“Was that a left they took after that last right?” Steve said as he drove.
“Yeah a left, and they’re still inside that house.”
“This is so damn dangerous, Toni.”
“You heard the radio, it’s almost a quarter of a million dollars, and that kind of money is worth a little risk. When we get there, we’ll leave the car on the street and then decide what to do.”
“Okay, but tell me when to stop, you got a better look at the front of the house than I did.”
Toni pointed out the windshield.
“There! That big blue house on the left, oh Steve, this is better than sex.”
“Thanks a lot.”
***
Mary had been sitting on her sofa and watching the news when she heard the van go racing up her driveway.
“What in the world...?”
She then heard voices as she walked towards the kitchen, and as she entered it, the back door exploded inward from a kick, and Brady and Jake entered with a very bloody Craig.
“Oh my God, Brady, what’s going on?”
“No time!” Jake said as he grabbed her by the arm. They had laid Craig atop the kitchen floor, and Jake dragged Mary over to look at the wound.
“That’s a gunshot wound,” Mary said.
Jake pushed her down to her knees beside Craig.
“Stop the bleeding, Mary; you have to stop the bleeding.”
Mary pointed down the hall.
“Brady, there’s um, uh, a large first-aid kit under the sink in the bathroom, go get it, and bring a clean towel too.”
Once she had the kit and had donned latex gloves, Mary tore at the cloth surrounding the wound, and after taking a good look at it, she stared up at Brady.
“I can’t help him, not with what I have here, and if he doesn’t get to a hospital soon he’ll bleed to death.”
Jake tugged hard at her hair.
“Fix him!”
Mary screamed from the sudden pain and Brady shouted at Jake.
“Don’t hurt her!”
***
Toni and Steve were sneaking up the driveway when they heard Mary scream in pain.
Steve turned to head back towards the car, but Toni grabbed his sleeve and pulled him along. When they reached the open rear doors of the van, they saw the discarded masks, the bloody mattress, and the bags of cash.
Toni reached in, grabbed a bag, and passed it to Steve, who was surprised by the weight.
“It’s heavy.”
Toni grinned.
“The heavier the better,”
***
Clay had a description of the stolen van, and as he cruised about town hoping to spot it, he called Mary, and was surprised when her phone went to voicemail.
He shrugged inwardly, thinking that perhaps she had lain down for a nap, and he continued his search for the robbers.
***
“She’s not even trying, Brady; all she did was look at the wound. I want her to do something.”
Mary tried to struggle free of Jake’s grip, but it was useless and so she tried reason again, hoping that at least Brady would come to his senses.
“He’ll die; Craig will die if he doesn’t get help. He needs to be operated on and he’s already lost consciousness.”
Brady and Jake had been glaring at each other, but turned their attention to Craig, who not only was unconscious, but had stopped breathing as well.
Mary clawed at Jake’s hand.
“Let me go! I have to give him CPR, and call 9-1-1, damn it.”
Jake released her and Mary went to work on Craig, but it soon became apparent that it was a waste of time.
Craig was dead.
CHAPTER 39
Harry drove by Mary’s house and saw Steve and Toni moving slowly down the driveway, and they were both carrying canvas sacks.
“Who the hell are these two?” he mumbled to himself.
After parking across the street and four houses down, Harry turned in his seat and watched them load the bags into the open trunk of a car. When Steve and Toni went back to get the rest of the money, Harry headed across the street.
The car he arrived in was stolen, his gloved hands had left no prints, and the sawed-off shotgun hidden beneath his jacket would make quick work of the two grabbing the bags.
He reached Steve’s car, saw that the keys had been left in the ignition, and stepped behind a hedge to wait.
His heart was pounding faster than he could ever recall, but Harry was determined to get that money.
***
Steve, his hands shaking from fear, dropped one of the bags for the second time, as voices were raised inside the house, but then they were followed by silence.
Both Steve and Toni froze, more disturbed by the silence than they had been by the shouting, and when they heard nothing more, they moved towards the car with the last of the bags.
***
Jake reached back to the kitchen counter and grabbed a butcher knife from its block, and was holding it awkwardly because of his damaged wrist.
He still gripped Mary by the hair, and when he jerked her head back to expose her throat, Brady realized what he meant to do, and without even thinking about it, he brought out the gun retrieved from Venta and pointed it at Jake.
“No.”
“She can burn us and she didn’t do shit to help Craig. It’s her or us, Brady. It’s Mary’s life or we both spend the rest of ours locked up and my family and Craig’s are screwed.”
“She won’t talk. Tell him that you won’t talk, Mary.”
Mary said nothing; all of her attention was focused on the sharp blade growing nearer to her exposed throat.
Jake moved the knife even closer.
“I’m sorry, Brady, but there’s no choice.”
Brady aimed the gun at Jake’s face.
“Don’t do it.”
Jake stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re pointing a gun at me? She’s not one of us. Can’t you see that? She’s not one of us!”
Jake’s arm moved quickly and Brady screamed out, “No!” as he fired the gun.
The bullet caught Jake just below the right eye and exited in a spray of gore from the rear.
Both Jake and Mary collapsed atop the tile floor, and as Brady dropped to his knees in despair, the sound of gunfire came from outside.
***
Steve and Toni were halfway down the driveway when the shot boomed from inside, causing all thoughts of stealth to flee from their minds, and they sprinted back towards the street.
Harry shot Toni in the midsection, but his second blast went high and missed Steve, who had dived behind a hedge and laid there cowering, while wetting himself.
Toni dropped her bags, fell backwards upon the sidewalk, and Harry rushed over and gathered up the money she’d been carrying, along with the bag that Steve abandoned.
He had just slammed the trunk when he heard the blast of Toni’s gun, which was immediately followed by the realization that he’d been shot, and Harry watched his own blood spray across the car.
Harry stumbled, placed his hand on the trunk to steady himself, and then felt his strength ebb away like ice in the Sahara, and the last two things he ever saw were the wisp of gunsmoke drifting out from the hole in Toni’s purse, along with the smile of satisfaction on her face.
***
Brady barely had time to process the fact that he’d killed Jake, when Harry had begun shooting at Toni and Steve.
“Mary, Mary stand up; I need you to come with me. I have to find out who’s shooting.”
Mary was trembling and crying from fear, and when she placed a hand to her throat, she saw that her fingers came away red.
“Oh God,”
“You’re all right; it’s just a nick, I... I stopped him before he could hurt you.”
Mary followed Brady’s gaze, saw Jake’s corpse, and screamed.
Brady gave up on getting her to move and went out the back door to see what was happe
ning.
When he saw that the money was gone from the van, he ran down the driveway, where he spotted Harry’s body.
A car was pulling away from the curb with a man at the wheel, and Brady fired a shot that shattered the driver’s side view mirror. The car swerved, scraped another car farther down the street, and then sped off after making a turn on two wheels.
“No!”
Movement in a window across the street caught Brady’s attention, and when he saw a woman talking on the phone, he knew without question that she was reporting the shooting.
He had to go, had to flee, and if he was very lucky, he might get away.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
Brady spun around and found Mary staring at him.
“You, Craig, and Jake, you robbed the armored car and killed those people at the river, didn’t you?”
Brady searched for something to say, and then found that he didn’t have the words.
“Why, Brady? You’re a businessman, a successful businessman, why would you do this?”
“It’s who I am, Mary. It’s who I really am.”
Mary’s hand flew to her mouth as she spotted Harry’s corpse. She had been so focused on Brady that she hadn’t noticed it. She started to look away, but instead drew closer, and when she stared at the face on the body, she gasped in shock.
“I know him. Was he working with you?”
A car screeched to a halt in front of the house and Mary saw that it was Clay in his patrol car.
Brady let out a curse, grabbed Mary around the waist and pulled her in front of him, to use as a hostage.
Clay approached them with his gun up and gave Brady a command.
“Let Mary go and get on the ground! Do it now, Ross!”
“No, you drop your gun. I don’t want to hurt Mary, but I also don’t want you putting a bullet in my back.”
Clay moved closer, his arm extended, his gun pointed at Brady’s face, even as Brady aimed his own gun at Clay’s chest.
“I wasn’t asking,” Clay said. “Release Mary and drop that gun,”
“Why? So you can kill me?”
“Stop it!” Mary said. “Brady, let me go and Clay won’t hurt you.”
“Bullshit! He’ll kill me.”
Clay moved like lightning and fired at Brady’s exposed left hip, even as he grabbed Mary by the wrist and yanked her free.
Brady fell to one knee as the weapon slipped from his hand, and Clay pressed his gun against Brady’s temple.
“Reach for that gun and you’re a dead man.”
Sirens announced the arrival of Clay’s men, as the pain of Brady’s wound hit him full force, and he collapsed backwards onto the ground to writhe in agony from his shattered hip.
“How many more are there, Mary?”
“They’re dead, Clay, the other two are dead.”
Mary took a step towards Brady, but Clay held her back, even as he kicked Brady’s gun out of reach.
“Leave him be, Mary; there’s an ambulance on the way and his pain is no less than he deserves.”
Mary watched Brady for a moment, but then buried her face against Clay’s chest, and cried.
***
Out on the highway, State Trooper Matt McCoy approached the car he had stopped for speeding, but when he spotted the smears of fresh blood on the trunk, he took out his weapon and pointed it at the driver.
“Sir, let me see your hands, sir!”
Steve Beck, his face full of tears, raised his hands slowly, and Trooper McCoy saw that they too had blood on them. As he moved closer to the vehicle, he saw Toni’s body lying across the rear seat.
“Good lord,” McCoy said.
It wasn’t until backup arrived that they would discover the bags of money in the trunk.
***
Later that afternoon, up at the lake, thief Michael Collins returned to the van where he had left a severely wounded Joe Venta with Stu Tate.
Collins had parked his van along the lake where it wouldn’t be seen by the fishermen on the other side, because the area sat back like the tail on a capital Q.
After Brady and his gang had left the scene in Tyler’s van, Venta had made it to his feet with Jake’s knife still buried in his back, and piloted the gang’s abandoned speedboat farther down river, where he then hid behind a dumpster in a supermarket parking lot, and called Collins and Tate for help.
By the time they arrived, Venta’s right arm was numb and he was losing feeling in his legs, yet still, he yearned to get his hands on the money.
“There’s no one there,” Collins said. He was talking about the mine. Venta had told Tate to drive them there, on the off chance of finding the stolen money, as word about the money being recovered had yet to make the news.
“All right, it was a long shot anyway; now take me back to Boston. I know a doctor there that won’t ask questions.”
Collins stared at Venta.
“You don’t look good at all.”
Venta was laying down across the back seat so that the knife handle wouldn’t touch anything, and he glared up at Collins and grimaced.
“I barely have any feeling below my waist.”
Collins looked over at Tate and saw that the older man looked scared, but to his credit, he also sent Collins a nod of agreement, although no words had been spoken concerning what they were about to do.
The van had a sliding side door and Collins opened it and stepped outside.
“What are you doing?” Venta said.
Collins grabbed Venta beneath the arms as Tate took hold of his legs, and after looking around to make certain that they were unobserved, they began walking towards the water with Venta.
Venta realized with a growing sense of horror what was happening, and he threatened them while slapping weakly at Collins with his one good arm.
They reached the water in seconds, and after laying him on the ground, Collins spoke.
“This is what happens to blackmailers.”
Venta pleaded, then, promised them money, but after sharing a look, both Collins and Tate flipped Venta into the lake, where he went under, only to float to the top.
Unfortunately, for Venta, he was floating face down.
It took a little more than two minutes until the thrashing ended, and afterwards, Collins and Tate returned to the van.
Stu Tate felt horrible, not about Venta, but about Brady and the others. Their robbery of the armored car had gone wrong because he had given them up to Venta, and the guilt was eating at him.
“Why so sad,” Collins said. “Don’t tell me that you regret what we just did.”
“No, Venta got what he had coming, but I know the crew he tried to rob and they don’t deserve what happened to them. They’re not bad guys, not really.”
“You know, Tate, we make a good team. Why don’t we keep doing what we’re doing and split the take 50/50?”
Tate smiled as he cheered up.
“Alright, but on one condition,”
“What’s that?”
“I want to come along with you on the robberies sometimes; it was exciting that time I came with you.”
“Fine by me, Partner,” Collins said, as behind them, Venta’s body began to sink.
***
FBI Agents Curtis Weathersby and Ella Tyson walked into Interview Room 3 at FBI Headquarters in Burlington Vermont, and sat down across from Steve Beck.
They had just come from the hospital, but were unable to interview Brady, because after having surgery on his hip, Brady was taken to recovery, and would likely be unconscious until morning.
Steve was wearing an orange jumpsuit because his clothes had been bagged as evidence. The lawyer at his side had advised him to say nothing, but Steve felt compelled to explain himself, and was also hoping to make a deal.
Steve thought that he could trade his knowledge about the cameras Toni had installed in her tenants’ apartments, but the FBI had her laptop and the Bureau’s techs were already going over the videos and t
racing their source.
***
“A peephole?” Ella said.
“Yeah, you know, it’s just a hole really, but I would watch her when she was in the bathroom.”
Ella checked the file she had on Steve, and then made a face of disgust.
“Your daughter is sixteen.”
“She’ll be seventeen in a week and she’s only my stepdaughter.”
Steve’s attorney suggested once more that he be quiet, but Steve ignored him and went on, and over the course of an hour, he gave a detailed account of what had brought him to where he was.
As he spoke of his and Toni’s escalating depravity, both Curtis and Ella couldn’t help but see a glimpse of themselves in the story.
They had grown bolder in their sexual games, had even been caught having sex by a stranger, an old woman who nearly fainted from the sight, and to Curtis’s shame, he had been with Ella under his own roof, in the bed he shared with his wife.
It had all seemed great fun, as much fun as the sick things that Steve and Toni had done, and by the time Steve had finished speaking, both Curtis and Ella had squirmed uncomfortably in their seats more than once.
***
Several funerals were held in the coming days, including Harry Drake’s, and as they placed him in the earth, only one mourner attended.
Emma Watts saluted Harry with her whiskey flask, and then took a sip in his memory. When the service ended, she caught the bus back to her apartment and went on with her uneventful life.
CHAPTER 40
ONE YEAR LATER
Steve’s confession may have been good for his soul, but it did little to help his legal fortunes, and he was sentenced to eight years in an overcrowded prison.
He shared a cell with three other men, had zero privacy, and was raped on an ongoing basis,
If there was poetic justice in his fate, Steve remained unaware of it and blamed Toni for all his problems.
***
Meanwhile, Curtis and Ella ended their affair by mutual consent, while also moving on to new partnerships within the Bureau.
Unlike Steve Beck, Curtis was still with his wife, and was thankful every day that his foolishness hadn’t ended his marriage, as meanwhile, Ella had met a dentist while working on a case, and the two of them were talking marriage.
***
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