Love, Money, and Lies

by Olivia Saxton

  “How are you going to get to where you need to go without no car?”

  “I’ll call an Uber or something.”

  “Nah, man. Let me drive you in the ride. We’ll put the top down and go on one last cruise.”

  Anthony smiled. He didn’t see the harm. It’s not like Morris hadn’t been to the factory before. “All right. Just let me say goodbye to Rockelle.”

  “No rush, partner.”

  Anthony walked back to the porch and sat down next to Rockelle on the porch swing. She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the table. “What’s going on? I can tell you had something on your mind since you’ve been here.”

  “I have to make this quick,” Anthony said. “I have to leave Florida . . . and the country.”

  “Say what?” she asked in a high-pitched voice. “What the fuck did you do now?”

  “Nothing yet, but the heat will come if this doesn’t go right.” He dug into his pocket for the thick yellow envelope and gave it to Rockelle.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s about ten grand. Some walking around money for you and Mom. Inside the envelope is a key to a safety deposit box with your name on it. I signed papers at the bank. Only you have access to it. You know I don’t like banks, but it was the only place I knew that was somewhat secure and you have easy access. The number of the box and the name of the bank are inside the envelope.”

  “And what’s in the box?”

  “Cash. Lots of cash for you and Mom, but don’t buy anything obscenely big with it. No overly expensive cars and no five-bedroom house in the burbs.”

  “All right. But – when are you coming back?”

  He didn’t answer. He couldn’t go through it. It was hard as it was. He was leaving his life and his blood behind to venture out into the unknown.

  “Anthony, I know that you do what you do to survive and to make sure we survive. But, whatever this is . . . it isn’t worth it. Cancel whatever you’re planning and stay in Florida.”

  “I can’t. It’s too late to back out now,” he said and stood. “Don’t tell Mom until a week goes by. There’s no reason to fuck up the holiday for her.”

  Rockelle stood. She was teary-eyed.

  “You’re smart, and I know you’ll be all right. If I can contact you, I will, but if not . . .”

  “Then this is it,” she finished for him.

  They hugged each other fast and hard.

  “I love you, brother,” she whimpered.

  “I love you, too.” He let go of her and walked off the porch to the Cadillac. He didn’t dare look back in fear that he wouldn’t be able to leave.

  Forty-minutes later, Morris pulled up in front of the sewing factory. He bounced the car a few times for old times’ sake. The two SUVs he had swiped were parked out front and were facing the electronic gate. Anthony assumed everything was packed up.

  They chuckled. Then the cousins fell silent.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” Morris said.

  “Yeah.” Anthony swallowed the emotion that was rising in his throat.

  “Take care of yourself.”

  “You do the same.”

  They leaned over the console to hug each other. Anthony cradled the back of Morris’s neck, “After tonight, don’t come back here. And if possible, avoid the industrial area at all cost for a few years.”

  Anthony let him go. “Do you understand?”

  “Yeah,” Morris said with a nod.

  He got out the car and walked to the door. This time he couldn’t help it. He looked back. Morris was looking at him. He nodded and started driving away.

  The first time since his dad died, a tear fell from Anthony’s eye.

  Chapter 34

  Bruce was sitting in his office at the FBI building gazing out at the night sky. He had been invited to Alec and Lana’s for New Year’s. They were having a little get together with close friends. Bruce had declined because he wasn’t in the mood. Seven girls had left messages on his voicemail to call them back for a rockin’ New Year’s Eve. He had scoffed and deleted all the messages. He only wanted one woman tonight, and she was nowhere to be found.

  Did he believe that she lied to Luke? Yes, but he knew she had a good reason. The Margo St. John he knew wasn’t a malicious liar. Yet she was secretive and a little sneaky. All he wanted now was to hold her in his arms. To kiss her and tease her body until she spilled every drop of her past, present, and future to him.

  Vic walked into his office. “Hey, Bruce.”

  Bruce swiveled the chair around. “Hey. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Alec’s party tonight.”

  “I am.”

  Bruce looked at his watch. He wasn’t wearing the watch Margo had bought him for Christmas. It was too nice and expensive to wear to work. “It’s eleven-fifteen.”

  “I like to be fashionable late sometimes,” Vic said and sat down in the chair across from the brown desk. He was holding a file folder.

  “Are you sure that’s all it is? You seem a bit . . . cumbersome tonight.”

  “Ha. Look who’s talking.”

  He nodded with agreement.

  “Look, I came back in because . . . well, I wanted to help you, Bruce. Bill Sussex in IT was working some extra hours, too. I asked him a favor. I had him do a more thorough search on that guy you and Alec talked to, Luke Connor.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “I just found it weird that a guy who had won the Powerball would want the headache of running a big factory. I know different strokes for different folks, but . . . I had Bill do it on a hunch.”

  Bruce sat up in his chair. “Did it pan out?”

  Vic stared at him for a moment. “I don’t know if this bit of information is going to make things easier or harder for you, but here it is.” He leaned over and placed the file folder he was holding on the desk.

  He picked it up and opened it. There were two profiles for Luke Connor. One was the Luke he had met a few days ago, but he had dark hair instead of dark blond. The other profile was of a frail looking seventy-seven-year-old man who had white frizzy hair. “What the fuck?”

  “That’s what I said. Keep reading.”

  The seventy-seven-year-old Luke had won the Powerball jackpot of sixty-five million dollars five years ago, and he lived in Virginia. He had been retired for ten years when he hit it. Bruce flipped through the file. The old Luke only had one credit card, but the young Luke had three, and they both had the same social security number.

  “Holy shit,” Bruce mumbled.

  “Of course, you wouldn’t have known that because as field agents we only have so much access unless we’re working on an open case. IT can get it all.”

  “That son of bitch! I’m going to kill him.” Bruce searched the papers for a Tampa address for the young Luke. He found it and closed the file. Then he stood and grabbed his suit jacket.

  “Where are you going?”

  “His address was in the file. I’m going to confront him,” Bruce answered as he grabbed the file.

  “It’s New Year’s Eve. He’s probably not home.”

  “If he is a fraud, he won’t be around a bunch of people,” Bruce said.

  “Good point. I guess I better ride with you.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter. Go home, or better yet, go to Alec’s.”

  Vic stood. “Like hell. You’ve had a very short fuse for the past few days. The last thing any of us needs is for you to ring this guy’s neck. Alec and Blanchette will have my ass if I let you go off alone half-cocked.”

  ****

  It was three minutes to show time. Margo had typed in the code for the backdoor that was now being opened by the virus. However, she couldn’t press enter until one minute till midnight. They had formed a U with the foldable tables. Margo sat in an office chair with wheels at one table in front of dual monitors. It was the station where the funds would download straight from the Federal Reserve all the while being funneled through three hundred I
P addresses to the dummy account. Three seconds before midnight, Margo had to disconnect from the Federal Reserve server before their cyber security kicked back in and started a trace. The various IP addresses she programmed would slow it down but not stop it completely. The next station was identical to the one she was sitting at. She was going to slide over to that to make sure the money was being dispersed into four different bank accounts that were located in various countries. Aaron was sitting at the third station. His station was set up to watch the other four bank accounts transfers. Margo had also set it up where the transfers to their accounts would look like they came from various institutions and other banks that were located in countries where it was daytime so they could be processed quickly.

  They all had their Bluetooths in.

  “Eleven-fifty-eight,” Bobbi announced from the doorway. She was keeping time.

  Anthony was down the hall next to the front doors. He was going to be the look out during the theft. Just in case some drunks or troublemaking kids showed up in the lot because they thought it was abandoned. It was New Year’s Eve – time of celebration and trouble. “All clear,” he said.

  “Now, M,” Bobbi practically yelled in her ear.

  Margo hit the enter button. They were in and money started to download immediately. Matter of fact, the virus was working better than Margo thought. The dummy account was already at sixty million.

  Holy shit. Margo’s breath got short as she watched the cash climb to a number that she thought would be impossible to achieve.

  “Time,” Bobbi said.

  Margo quickly hit the control, shift, and the escape button at the same time. She ducked down and pulled the network cords out of the computer tower. “Don’t activate transfers yet. I need to redistribute the numbers.” She quickly slid over to the next station.

  “We couldn’t get a whole hundred million?” Anthony asked nervously.

  “We got it all right,” Margo said as she quickly typed. “Get back to the cafeteria, Ant. You’ll want to see this for yourself.”

  Aaron rolled over next to her and looked over her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

  “Just give me one second, and I’ll explain.” She continued to type. “Go back to your station. I’m almost finished.”

  Aaron rolled back to his station.

  After doing a quick look over to make sure the cash was distributed evenly, she hit enter. “Bobbi, count down from sixty seconds,” Margo said.

  Bobbi started the count down.

  Margo wanted to make sure that she was giving the changes enough time to take effect.

  “Three, two, one,” Bobbi announced.

  “Activate transfers,” Margo said. She and Aaron did their thing.

  “Okay, now we wait until it’s complete,” Margo said.

  Anthony had made his way to the cafeteria. “What’s going on?”

  Bobbi and Anthony approached the station.

  Margo grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Dear members of BAAM,” she began. “We did not steal a hundred million dollars. We stole two hundred million dollars!”

  “Holy shit!” Bobbi exclaimed.

  Aaron laughed as he clapped his hands together.

  “Fuck yeah!” Anthony yelled. He and Bobbi embraced.

  “Okay, okay,” Aaron said happily. “Let’s not celebrate prematurely, no matter how tempting it is. We got to keep watch until all the money is dispersed, take care of the evidence, and get the hell out of here.”

  Chapter 35

  It took fifteen minutes for the transfers to be approved. Everyone hollered with joy, but they couldn’t bask in their victory. Now BAAM had to make sure they got away clean. Anthony ran down to the basement to the boiler room. Aaron went up in the loft to plug in every electronic piece of equipment he could find in the outlets up there and turned them on. Bobbi ran down the hall to the other side of the building. A large container of gasoline was waiting for her. She was going to pour a line all the way back to the front of the building.

  Margo doused the computers in the cafeteria in gasoline and then she made a trail all the way to the door and then down the hall to the front. It was a good thing they were all wearing masks, or else they would be half dead from the smell.

  Aaron was trotting down the stairs. “Damn,” he said as his brows wrinkled up.

  Bobbi was making her way up the hall.

  “I’m propping the door open,” Margo said. “These masks aren’t working as well as we had hoped.” She opened the door to let in the fresh air.

  “Anthony, are you all right down there?” Aaron said in the Bluetooth.

  “Yeah, just waiting for the go ahead,” Anthony said.

  “You two get to one of the SUVs. It will probably bring too much attention if we all pull out at once. You know where to go.”

  “All right,” Margo said.

  She and Bobbi went outside and hopped into the first SUV.

  ****

  “The girls are heading out the lot, Ant. Turn on the gas at let’s go,” Aaron said in his ear.

  Anthony turned the lever on the boiler to release the fumes. Then he quickly went to the door and propped it open so the fumes could circulate in the basement. He hauled ass down the hall to the stairs. The smell of the gasoline hit him in the face like a Mack truck. “Shit,” he said and put his hand over his mouth and nose. He had a mask, but it wasn’t doing much.

  “Come on, buddy,” Aaron encouraged. “And for Pete’s sakes watch where you step.”

  Careful not to step in the trails of gasoline, Anthony got to Aaron and the doorway. “Whew.”

  Then they stepped outside.

  Aaron pulled out a box of matches. He pulled two sticks out and struck them on the side, and then tossed them on the floor.

  The floor ignited with a whoosh sound.

  “Shit,” Anthony said as the fire trail grew big and started spreading quicker than a chicken pocks epidemic.

  “Let’s get the fuck outta here!” Aaron yelled.

  They jumped into the SUV. Anthony started the engine. “What about the door? We left it open.”

  “Fuck the door,” Aaron said. “We gotta go before those fumes from the basement hit that fire!”

  Anthony put the SUV in drive and pulled out.

  “There’s no one coming, just ram the gate,” Aaron said as he looked behind them.

  Anthony pressed on the gas as he looked up in the rearview mirror. He could see the orange glow shining into the lot. He looked back at the gate.

  The wire gate gave way to the SUV. What they didn’t plan on was side swiping another SUV.

  “Fuck!” Anthony shouted as he turned the wheel. He kept driving as he looked in the rearview mirror.

  The SUV ran into a street parking sign and slid against the wall of an abandoned building.

  Aaron was looking back. “It was just a slight hit. The airbags probably saved them.”

  “Either way, it was a good thing this ride is stolen,” Anthony stated.

  “Are you guys, okay?” Margo asked over the Bluetooth.

  “What was that noise?” Bobbi asked.

  ****

  Bruce and Vic had gone to the address for the fake Lucas Connor. When they had arrived at the house, an old lady answered the door. She said she had rented her basement apartment to a young man named Lucas Connor. He had been there for an hour during the day and told her that he had to work tonight. Then she mentioned how hard Lucas worked. He was hardly there to get any sleep. Just long enough to check his mail and talk to her for fifteen minutes.

  After chatting with the old lady, Bruce thought Luke was at the old sewing factory. Vic was more than willing to go. He had gotten angry that Luke was taking advantage of an old woman. Bruce and Vic knew that once Luke had done whatever it was he was doing, he was going to skip out on the rent.

  Bruce cursed the backed-up traffic on the interstate. He wasn’t sure what the hold-up was, and he didn’t care. After waiting for thirty minutes for it to cle
ar up, he had lost patience and cut off the person in the right lane and drove on the side of the road until he got to an exit.

  They were finally in the industrial district. He sped up the road like a man possessed.

  “Slow down, Bruce. You don’t need to get a ticket on top of everything else,” Vic warned.

  Bruce ignored him.

  “Hey, what’s that orange glow?”

  “Where?” He glanced over at Vic.

  “Bruce, look out!”

  He looked back at the road to see an SUV careening through the electronic gate of the factory. The driver turned the wheel to keep from getting into a head-on collision. The side of the vehicle hit the side of Bruce’s, pushing him straight to a parking sign. Bruce saw the building past it and turned the wheel and slammed on the brakes as he went through the sign to keep from hitting the building head on.

  The sound of tires screeching rang in Bruce’s ears before he was jarred by the impact of hitting the wall. The airbag deployed. The smell of burnt powder filled his nostrils.

  “Ugh,” Bruce groaned as he opened his eyes. The other SUV was gone.

  “Bruce,” Vic croaked. “You all right?”

  “I think so. Ah.” He turned his head to see a blonde woman. “Margo?” He wasn’t sure if it was her. His vision was blurry.

  The passenger door opened. “Hey!” the woman said.

  It wasn’t Margo.

  “You guys got to get out of there! I smell gas!” she shouted.

  “Ah, great,” Bruce groaned as he unhooked his seatbelt.

  Vic was slowly getting out of the SUV.

  Bruce climbed over the console.

  “Hurry!” the woman yelled.

  He did smell gasoline, but it wasn’t coming from the SUV. When he got out of the vehicle, he saw the factory was on fire. “The gas smell is coming from that building.” He started making his way to it.

  “What are you doing?” Vic asked.

  “She could be in there!” Bruce shouted as he picked up the pace. He was unsteady on his feet, and his vision was still a little impaired.

  “You’re crazy!” Vic yelled.