crates.
When we were all back in the safe room, Julian and Gunnar started packing the bundles into the crates. While they did that, I took the talcum powder back to the room where I had found it. I slipped it in the gift basket and then went back to the safe room to help with the money.
“There’s too much here,” Julian said. “We’re not even halfway through it.”
“This isn’t four million dollars,” Gunnar said. “Is that possible?”
“What did they do, double the buy-in this year? I think there’s fucking eight million dollars in this safe.”
“There’s no way they’re just playing poker. Something else is going on here.”
“Does it matter? Just keep moving!”
A few minutes later, we had all six of our wine crates packed tight. There was still about two million dollars left in the safe.
“Come on,” Gunnar said, “let’s get these to the car, so we can come back for the rest.”
“This is enough,” Julian said. “It’s six million dollars.”
“We gotta come back anyway, right? You’re gonna leave two million dollars here?”
So each one of us took two crates apiece, one under each arm. Probably fifty, sixty pounds of total weight, so it was hard to move fast, especially as we got down to the end of the gangway and had to keep going down the whole length of the dock. When we finally made it to the car, Julian was breathing hard.
“This is what you get for not working out with us,” Gunnar said. He opened up his two crates and dumped the money into the trunk. “Mike and I will go get the girls and the rest of the money. Start the car and have it ready to go.”
Julian looked at him for a moment, not accustomed to being the one receiving the orders. Then he gave us a nod and took out his keys.
“Did you see how he just let Ramona go off with that guy?” Gunnar said as we were running back to the boat. “It didn’t seem to bother him one bit.”
All part of the job, I thought. What the hell else was he supposed to do? But no matter. We had two more cratefuls of money to pack up, and then we could all get the hell out of there.
Up the gangway, moving so fast now it lunged up and down like a trampoline. Back down to the lower deck. Shoving the rest of the money into the last two crates. Then, just as we’re finishing up, we heard the noises from upstairs.
“What the hell is that?” Gunnar said.
I closed up the safe while he went to the door and peeked down the hallway.
“Come on, I think we better get out of here.”
We were halfway down the hall, each of us carrying a crate, when we heard the men on the second deck. We ducked into the nearest stateroom.
“Now what?” Gunnar said. “We’re totally fucked now.”
I put my hand on his arm. I didn’t think we had a huge problem.
“No, you’re right,” he said. “We just made one more trip. Now we’re all done. So what if we’re carrying these? Just pretend they’re empty.”
I nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
We walked up the stairs. Just two deliverymen finishing up their work.
That’s when we saw the limos.
They were pulling up to the gangway, as the two guards ran down to greet them, followed by Ramona and Lucy. Lucy took a quick look back and spotted us, her eyes growing wide, but she couldn’t help us now. I saw one limo door opening. I saw Sleepy Eyes getting out. Followed by the man from Detroit. A red-faced man who must have been the harbormaster ran up to them and started yelling. Not happy about the limos driving on his dock, no doubt. Ramona and Lucy used the distraction to slip away without being seen-but we were still trapped.
“We can’t go down there,” Gunnar said. “They’ve never seen me, but you…”
He didn’t have to finish the thought. Even though they knew I was in California… seeing me here on the boat… right now… it would break the spell and ruin everything. We might as well just slit our own throats right here on the spot.
“We gotta find another way off this boat.”
He went over to the stairs, took one more quick look down the gangway, and then scrambled up to the top level.
“Come on, what are you waiting for?”
I followed him up the stairs, even if it seemed hopeless to me. The boat was pointing nose out, after all. There was no other way off.
“This way. We have no choice.”
I followed him down the side rail, to the sundeck at the front of the boat. Gunnar went to the very tip of the nose and looked down. We were maybe twenty, twenty-five feet above the water, but it might as well have been the edge of the world.
“Hold on to your money,” he said. Then he jumped.
I heard the splash below. I looked over the edge and saw his head surfacing. He started treading water, working hard to keep his hold on the crate.
“Get the fuck down here!” he said to me. “Hurry up!”
I didn’t move. I kept looking down at the water.
“Mike! Just jump already! It’s not that high!”
The height’s not the problem, I thought. I have no problem with heights.
“God damn you! Jump!”
I could hear the men coming up the gangway. Another few seconds and I’d be caught dead.
“Don’t think about it! Just jump!”
One more look behind me. Then a step up onto the gunwale. Then I did it.
I jumped.
I hit feet first and went straight down, all the way to the bottom. When I opened my eyes I saw rocks and green shadows all around me and nothing else. Everything else in the world was obliterated now. It was just me and the water, all around me and over me. The thing I had feared for so long, reclaiming me at last. Like the water itself had waited with such great patience for all of this time and now this time it would never let me go.
I looked up at the surface. So high above me it was like outer space. My lungs were burning. A few more seconds and I’d have to give up. I’d have to draw in one final mouthful of water and swallow it and then lie down right here on these green-lined rocks.
Then I saw a fish.
It was a tiny thing, no bigger than my finger. It swam toward me and stopped like it was looking me up and down and trying to figure out what the hell I was doing there. It was so close to me I could have reached out and taken it in my hand.
Instead I pushed myself off the bottom, letting go of the crate. The fish darted away as I rose toward the surface. When I broke free I was choking and gulping down the cold air like I couldn’t breathe enough of it.
“Michael, quiet.”
I looked over and saw Gunnar a few yards away. He was against the hull of the ship, watching me.
“Get over here. Hurry.”
I dipped back under the water, trying to propel myself. I came up one more time, went down again. Then I felt a hand grabbing my shirtsleeve as he pulled me up next to him.
“What the hell’s the matter with you? Just stay right here, until we can make a break for it.”
I tried to keep kicking my legs to keep my head above the water. I grabbed at the boat’s hull, but it was as smooth as an ice floe.
“As soon as they’re ready to push off, we have to go over there.” He pointed to the much smaller boat parked parallel to us, a good thirty yards away. “We should stay underwater, and not come up until we’re on the other side. Can you do that?”
I shook my head.
“Yes, you can. You have to.”
We waited for a long time. It was hard to even tell anymore. What a minute felt like, or an hour. Then we heard the engine starting, and it was time to move. Gunnar pushed off from the boat, and as I watched him swim it occurred to me that he was still holding on to his crate of money. He used it as dead weight to help keep himself underwater, as he kicked and swam with his free arm and made his way over toward the other boat.
I took one last deep breath and followed him. I couldn’t go as deep, but I imitated his motions and somehow I willed myself through the water. I taught myself to swim, right there on the spot, because it was either that or die. Either that or never see Amelia again, after everything I had done that day to help make it possible again.
That day in her backyard, the very first time I saw her. Standing there on the edge of that hole, looking down at me. That’s what I thought about. The sunlight on her face.
Gunnar was waiting for me on the other side of the boat. “I wasn’t sure if you were gonna make it,” he said.
We stayed there in the water until the big boat finally motored its way out of the marina. Then it was finally time to get out. But Gunnar had one more thing to do first.
“Where did you drop the money?” he said. “That was a fucking million dollars.”
I shook my head. No idea.
He shook his head and handed me his crate.
“I gotta do everything around here,” he said. Then he dove back down under the water.
I had a big beach towel wrapped around my shoulders. I stared out the window as we drove back north along the coastline. Nobody said anything. Nobody was celebrating. Because even though we had all gotten out of there alive, our plan was still only half done.
Two hours later, we were back at the house. Ramona and Lucy brought out their hair dryers and started in on the wet bills. Julian was back to his pacing. Gunnar sat on the couch, staring at his phone.
“I hate this,” Julian finally said. “This is the part we have no control over.”
But it’s the part I really care about, I thought to myself. It’s the only part that matters to me. I don’t care about the money.
“My man is on it,” Gunnar said.
“These guys know each other. They’re not going to believe that one of them would rip off the others.”
“They hate each other, okay? They take this trip every year just so they can show each other up. You think they trust each other?”
“I don’t know. It’s just-”
“Why the hell do you think they bring their bodyguards with them? Eight mobsters, eight bodyguards, all armed to the teeth. Does that sound like a pleasure cruise to you? One little spark, my guy says. One little spark and boom.”
“And he knows exactly what to do?”
“Piece of cake,” Gunnar said. “Talk to all the other bodyguards, like hey, something’s funny here. I saw these guys carrying all of these boxes, throwing them overboard. There was this other boat I could see coming up in the distance. You don’t suppose they found out the combination to the safe, do you? He’ll sell the whole thing, don’t worry. Just like I told you. He’ll come by in a few weeks, by the way. He’ll be happy to find out his share got doubled.”
“I still don’t think we should be sitting here. We should be moving, just to make sure.”
“It’s as good as done,” Gunnar said. “Just relax.”
So we kept waiting. When the money was dry, we put it all in the safe. That very same safe in the secret room, which Julian had bought for me to practice on before that first job in the Hollywood Hills. It was just big enough to hold eight million dollars in hundred-dollar bills.
Then more waiting.
Then more waiting.
Then just after ten o’clock that night, Gunnar’s cell phone rang. He hit the button and listened. He didn’t say a word.
When he finally hung up, he just looked at us, one by one.
“It wasn’t pretty,” he said, “but it worked. The two men we wanted fed to the sharks got fed to the sharks.”
Nobody said anything. We all knew exactly what we were doing, every step of the way. But now it was real. Two men were dead. Two men who wouldn’t be missed, of course. Two men that the world would keep revolving quite nicely without. Nevertheless they were both dead because we made it happen.
Julian and Ramona hugged each other. Gunnar kept looking at his phone. Lucy came over to me and put a hand to my cheek. I turned away from her and walked out of the room.
I went back to my little apartment next to the garage. This one little room, my home for the past year. I couldn’t help thinking back on all of the things that had happened here. All those times I had checked those pagers… Kept the batteries charged… my ritual, every single day. See if a call has come in. See if you’re needed somewhere. Call back immediately. Especially if it’s that red pager.
No more.
I was no longer owned by the man from Detroit. I would never again have to answer one of these pagers. My days as a safecracker for hire were over.
I was free.
The next day, I wrote a letter to Amelia. I actually had an address for her now, after all. Care of that dormitory in Ann Arbor. I didn’t fill up the letter with drawings this time. I didn’t try to capture everything that had happened the day before, with the boat and the money and me in the water. There’d be time for that later. For now, all I wanted her to know was that I was on my way back home.
I figured we could work out the details when I got there. I mean, she was in art school, and I’d never take her away from that. Hell, maybe I could buy myself another new identity and start life over. Maybe even register for classes there. Buy a house not far from the school and have her live there with me. Anything was possible, right? I had money now, and there was no reason I couldn’t go back and make it all happen.
I went out to mail the letter. When I had done that, I kept riding around on the motorcycle, amazed at how different it felt already. Not having to think about the pagers or the next big job. Or anything at all.
Eventually, I rode down to the Santa Monica Pier and walked right out to the very edge. I leaned over the railing and looked down at the ocean.
You can’t have me, either, I thought. Not even you.
____________________
It was late afternoon when I rode back to the house. Already wondering how long it would take me to pack and say good-bye to them. Wondering what it would feel like to leave, knowing I’d probably never see them again.
Until I went inside.
I knew right away that something had happened. There were newspapers and magazines on the floor, like somebody had knocked them off the table. From somewhere upstairs, I could hear water running.
The sound got louder as I went up the steps.
I looked in Gunnar and Lucy’s bedroom first. There was nobody there. Nothing looked out of place.
I went into Julian and Ramona’s bedroom. The mattress was slightly askew, like someone had pushed their way past the bed and not bothered to fix it. The sound of the water was louder now. It was coming from their bathroom. I didn’t want to open that door. But then I did. I had to.
I stood there and let the whole scene wash over me. Julian. Ramona. Every little detail. The water running in the tub, mixing with their blood. I took it all in and then I closed the bathroom door.
I bent over, feeling the blood rush to my head. I thought I would pass out right there. Then the feeling passed.
How did this happen? Who did this?
And who got it first?
They brought them upstairs. They bent them over the edge of the bathtub. One by one. They blew the top of Ramona’s head off. Then Julian’s.
Or did they do Julian first?
That’s all I could think of. For some reason, it mattered to me.
I wanted to know who went first.
Then the very next thought… Where are Gunnar and Lucy? Are they dead, too?
I went back across the hall to their room and pushed open their bathroom door, getting myself ready for another horrible sight. But no, it was empty.
I went downstairs and back out the front door. I looked up and down the street. Then I went back around to my apartment. It was empty, too.
You knew this had to happen, I told myself. In the back of your mind, you knew. Sure, you killed the man from Detroit and Sleepy Eyes. You killed them just as surely as if you had thrown them in the water yourself. But it’s not that easy. It’s never that easy. How could you ever think it would be?
Somebody else figured out where the money went. That somebody else is hunting you down now. You don’t even know who he is. He, they, whoever. You have no idea in the world. All you know is that you’re dead. You’re as dead as Julian and Ramona. As dead as Gunnar and Lucy will be, wherever they are right now.
You can’t even call them. You can’t warn them. You can’t do anything.
There is one thing, I thought. There is one thing you can do.
I took out the box of pagers, pushing them aside until I found the cell phone I had brought back with me from Michigan. The cell phone I had taken from my uncle’s kitchen counter. It was the first time I had even turned it on since coming back here. As I did, I saw that there were a dozen voice mail messages. Which didn’t surprise me. If Banks found out I had been back in Michigan, and had taken this phone, he’d keep calling until he finally got through to me.
I didn’t need to hear any of his messages right now. I knew what the general idea would be. Turn yourself in before it’s too late, I’m only trying to help you, same old story. I never believed it. But now, well… everything had just changed. The way Julian and Ramona had been killed-that would be me someday. If not today, someday soon.
And if I really went back to Michigan, then it might be both of us. That same scene. Amelia and I together.
I looked up the one single number stored on the cell phone and hit the TALK button. It rang twice. Then Banks answered.
“Michael, is this you?”
I kept the phone to my ear as I went back, stepping over Gunnar’s barbells on the way.
“I’m glad you called. Here’s what I want you to do. Are you near a police station?”
I went inside the house and sat down at the table.
“Hello, Michael? Are you there? Just stay on the phone, okay?”
That’s when I saw that the bookcase door was slightly open. The door to the secret back room. I ended the call and put the phone down on the table. I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then got up and went over to the bookcase.
As I pulled it open, I saw Gunnar kneeling by the safe. Another man was standing over him.
It was Sleepy Eyes.
When he saw me, he drew out his gun and aimed it at my chest. Not that he had to worry. I was too surprised in that moment to do anything. He came over to me and pulled me into the room.
“It’s about time,” he said to me. “Your friend here’s having a little problem with the safe.”
“Michael and Lucy are always changing this combination,” Gunnar said. Which was true. She’d reset it and I would open it. Keeping up with my touch. “So he’s the one who can open it.”
He was acting way too calm, I thought. He’s not being forced to do this.
“Just open the safe.” Gunnar’s voice was totally flat, devoid of any feeling. “Don’t make this any harder.”
“You didn’t even know,” Sleepy Eyes said, that sick little smile on his face. That smile I hated so much. “A Judas in your midst and you had no fucking idea.”
That’s when it all started to make sense to me. Gunnar did have a contact on the boat. Sleepy Eyes. Everything else was an illusion. They set this whole thing up together.
Why didn’t I see it coming? They were so much alike, now that I thought of it. They even sounded alike, the way they complained about always having to do the grunt work. Resenting everyone else around them. Gunnar just did a little better job of hiding it.
“I’m not going to say I’m sorry,” Gunnar said to me. “Not to you, anyway. I believe I did tell you to stay away from Lucy, right? Did I not say that?”
“Where is she, anyway?” Sleepy Eyes said. “That’s the little redhead, right?”
“Look, you got everything you wanted,” Gunnar said. “You’ve got four million dollars coming. You even got rid of your boss.”
So they did pull off that part of the plan. The man from Detroit is dead. For Sleepy Eyes, this whole day is a dream come true.
“I asked you a question,” Sleepy Eyes said. “Where’s the redhead?”
“She’s gone. Don’t worry about her.”
She can’t be involved in this, I thought. Gunnar, I can almost believe. But Lucy? No way. He must have just kept her in the dark, and then sent her away when it was done. She’s probably waiting for him right now. Somewhere out there. With no idea of what happened here.
Sleepy Eyes kept staring him down. Then he turned his attention back to me.
“How about you?” he said. “You got any surprises for me?”
I wish I did. A gun in my pocket, say.
“So just open the safe, okay?”
Gunnar stood up so I could take his place. I didn’t move.
“I’ll ask you one more time,” Sleepy Eyes said. “Please open the fucking safe.”
Nothing, I thought. You get nothing.
Sleepy Eyes raised his gun to me. For the first time, I really looked at it. The barrel was so much longer with the suppressor screwed onto the end. It was the first time I had ever seen one.
“Pretty please.”
Then he turned and shot Gunnar between the eyes.
It was a hollow sound, not at all like a real gunshot. It took me a moment to realize that it had even happened. Gunnar kept standing there for a long moment, a look of surprise on his face. Part of his forehead suddenly gone and a splatter of red on the wall behind him. Then he went down.
“Open the safe,” Sleepy Eyes said. “Right now.”
I kept standing there in front of him. Going all the way back in my mind, to that robber in the liquor store, remembering the way he held that gun. More scared of it than we were.
How different it was now. All these years later, another man and another gun, but this man wasn’t scared at all. He would shoot me as calmly as a man turning on a television.
“I’m going to put a bullet in your left leg,” he said. “Then your right leg. I’ll keep going until you have the safe open. Do you understand?”
I still didn’t move.
“I’ve done it before. My record is twelve shots. With a reload. It was a man who wouldn’t type in a password on a computer, but same idea. Would you like me to try for thirteen today?”
He pointed the barrel at my left leg. That got me moving finally. I went down on one knee and started spinning the dial.
“I always kinda liked you,” he said. “I hope you know that.”
Four spins to the left. Three to the right. As soon as I turn this handle, I thought, he’s going to kill me. I think that’s pretty much guaranteed.
Two spins to the left.
I was one more spin away from dying. Hell, if he knew about safes, he could have killed me right then and just made the final spin himself until it stopped.
I spun a few more times to the left. Time to start over.
“Stop with the stalling, okay? Just open it.”
I cleared the numbers, spun again, four to the left, three to the right, two to the left. I looked up at him.
He gave me that little smile.
I spun the dial to the right. Now all I had to do was turn the handle.
The voice came from the open bookcase door. “Drop the gun.”
Sleepy Eyes looked up.
“Drop it. Right now.”
Harrington Banks stepped slowly into the room, his gun still aimed squarely at Sleepy Eyes’s chest. I could see three more men behind him, with enough firepower to cut him in half.
Sleepy Eyes gave me one last little smile before he dropped his gun.
It was the cell phone that had brought them there. I know this now, about how when a cell phone is left on you can track the signal to its approximate location. It brought them to the right block, at least. All they had to do was work their way through the houses until they got to this one. If it had been one more house, I probably would have been dead already.
A few minutes later, Sleepy Eyes was taken away in handcuffs. Banks took me out to the table and sat me down. He asked me if I wanted something to drink. I shook my head.
I wouldn’t get to see Amelia again. That was the only thing I was thinking about. I wouldn’t get to keep my promise.
“You’re a hard man to catch up to,” Banks said to me, “but I’m glad you called.”
When we all stood up, one of his partners started to cuff me.
“Don’t even bother,” Banks said. “No need to embarrass ourselves.”