by Ian Bull
“Relax, boss. We’re about to take a long drive. It’ll be nice,” Dozer says.
Paul stares at the two huge men. “Do you guys ever move? Or do you sit all day?”
They look at each other and shrug. “We sit, mostly,” Dozer says.
“It’s what you pay us to do. We sit in the car and wait,” Cliff says.
Kath runs across the empty parking lot toward them. She’s still wearing her black pants and Apex catering shirt with the “Joanie” pin.
“Get in the back, let’s go!” Paul yells.
“I can’t! She won’t let me in!” She holds up her hand to shield her eyes from the sun.
Paul points at the building. “Go say your goodbyes. We leave in ten minutes or you don’t get to keep any of the money so far.”
“I don’t want the money,” Kath says. “Not anymore.”
“You’re going to need it. The police will be looking for us and we have to disappear.” Paul says. “And we have to buy you new clothes. That outfit looks so stupid on you.”
Kath blinks and turns away, fighting back the tears. Once again, history repeats itself. Kath will soon be trapped in a moving car with yet another abusive man, worse than any man her mother endured during childhood, and so much worse than Sam ever could be.
“Blow me, are you crying?” Paul asks her. “Say goodbye! Now!”
Kath turns away so he can’t see her crying, and runs back across the parking lot to the Meadow Song Retirement Community.
Kath exits the elevator on Bella's floor and pauses to catch her breath. The woman can be mean and demanding, but she's the only family that Kath's got. She knocks on her door.
“It’s open, come on in!”
Bella is at her tiny kitchen table playing cards with an older gentleman who looks like a skinny and pale Omar Sharif, and he's dressed in just underwear and a dress shirt.
“What is going on here?”
“Strip poker,” Bella says. “And I’m winning.”
The old man looks at her and grins. He doesn’t mind being a loser.
“Is this your secret admirer?” Kath asks.
“Yevgeni? God no. He doesn’t even speak English. Our relationship is strictly physical. My secret admirer is in the kitchen.”
Kath steps around the corner into the kitchen. Sam stands by the sink zipping up the pants that Bella just won from Yevgeni.
“You! How did you get here!” she screams.
Sam motions for Kath to be quiet. “The five hundred dollars in my shoe. I took a taxi. You still have your five hundred, don’t you? Because we need it.”
Kath grabs her temples. “Back up. How do you and Bella even know each other?”
“I followed you here. I wanted to know more about you.”
“That makes you a creepy and weird stalker.”
“Not a guy falling in love with you?” Sam asks.
“You’re a liar. You’ve lied to me from the beginning.”
“He’s a nice boy!” Bella shouts from the other room. “He bought me the flowers!”
“You bought the flowers? That makes you an even bigger lying creep!”
“I had to win Bella over somehow!”
“Here comes his shirt!” Bella yells, and tosses Yevgeni’s shirt into the kitchen. Sam grabs it before it hits the floor, and as he’s bending over, Kath sees the horrible long gashes on his shoulders and back. She gasps. “Oh my God, what happened?”
“Getting out of the Flood Building was a little rough. Do I need stitches?” Sam asks, and turns his back to her.
Kath stares at the long deep gashes and covers her mouth to keep from crying out. Sam turns back to her and smiles to hide his pain. Kath’s fear turns on a dime to anger. She grits her teeth and punches him in the chest. “I wish I’d never met you!’
“Stop it! We have to get out of here!”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!”
Sam buttons up Yevgeni’s long dress shirt. “I have a 1980 red Camaro parked out back. Brand new.”
“Really? Where did you get a red Camaro?” That car is on her “good” list.
“It’s mine. I’m letting him borrow it!” Bella shouts from the other room.
Kath shakes her head and walks back into the living room.
“You bought a Camaro? You don’t even drive. And you’re on a fixed income!” Kath shouts at her aunt, trying to ignore the naked old man sitting across from her. Yevgeni grins. He seems to be thrilled that he’s exposing himself.
“I won the money at the track, and I can do whatever I want with it.”
“You won that much?” Kath asks, sounding jealous. “How?”
“Sam took me. He showed me how to win big.”
“You took her to the track?” Kath says, sounding both jealous and sad.
“I have a system,” Sam explains.
“And it’s better than yours. He wins! Let the man borrow my car!”
Kath wipes away a tear and looks at Sam, softening. “I can’t believe you took her to the track without me. I might have liked to have gone too, you know.”
Sam takes Kath’s hands and looks her in the eye.
“Let me show you the rest of my plan. We still have a chance.”
Kath stares at him and nods. He kisses her lightly on the lips. She closes her eyes, letting it linger for five seconds…
He breaks away and grabs the car keys off the TV stand. "Thanks, Bella, you're a lifesaver! And thanks for the threads, Yevgeni!" Sam says, and he pulls Kath towards the door.
“Give us a call once you’re settled!” Bella waves.
Once the door closes, Bella lays down her cards. “I have a full house,” she says.
A naked grinning Yevgeni stands up, showing Bella his old man erection.
“Me too,” he says with a thick accent, and Bella laughs out loud.
Paul looks at his watch, then punches and kicks the air like a toddler having a meltdown. He then freezes…and stares at Cliff in the front passenger seat of the Town Car.
“Why am I freaking out over half a million dollars? Are you wondering that?
“No, sir. It’s your money, you can freak out however you want,” Cliff says.
“Because Sam tricked me somehow. And I’ve spent the past two years thinking about it. It’s driving me nuts, to the point that I want to cut him open, rip out his guts and read them like tea leaves to figure out how he did it.”
“Yes, sir,” Cliff says.
“Here’s a deal for you. I want to hire you, and I’ll pay you two million dollars. You want that job?” Paul asks.
"Yes, sir, that would be a good job."
“Great. To make your two million dollars, you must work eighty hours a week, all year long, making things for me. But there’s one catch. I could end up making fifty million dollars, if I’m lucky, because I sell what you make. You still make your two million, guaranteed, while I make fifty million. Still think it’s fair?” Paul asks.
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“That’s because you understand capitalism, Cliff! Sam doesn’t! That’s why he tried to take advantage of me, because he doesn’t understand our relationship!”
Sam drives the Camaro out of the underground parking and makes a right towards the Bayshore Freeway. Kath leans back in the passenger seat and rolls down the window. A hundred yards away she sees Paul standing by the two cars in the parking lot – and he sees her too.
“Honk,” Kath says. Sam leans on the horn as Kath waves at Paul.
“Son of a bitch,” Paul mutters as he sees the Camaro head for the freeway.
He jumps inside his car, revs the engine and tears after them, but the Camaro gets on the freeway onramp before Paul even gets out of the parking lot.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
F ifty members of the Mission Bay Health Club, all dressed in colorful spandex, mill outside the entrance. They want to get back in and finish their workouts, but they can’t because the police are busy raiding the place.
Inside, police officers stack boxes of stolen VCRs, computers, TV sets, heart monitors and medical supplies. Two detectives question the six employees lined up against the counter.
Detective Stone and Hal Weinstein stand side-by-side watching it all.
“At least your boy was right about Barnes,” Stone says to Hal.
"I wish he wasn't right. He was my last "bleeding heart" project before retirement."
Hiram Valosek sits in a metal folding chair next to them. He keeps trying to get up, but Stone keeps patting him on the shoulder to hold him down. "Stay still, Hiram," Stone says.
A patrol officer walks up. “Detective Stone? We found the two men in the Lincoln Town Car you were looking for. They’re parked outside in front.”
Stone and Weinstein walk out the glass doors and Hiram Valosek sneaks into step behind them. The Lincoln is parked in the red zone, and two huge men sit in the front seat. One looks like he’s from Fiji or Samoa, while the other looks like a fullback from Nebraska. Both are wearing dark glasses and 49er football jerseys. Four patrol officers surround the car.
Stone motions for the Pacific Islander in the passenger seat to roll down his window. After the glass drops, Stone places both hands on the passenger door.
“Take off your glasses, boys, before I knock them off your faces.”
Dozer and Cliff obey.
You boys work for Paul Barnes?” Stone asks.
They both shrug but say nothing.
“Put your hands on the dash and look at me,” Stone says.
Cliff obeys, but the pale fullback with the rolls of fat on the back of his neck freezes. He grips the wheel so hard that his knuckles turn white.
“Yo, Cornhusker. Did you hear what I said?” Stone asks him.
The big Islander shakes his head “You can’t talk to him that way.”
“I’ll talk to you however I like. I’m the law.”
“No, you can’t talk to him that way because it freaks him out.”
The big white guy moans, his eyes roll back, and he passes out. His face hits the horn on the steering wheel, sending out a long honk.
“Narcolepsy,” the guy in the passenger seat says. He reaches over and pushes his partner’s drooling face off the horn, ending the noise.
Stone stands up and turns to Hal. “We’re getting nowhere.”
Hiram steps between them. “I’m telling you, the data doesn’t lie. We should be focusing our attention on the motels. We need to make two hundred phone calls, now.”
Stone and Hal look at each other and shrug. “What do we have to lose?” Hal asks.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
S am downshifts as he descends from Donner Pass towards Truckee, California. They’re in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the summertime, and the sky is a brilliant blue with fluffy white clouds. Deep green pine trees run in a thick carpet down the grey stone mountains. There’s still a smattering of snow on some of their peaks.
Sam arches his back, trying to get comfortable. His wounds make him wince.
Kath lowers her passenger window and looks out at the passing alpine beauty. There are only a few cars on the road in mid-week in the summer. She spots a mountain cabin near Donner Lake. Even from half a mile away, she can see smoke coming out of the chimney and kids playing on a swing set on a green lawn. Kath feels like she’s twelve again, and she gazes at the house with envy, wishing it was her childhood.
She faces Sam. “I was the one who told Paul about Truckee. I overhead a phone message when Rose called you at the Taj Mahal.”
Sam shrugs. “It’s my own fault. I should have told you everything. But I didn’t know if any of it was going to happen.”
“Tell me now.”
They pass a sign: Truckee, CA, population 2,350. “We’re almost there anyway,” he says.
Sam takes the exit, but doesn’t go into town; instead, he makes a left and heads up a rural road. They climb, passing through pine trees. They keep going higher and higher, until the trees thin out. It’s mostly grey rock up here, but the views are tremendous, with crystal clear vistas down to Donner Lake, the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe in the distance.
They reach a flat part of the mountain that’s hidden by a ring of trees. It’s an alpine meadow with a tiny stream running through the tall green grass. Sam stops the car next to a “For Sale” sign. A classic Ford pickup is already parked alongside.
A woman steps out of the truck. She’s dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans, and she has thick red hair that cascades down her back. She smiles and waves at them with a genuine warmth that makes her even more beautiful. Kath dislikes her immediately.
“That’s her,” Sam says, and gets out.
Kath exhales…and gets out too.
“Hello, Sam,” the woman says.
“Hello, Rose,” he says, with a smile. “This is my girlfriend, Kath.”
“Sam told me a lot about you,” Rose says. The women trade weak smiles.
‘How’s Carl doing?” Sam asks.
“He’s the best pitcher in Little League. He wants to be an Army Ranger,” Rose says.
“Would he remember me if I said ‘hi?’” Sam asks.
“Yes. He doesn’t want to use my name, Armanini. He wants to use yours. He says Webb is a better last name for a guy,” Rose says. “You left a good impression on him.”
Rose and Sam smile and shake their heads, remembering and regretting at the same time.
Rose pulls out a rolled piece of paper and tries to hand it to Kath, but Kath steps back and puts up her hands, not wanting anything from her. Rose hands it to Sam instead.
“Goodbye, Sam,” she says, then turns to Kath. “I hope you get his good years.”
Kath gives her an awkward smirk. Rose gets into her truck and drives away.
“Why don’t you go with her? That’s why you came, isn’t it?” Kath asks.
Sam shakes his head. “That’s not how it works.”
Kath crosses her arms. The wind blows, sending strands of hair across her face. It’s hard to focus on Sam with this gorgeous green meadow behind him. “Then explain it,” Kath says.
“Paul was right. When I broke into that safe two years ago, there was a half-million dollars inside. More in fact. Almost seven hundred thousand. But I managed to get it to Rose just before the police arrived.”
“And you went to prison for two years?”
“She ran, because she had to. I knew it was an inside job, and that Paul would have to pay the import company back, which is why he’s had a hard-on to punish me for everything I did,” Sam says. “But I knew she’d come back.”
“That’s so touching,” Kath says, shaking her head. “You are such a liar.”
“It was over between us the minute I got caught, Kath. That was the agreement. And that half the money in the safe would be mine someday.” Sam holds out the piece of paper.
She opens it. It’s a land deed with her name on it. “Land? What land?” she asks.
“You’re standing on it,” Sam says.
Kath looks around at the mountain, the stream, the meadow and the trees. “You bought me land?” she asks.
“You said you wanted to live in the country, in a house like the ones you would pass on your mom’s road trips,” said Sam. “That’s what I told Rose to do with my three hundred and fifty thousand. Buy you this.”
Kath stands frozen, until Sam gestures with his arms. "Look, it's perfect for us. It's the right choice with the money too. Harder to trace this way."
Kath stares at the meadow. It’s so perfect it looks like a movie of a mountain meadow, with tall green grass and splashes of red and yellow flowers. “I don’t know how to live here. It was just a dream from when I was a kid.”
“Then sell it. It’s yours; you can do whatever you want with it. I promised I would make something come true for you, and I did. See Kath? I never lied to you.”
“Yes, you did. I asked you if you had money hidden somewhere and you said no.”
“I had land h
idden somewhere. Technically, that’s not a lie. Politicians pass that off as the truth all the time.”
Kath feels a lifetime of distrust lift from her shoulders. She breaks down, sobbing so hard her nose runs.
Sam touches her shoulders. “See how nice it is? We could build a cabin right in the bend of the creek,” he says, pointing.
That makes Kath sob even louder.
“I can see it myself. How quaint,” Paul says.
Kath and Sam turn. Paul points a very large gun at them. His Cadillac with the Dead Head sticker is parked a hundred yards down the hill.
“Thank you for driving a red Camaro. You were easy to find on the freeway. But you shouldn’t have done that with my money. I hate the mountains.”
“It was never your money! It belonged to some Hong Kong gangsters! And they got all their money back!” Sam yells.
Paul shoots his gun into the dirt. Sam and Kath jump back and put their hands up.
“Sorry, Sam, this is one time when I’m going to win for a change.”
“What? You always win. I went to prison! You're rich!"
Paul shoots the gun in the dirt again, then aims it at Sam’s chest. “Wrong. I’ve never had it like you. You’re tall, you’re handsome, and you’re funny, without even trying. People like you. Me, not so much. You think I could get a girl like Rose if I didn’t have money? Or Kath? But you can, because life is easy for you.”
Sam keeps his hands up. “Lots of women like you, Paul. You have a lot of fine qualities.”
“Don’t interrupt me.” Paul shoots the ground again. Sam jumps back. Paul grabs Kath by the wrist and yanks her to his side. “This time I’m the one who gets the girl.”
Paul raises his gun to shoot Sam in the chest – but a hand reaches from behind and pinches his shoulder so hard he drops the gun. The hand doesn’t let go. Kath breaks free from Paul and turns –
It’s Inge, and she’s mad. Her little grey Datsun is parked behind Paul’s Cadillac. Inge doesn’t release Paul’s shoulder from her Vulcan death grip. He drops to his knees, moaning.
“Inge, honey, it’s just business,” Paul says.
Inge kicks him to the ground and leaps on him, raising a cloud of dust. Kath and Sam step back and give her room, like you’d give room to a snarling badger.