Bad Reputation: The Complete Collection

by Matt Hader

  After the meal of sautéed, French-style, lemon chicken and miniature, red bistro potatoes braised in chicken stock and fresh asparagus, Amy finally broke her silence.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. Ever,” she said.

  John smiled, knowing he was going to be able to keep his scheme going for a little while longer. Maybe Amy wasn’t as romantically interested in him as he was in her, but he still wanted to get the Kid Crew franchise up and running. He was actually excited about being a business owner. Maybe if she cooled off for a few days, John could put romantic feelers out there again. But he was free to move forward now and possibly save the Fourth of July Festival and embarrass his hometown as well.

  Amy seemed relaxed but didn’t like the self-satisfied look on John’s face one little bit.

  “And go fuck yourself for getting me into this,” she said, as she picked up a small plate of cheesecake from the coffee table and dug in with her fork.

  CHAPTER 44

  The train ride home from downtown Chicago was, not surprisingly, a silent one.

  Gone were John’s inane and excitedly spoken bits of trivia about the areas they passed through. Also erased was Amy’s faux interest in what John was pointing out.

  At the Balmoral stop, Amy walked her way through the darkened parking lot and hailed a cab for the ride back to her friend Lori’s house in Lake Zurich. John began hoofing it the four blocks to his house on Coleridge.

  Actually there was one awkward and quick conversation as the doors to the train opened, and Amy began walking away from John. She had turned and said, “Start getting the store put together. We need to get this thing launched as soon as possible - and you’re doubling my salary.”

  That was just fine with John.

  On his walk home, he couldn’t help but smile at the thought of seeing the beautiful Amy every day at the Kid Crew franchise. This was going to all work out after all.

  “What the hell are you doing with my mom, dude?”

  John stopped in his tracks. He couldn’t see Danny just yet, but he knew he was in the bushes to the side of the massive home he now stood in front of. When he emerged, the young man was shaking with anger and looked like he was ready to fight.

  “I saw the two of you. I saw it, man, in that parking lot. When she got home she was in her bedroom and crying. What did you do?”

  “Nothing. I didn’t do anything, Danny. You have to believe me.”

  John did the right thing by turning down Danny’s mom, Sharon, in the parking lot of the soon-to-be Kid Crew franchise. He didn’t want to go into specific details about the brief meeting that Danny must’ve witnessed from a distance.

  “Danny, there’s no problem. Nothing is going on, okay?”

  But Danny didn’t believe him – evident by the wayward punch he launched at John’s head. John ducked under Danny’s swinging fist and grabbed him in a tight hug.

  “Danny, please. Nothing happened.”

  Danny violently wriggled himself free and spun on John, pointing his finger in his face.

  “We do the robbery in the next few days or I talk.”

  He ran away, leaving John to stand there holding his overnight bag and pondering how most of his not-so-well-thought-out plans had gone to shit.

  CHAPTER 45

  “Well, here’s the thing. I need this to look like maybe a jewelry store or something before making it into the Kid Crew.”

  Sitting in the living room of the tiny house on Coleridge, Larry and Dwayne were instantly confused.

  Dwayne said, “A jewelry store? I don’t get it.”

  John knew they were thrown off by his remark, but he couldn’t let on just yet that he was going to use the space to fake a robbery with Danny. The way John saw it, Danny would not be the wiser, and he’d keep his promise of pulling off a Baby Face Robber job to get him off his back.

  Dwayne said, “Why a jewelry store?”

  John said, “Or just something other than the Kid Crew…”

  Larry and Dwayne shared a confused glance before Larry turned his attention to the pacing John.

  “Is everything okay, John?”

  “Yeah. No. Yeah, it’s fine.”

  “Why not make it look like a lumber clearance center since you’ll have all the wood for the Kid Crew build-out lying around and piled everywhere.”

  “Genius, Larry. That’s perfect!” said John. “We’ll use the front counter that’s already there. I’ll need a cash register, too.”

  The sudden, loud opening and slamming of the back door startled all of them.

  “John? Where the hell are you?” screamed Jimmy from the kitchen.

  John hurried into the kitchen and was instantly grabbed by the angry Jimmy. “Paladin PD is onto you! You stupid son of a bitch!”

  “Jimmy, I’ve got people-”

  “I’m not going down with you.”

  “There’s people in the other-”

  “I’ll testify against you, brother. I have no problem doing that. You will not take me and my family down with you, do you understand me? I told you that this Baby Face Robber bullshit is insane!”

  Jimmy finally lost a bit of rage when he heard Larry clear his throat in the living room. He pushed John away and charged into the front room where he found Larry and Dwayne both smiling and sitting politely.

  “Hey, officer,” said Dwayne, pointing to the coffee table, “There’s Bundt cake if you’re interested. Lemon curd.”

  “Hello,” countered Larry with a wan smile.

  “Oh, shit me! John! Goddamn it!!”

  John gently placed a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder, and his brother didn’t shrug it away. He looked more and more like he needed a hug.

  Dwayne stood and approached Jimmy, and said, “First of all, Jimmy, we won’t tell anyone anything, right, Larry?”

  Larry was still smiling and nodding. He had a new and even stronger appreciation for the outcast John. “Poking the man in the eye? I love it!” he said. “How long have you-”

  “Please, stop. Stop talking about it. Shit, what are we going to do?” said Jimmy.

  Dwayne, without hesitation, said, “Nothing. We don’t do or say shit.”

  Everyone looked at him so he finished out his thought. “We let it be. No one will know, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy plopped onto the couch and said, “But I had a Paladin PD detective question me about John today. Someone is definitely onto him.”

  Dwayne sat next to Jimmy and said, “Are they gonna arrest him? No. They’d a done did it by now. What proof do they have? None, I’m guessing, otherwise old John would be in the pen by now. Right?”

  But Jimmy and John knew otherwise. Jimmy said, “What about Lou, and his brother…and his son?”

  Larry chimed in, “Lou knows? Shit…”

  Dwayne laughed and said, “That’s why he’s giving John free food.”

  Both Jimmy and John nodded grimly. Before John added, “Jimmy, they won’t talk. It’ll blow up in their faces if they do. They don’t want that kid to lose out on a football scholarship and all that. There’s no way.”

  CHAPTER 46

  John stood on State Street peering into the bank branch he had robbed. The very same teller he had gotten the money from a few days prior, playfully spoke with the male customer she assisted.

  The terror John had seen in her eyes was gone today and that warmed his heart. He was so conflicted about his robbing activities. The urge to start up the Kid Crew and finance the Fourth of July Festival, which was quickly approaching, was strong, but the feeling of guilt and shame was building to a very close second.

  After strolling from the area of the bank, John made his way to the law offices on East Haddock Place near Harold Washington College. There he stepped into the lobby of a nearly 100-ye
ar-old building, entered the antiquated elevator and punched the button for the ninth floor. Arriving in the tiny alcove that was the ninth floor, he took the three steps toward the law office door.

  He had set up this meeting with his father’s friend, George, the man responsible for John’s childhood white-knuckle boat rides on Lake Geneva. It was time to start making things more than right. He owed that much to a lot of people whose lives he had inappropriately affected in the past weeks.

  CHAPTER 47

  To John’s specifications, Larry had put the finishing touches on a series of roosters and apples he painted on the back wall of the former carpet company and soon-to-be Kid Crew franchise. Larry was a master with the spray paint can, never allowing the dried paint to clog the spray tip, thus giving his work a crisp, textured and surreal look.

  The roosters and apples he created were not of the same ilk as the ones in John’s kitchen. They were more colorful, playful - whimsical, even. Something a small child would enjoy viewing day in and day out. Absolutely nothing like the tit-fucking Godzilla he had painted on that yuppie couple’s garage in Bucktown.

  Larry was growing as an artist and he was proud of his work.

  Dwayne was busy erecting piles of raw materials to make it look like this was a lumber wholesaler of sorts. They’d start the real build-out of the Kid Crew in a day or two, but for now, staging was the name of the game.

  John had to shake Danny from tailing him that morning. The kid had seen the structure where the Kid Crew would soon be located because it was in the parking lot where John had disrespected Danny’s mother. But the kid didn’t know that John had leased the building.

  So when he spotted Danny following him at breakfast time, John had done most of what Enright did to get the drop on Rita. He snuck out the side door at Dink’s Diner and worked his way around the back side of the business where Danny couldn’t see from his vantage point at the Superstar’s Coffee Shop across the street.

  John had gotten away cleanly and now, as he plugged in and tested the old cash register he’d borrowed from Lou’s basement at Dink’s Diner, the door opened and in walked Henry.

  John was so surprised to see him all the way out here in Balmoral that he didn’t even recognize him for a full two seconds.

  “Wow. It’s looking great,” said Henry, even though it really didn’t.

  John surveyed the space – the wood being piled here and there, the crappy carpeting that needed to be pulled up, the shitty front counter that was on its last legs and the dropped ceiling tiles looking as if they would cave in at any moment, and instantly thought, “Oh, shit, what’s he want now?”

  “Is everything okay, Henry?”

  “Couldn’t be better,” Henry lied. “Um, can we talk?”

  “Okay.”

  Henry turned and pushed his way out the door and into the parking lot. John stepped outside in time to see Henry moving around the back of the building.

  John let out a slow breath knowing that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. He followed Henry to where the dumpster was located out of view of busy Route 14.

  “What is it, Henry?”

  “Place is looking fantastic. I know this is going to be a super successful location-“

  “What’s going on?”

  “I need $100,000. If I don’t get it, I’m finished. We are finished.”

  “What about the $10,000 I just gave you? I thought that was to get that new guy started on selling more franchises.”

  “Yeah, well…I read his email incorrectly. I missed seeing a zero. It was an honest mistake.”

  “Bullshit. What are you doing to me?”

  “Okay, all right. I’m sorry, John. I thought I could talk him down to starting with a $10,000 bonus and not the entire 100 grand that he said he needed. But he balked, okay?”

  “What if I just walk away and cut my losses? What would happen then?”

  “No Kid Crew franchise, no Amy,” said Henry.

  Henry knew exactly why John was really interested in the franchise to begin with. He could tell the moment he met both Amy and John at the convention center that John wasn’t truly interested in the business, but more in the beautiful Amy.

  Henry added, “But I have to be honest, man. I just don’t see you two as a couple. She’s more, I don’t know, my speed.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Hey, just being honest.”

  “Right. You’re all about the honesty,” said John.

  “I love her, John. I love Amy.”

  “Christ.”

  “I can’t lose this company and the chance to be with her.” Henry’s eyes actually brimmed with tears. It threw John off his anger for just a moment.

  “Get out of here.”

  “I need that money, John. I have to have it. If I can’t have Amy, I can still have my business.”

  “Go, Henry. Leave me alone.”

  “I think the Chicago police would be interested to know that you like wearing baby face masks and popping into banks, don’t you? Especially banks that are right across the street from my office where I make it a habit of watching passersby coming and going when I’m not working. It relaxes me. Usually.”

  “You…asshole…”

  “I’m a desperate man, John. You’re right that this isn’t how I’d normally operate. But I really need this all to work out for me. I hope you can see it my way.”

  “Hey, there you are,” said Dwayne, startling both John and Henry. “Sorry, guys. John do you have a pry bar? I need to separate some of this stuff and the hammer’s not cuttin’ it.”

  “No, sorry. Wait. I do at the house,” said John as he dug a hand into his pants pocket coming back out with the car keys to his old station wagon. He tossed the keys to Dwayne and said, “In the garage. It’ll be hanging on the wall near the freezer.”

  Dwayne jingled the keys, nodded and was gone.

  “Please think about it, John. I’m sorry that it had to come to this. Please believe me. I really do need the money for the business. I’m not making that up. I’ll need an answer tonight.”

  John watched as Henry headed back to where his car was parked in front of the building. He dropped his head and considered how he had gotten himself into the many jams he had of late.

  The bottom line for John was that he knew he had no one to blame but himself.

  ***

  Enright loudly yanked up the floorboards in John’s bedroom closet, with the very same pry bar Dwayne was on the way over to pick up.

  His hands were busy doing the work but his mind was racing as he thought about the attractive, blonde woman who had winked at him while he was getting a cup of coffee at Superstar’s Coffee just an hour or so before.

  She had that curvy build that Enright always looked for in a woman. He usually paid for such women to jump into the sack with him, so having a possible freebie coming down the pike would be a new experience for him.

  After getting his coffee he had turned and noticed that the blonde was gone. He wasn’t completely deflated, though. Balmoral was a small town. He’d see her again, he thought.

  Enright had no idea that the old station wagon was pulling up the driveway. He had been in the house for over an hour tearing it up piece by piece looking for any evidence of the robberies.

  And maybe evidence was too general of a term, really. Enright was looking for the money. He just wasn’t aware that, basically, the money was in the possession of a guy named Franky “Five Bucks” after Keith Michaels had paid him back his investment funds in the failed land deal.

  As he pulled into John’s driveway, Dwayne noticed the nondescript car parked two doors down. The driver and the passenger looked a lot like Lou and his brother Jason, but both wore plain, black baseball caps and black t-shirts. T
hrough the glare off the windshield, Dwayne couldn’t really get a good look at them anyway. The two men, in unison, had dropped their gaze, covering their faces with the bills of their hats.

  Dwayne stopped the car just outside the garage. He didn’t know it yet, but Tyler, driving his maroon Jeep, had just parked on Monument Street at the rear of John’s house.

  He had been following Enright and knew he was inside John’s house and that John was away. Enright may or may not have noticed Tyler tailing him, but the soon-to-be defensive end for Boston College could give a rat’s ass.

  He had lied to Enright back at the train station. He was finally going to take care of Enright once and for all.

  Tyler quickly got out of his car carrying something long and slender and rolled up in a sleeping bag. Tyler made his way through the side yard of the home on Monument and angled toward John’s house.

  In the rental car parked a few houses from John’s home, Jason and Lou made sure that their weapons were ready to go.

  Both were wearing plastic disposable gloves. Lou was armed with a leather sap and Jason with a piano wire garrote. They’d done this type of wet work in the distance past, when they both had lived in Greece, but neither of them had actually had to kill someone before.

  They were a bit rusty, but killing was more a mental skill than a physical one, they figured. If you had your head compartmentalized in such a way that the blood, begging and screaming didn’t bother you too much, the physical part was a piece of cake.

  Lou didn’t want to tell Jason about this Enright character, but the thought that he was keeping something important from the one who trusted him the most ate away at his conscience.

  Lou finally broke down and told Jason all about what Tyler and Rita had gotten themselves into. And now they were ready to fix this family problem once and for all.