I was following my usual procedure and saw no reason why events should present any unforeseen difficulties. The car would be parked on the side or in front where we could get to it quickly and make a safe exit. The next two days were relaxing for me as I continued to go over the plans undisturbed by the presence of Allison. I liked to think that she realized that our gig was over and would act in a dignified manner to avoid making more foolish and unwanted overtures to me, but that outcome could not be counted on to happen. The best that I could hope for was that she stayed away from me until this job was done. Then I would have the time and energy to end the matter completely. I continued to check out the plan until satisfied that it was as good as possible and then made sure that all needed gear was in my bag. Steve would be arriving about seven thirty for a final rundown of our heist and then we would depart in my car for the target area. The car should not be noticed in the darkness and we would keep our distance until the time to strike neared. Then I would park at the best location available and make ready to enter the store. As I peered into the store windows, the four clerks could be seen helping a few remaining customers and were not yet picking up all the pieces for safekeeping. It was now eight fifteen and in a few minutes I would move the car closer to the store. I could feel the heightened tension throughout my body as we got ready to make the biggest score ever and the surge of electricity in me was just incredible.
I pulled the car around to the side of the building and parked very near an entrance. After checking that no one was in the street, we got out, walked toward the door and donned our masks just before entering. At first no one noticed our presence but once we barked in loud voices and showed guns, everyone in the store complied with our orders to face away from the windows and look natural. Steve told the clerks to put all the loose diamonds into his bag while I went to the rear and found another clerk counting up receipts. His face had a stunned look as I walked in and he immediately starting putting all the cash into the bag thrust at him. So far so good I thought as the two of us walked into the front of the store. Almost all of the diamonds were dumped in the bag and we were ready to get out when I noticed a man standing outside talking into a cell phone. He must have just showed up to give one of the people a ride and immediately saw that something was amiss. It looked like the call was already made so I told Steve to take what was in the bag and follow me out. Actually there was very little left to take and he had already started toward the door. I followed after telling everyone not to move for ten minutes as we hurried into the car and drove away from the scene within seconds. I hadn’t noticed the man with the phone and hoped that he ran away without seeing my car. If I had caught up to him somehow, he was a dead man but for now our main priority was to cleanly escape.
We were about two blocks away when I heard sirens in the background and realized how close this job had come to being a disaster. All the attention to planning cannot account for an unforeseen twist of fate but at least it hadn’t done us in. If I ever learned who that phone caller was from the newscast, he would pay for his action. I headed into as much traffic as could be found leaving the city and hoped that we would be far enough from the area to avoid coming against a roadblock. Time seemed to move very slowly as the distance lengthened and everything seemed fine until I spotted flashing lights ahead of us and realized that police were checking all cars leaving the downtown area. There was no doubt in my mind that they were looking for two men and the diamonds. Once we were stopped, the jig was up so fast thinking had to come into play in order to save our asses. I quickly formulated a plan and told Steve to take the loot, guns and other gear, get out of the car and make his way to somewhere safe where he could lie low for a few hours. On my own, I could pass through the police block and in a few hours when everything had cooled off, come back and pick him up. He didn’t like the idea of having to carry everything but realized that our options were extremely limited at this moment. I slowed down at an intersection to let him out with the bags and continued toward the flashing lights. Once out of the city, I would go home, wait for his call, and return to collect him and the bags.
As I neared the area where the cops were stationed, it was evident that they were checking all vehicles which in my thinking, meant they didn’t have a description of the getaway car. I pulled up to the lights and an officer came over and gave me the once over before asking for my license and registration. After asking a few perfunctory questions, he motioned me to move on while ignoring my requests for an explanation. That had gone very well and now I was on my way home to wait for Steve’s call. If he did his part in a proper way, we would soon be together at my place with a fortune. When I got home, there were a few phone messages from Allison and my anger flared at her for bothering me at a time like this. Some people never learn when to give it up and she was becoming an obsessive pest who was starting to really annoy me. I had something to eat and looked for any news of the robbery on television, but nothing about the event was reported. I would have to wait for a later newscast and killed time by seeing a movie that made no sense to me. By eleven, I had not heard from Steve and was beginning to feel a little concern. The newscast came on and the robbery was the third story announced with the usual exaggeration of events. Since no one was hurt during the caper, the heist was not of exceptional importance but the newscaster did note that the thieves got away without a clue to their identity. I was hoping that they would give some inkling of the value of the items taken but that detail was not even mentioned.
A few more hours passed without a call from Steve and I was starting to have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. If he was somehow caught by police, it was only a matter of time until they showed up for me. I couldn’t let these thoughts get to me and tried to divest my mind of them but it wasn’t happening so easy. My mind was starting to fill up with all kinds of unpleasant outcomes when the phone rang at two in the morning. I quickly grabbed it and heard Steve’s voice telling me to come and get him at an all night restaurant about a mile from the downtown area. I vaguely knew where the place was and after looking at a street map, got in my car and wasted no time getting there. Steve was waiting outside the building, holding the bags and smiling. I was never so glad to see anyone in my life and we quickly made tracks back to my apartment while he gave me an accounting of the last five hours. After I left him, he had hid in bushes along the roadside for several hours until the police finally gave up the cause and moved out. Then he walked about a half mile to the all night restaurant and had a good meal before calling me. Initially, he was leery of my plan but as it unfolded, the wisdom of my thinking probably saved us from prison. Here was a guy who really appreciated my intelligence and I admired his loyalty. We got back to the apartment and unloaded the bags carefully on the bed so no stones fell to the floor. The first thing I did was count the cash and it turned out to be seventy six hundred dollars which was not bad. Then we looked at the mass of sparkling diamonds that gleamed up at us and started counting how many there were. Neither of us knew anything about their weight but the total number came to two hundred and forty two pieces. I didn’t know what the value of this pile was but it had to be more than all the money that had ever come to me dishonestly.
After spending a few minutes congratulating ourselves and having a drink, we split the cash and decided to keep the diamonds at my place until Steve could make contact with the potential buyer. Over the next few days, I would visit various jewelry stores and get some idea of what various sized stones were worth and what a particular carat weight looked like. If that didn’t work, I could always try the library and hopefully obtain pictures of actual sizes to compare with ours. Either way, I was going to have a good estimate of what our stones were worth before showing them to the buyer so that he couldn’t short change us on their value. Steve said he would get back to me in a day or two and I knew that he was eager to cash in the sparklers. That night, my sleep was punctuated with fantasies of achieving untold wealth from the sale of the diamonds
and having the means to live on easy street forever. I was so hyped up that it didn’t matter if my sleep was not very restful; the tremendous energy that welled up from within my body was enough to carry me through several days of activity. The diamonds were well hidden, I had plenty of cash to live on and Allison had not been around to pester me for a few days. Of course, she might have been out of town but I was hoping perhaps unrealistically, that her involvement with me was over.
I felt so good today that it was hard to relax in the apartment and anyway, the success of the job called for a celebration or at least a reward for my effort. I had outsmarted the cops and cleaned out a jewelry store strictly using my brains and that thought gave a huge sense of pride. I took some of my money and went out on a buying spree for clothes, a nice watch, and eating at a fancy restaurant as a way of paying myself for doing a good job. I even stopped at a few auto dealer showrooms and looked at new cars rationalizing that with all that money that was coming from the job, it was time to drive something more presentable. Buying a car would have to wait until the deal was consummated but it sure was fun to look at these gorgeous little vehicles. I was laden down with several packages from my shopping when who should be waiting for me at the door but Allison. I knew that getting rid of her was not going to be easy but it was time to finalize the break up. She tried to make some polite conversation but I abruptly cut her off from every attempt. Then she offered to help me carry the bags in and I told her that no help was needed. I could see from the look on her face that she was vacillating between depression and anger when her next question asked if we were still going together. That was my signal to act, and I told her that we never went together and while our socializing was fun for awhile, it had run its’ course and was over. I could tell that she was fighting to hold back the tears coming from her eyes but summoning the courage to speak, said “if that is how things are, then there is no reason to continue trying to repair the damage.” After saying that to me, she turned around and walked toward her apartment and I truly hoped it would be the last time we faced each other.
I couldn’t believe how resistant Allison was to ending our involvement after the unpleasantness that had happened between us during the last few weeks. I could surmise that she didn’t want to lose me but eventually, even the most stubborn person will come to their senses. Now that I had once again got a romantic matter out of the way, it was time to take care of very important business. After looking over and admiring the clothes and wristwatch I bought, my thoughts turned to how Steve was making out with the buyer and wondering how long it would take to close the deal. While shopping, I had stopped in a jewelry store and inquired about the prices of various sized loose diamonds and was told that depending on the quality, the cost could range from six hundred dollars for a quarter carat up to eight thousand dollars for two carats. I looked at several stones and obtained an approximate size for each weight so they could be compared to the items in my bag. Most of the stones we had taken appeared to be a quarter or a half carat weight but several of them were much larger. I would have to visit the library and look at actual pictures of different sizes and bring home a photocopy that would allow me to obtain a more realistic idea of how many of each size were in the bag and then estimate a total value for the entire collection. By doing that, I wouldn’t be given a price by the buyer that was ridiculously low and while knowing that the cash given to us represented a fraction of the retail value, we could haggle over an amount satisfactory to all.
I spent about an hour at the library looking at jewelry books that had pictures of various sizes and weights of stones and made a few photocopies to take home. The next three hours were spent sorting the stones by size and putting them in little separate piles until I had gone through all the pieces. As I had surmised, one hundred and ninety of the stones were in the quarter and half carat weight while forty of them were one carat, and ten were between one and two carats. After estimating the value, I came up with about two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars and that figure took my breath away for several seconds. Even if we got the thirty percent that Steve thought was the going price for fencing the merchandise, it still came to over sixty thousand bucks which gave the two of us an incredible stash to live on for a good amount of time. In the event that we could negotiate for a higher percentage, it would make us much happier but no use getting ahead of myself. I’ll just have to let thing play out and see where we end up. Despite all the highs I was feeling, a small amount of anxiety was encroaching that had to do with not hearing from Steve in two days. I decided to wait another twenty four hours before calling him. I didn’t want to seem impatient but the thought of all that potential money in my possession and what it could buy was stimulating my desire to get this matter rolling.
I slept a little better that night and felt more in control of my behavior as the obsession over the loot began to subside. Everything was going to happen as it should and there was no use getting all worked up about the deal until the cash was in hand. I was debating with myself about calling Steve when the phone rang and the welcome sound of his voice was heard. He had good news and wanted to meet with me at our usual park location so we could discuss our next move. We would meet in one hour and I couldn’t believe how slow the clock moved until it was time to head out. We met and sat on a bench while he filled me in on the details of his negotiating. Steve had made contact with the fence and gave him a vague description of the goods but soon realized that the buyer knew about the heist and what was stolen. He let Steve know that the stones were of great interest to him and after seeing them and appraising their worth, would reveal what kind of price could be offered. Neither of us liked the idea of giving all the items to this fellow and decided that one of each size would be shown for his perusal. Once he finished his inspection and told us what each size was worth, we would know what the total value of our loot was worth and then see what was offered for a complete buy. I told Steve everything about the sizes and values and left the rest in his hands. He would contact the buyer tonight and get back to me by tomorrow with the latest news. Events seemed to be moving on well and tomorrow they would be even better.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
I went to a movie that night to get my mind off the transaction details that were out of my control anyway. A few shots of bourbon helped me sleep soundly and I awoke in the morning with a refreshing outlook on life. By now, Steve should have taken care of his business and call me at any moment. If this deal could be worked out in an ideal fashion, we could unload the goods and have the cash within a short time and get on with enjoying life This business had taken up a lot of my energy and I wanted to be done with it. When I stole cash, there were no problems once the job was done but this kind of maneuvering took its toll on my psyche. I was barely able to tolerate this change in my manner of operating but did so only because of the amount of cash involved. I suppose that there were more problems inherent in jobs that entail fencing valuable items and they just can’t be avoided. The proceeds from this robbery would amount to as much as most of the other heists I committed and if a higher degree of obstacles sprang up, dealing with them successfully was well worth the effort. As soon as this matter was settled, I would spend some time looking for another woman but this time, there would not be a pretense of having anything more than a short term sexual encounter. I was not going to get involved with anything deeper and in fact, preferred to see several girls as a way of not giving any of them the slightest hint of permanency. Whoever was with me would have a good time during our period of togetherness since I liked to spend money on eating out and other entertainment and there would soon be plenty of money to throw around. I might even visit my mother and bring her a nice present just to show what a good son she had. She didn’t really deserve anything from me but sometimes I’m just a generous guy.
All of those activities would have to wait because at this time, there was only one thing on my mind and that had to do with collecting lots of cash. I should hear from
Steve anytime and learn if the buyer went for our deal. If he did, then I would give one stone of each size to him and wait to see how it all went down. We had to figure out some way of making the exchange of diamonds for money so that nothing weird happened. The two of us could bring our weapons to wherever the final meeting place was and most assuredly use them if the buyers tried to double cross us. Of course, I was hoping that it didn’t come to that and everything moved along smoothly. We could make the exchange at the same instant and be on our way. I had never done this type of transaction before and had to prepare myself for any contingency. There really was no honor among thieves and the robbers getting robbed was always a possibility. My patience was wearing thin as time passed and Steve didn’t call but in the early evening, the phone rang and it was him. He was in his usual excited stated and told me that the buyer had been very impressed by the quality of our goods and wanted to take the entire lot off our hands. The fence had told Steve that the stones were very hot and wouldn’t be easy to resell but was willing to give us fifty five thousand in cash. It wasn’t exactly the amount I had in mind but close enough and it did make sense that these diamonds would be difficult to dispose of. It didn’t matter, my share was sufficient to keep me living well for a long time and that was the most important goal.
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