an animal, I swear.”
DeJuan said, “Man spent his formative years hanging with sheep. What you expect?”
Kate felt the tension building. She couldn’t hold it in any longer and said, “You’ve got your money. Why don’t you take it and get the hell out of here?”
“Whoa,” Teddy said, and grinned. “What the hell’s got into you?” He winked at Celeste and she smiled. “I don’t think she likes us.”
“I don’t think about you one way or the other,” Kate said. She made eye contact with Luke, could see he was worried.
“Oh, you don’t, huh?” Teddy said. “What’s the matter? We not good enough for you?”
“She wants us to leave,” Celeste said. “Then what’s she going to do, call the police?” Celeste looked across the table at her. “You going to tell them what we look like?”
“ ’Course she is,” Teddy said. “She’s going to tell them everything about us.”
Celeste said, “My-oh-my, what should we do with ’em?”
Teddy looked at her and flashed a lunatic grin. “You know what we’re going to do.”
Kate could see he got pleasure out of this-making them squirm. She glanced at Luke and then at Teddy. “You’re not going to do anything,” she said, trying to convince herself. She was afraid now, but smiled at Luke, trying to ease the tension.
Celeste said, “I’d be worried if I were them.”
“Don’t listen to that,” Jack said. “They’re just trying to scare you.”
Teddy glanced over at Jack and said, “The fuck do you know?” Now he looked across the table at Kate and said, “He tell you what happen in Arizona?”
Jack said, “That’s old news.”
Teddy ignored him and said, “We hit A.J.’ s-this rich-folk gourmet market in the foothills of the Catalinas. Planned it for Sunday evening, get their take from the weekend. Do it with a lot of people around, we don’t attract attention. Me and him,” indicating DeJuan, “filled up carts like real shoppers.”
He shoveled a forkful of beans in his mouth and kept talking.
“The office was upstairs, so Jack and I go up and open the door and catch the manager fooling around with this young cute thing, had her blouse off, man pawing her sweater puppies. They both looked at us and manager says, ‘Can I help you?’ And Jack says, ‘Yeah, you can take your hands off her and show us the safe.’ The manager says, ‘Is this some kind of a joke?’ Jack pulls his Colt Python and says, ‘Does this look like a joke to you?’
“Jack went in the other room and cleaned out the safe and I duct-taped the manager and the girl together and watched the door. After about ten minutes, I went to check on him, and he wasn’t there. Disappeared with $257,000. Left me standing there holding my dick. Pardon my French.”
Teddy glanced across the room at Jack. “That sound about right to you?”
What Teddy left out-the most important part-was the police showing up. Jack had cleaned out the safe, filled two A.J.’ s grocery bags, the kind with paper handles. Glanced out the window behind the store. There was a driveway for delivery trucks to pull up and beyond it a brick wall that bordered the employee parking lot. He watched two Tucson police cars cruise in at high speed, lights flashing, and hit their brakes.
He crossed the room, went into the manager’s office. The manager and his half-clothed assistant were still on the couch, duct-taped together. He didn’t see Teddy at the door and he left the office and walked into the hallway. He heard the din: sounds and voices coming up the stairs from the market floor. He followed the
hallway to the end, pushed open a steel door that had a sign that read: DO NOT OPEN ALARM WILL SOUND.
It didn’t.
And now he was running across the green metal roof of the strip mall over Starbucks, Target, Blockbuster, Subway, Home Depot. He hid behind a giant air-conditioning unit, catching his breath. He looked back, saw a cop in a tan uniform appear on the roof a hundred yards away, holding his gun with two hands, swinging his arms in a short jerking motion like cops on TV.
Jack opened a roof hatch, slid his hands through the handles of the paper bags and climbed down a steel- rung ladder into the Home Depot stockroom. He saw boxes arranged on huge floor-to-ceiling shelves. He could see a guy driving a Hi-Lo across the room and walked in the opposite direction, went out a swinging door into the showroom with his two A.J.’ s grocery bags full of money and kept going.
Jack walked four blocks to the Adobe Flats motel, checked in and poured the money on the queen-size bed and counted it. There was $166,000 (although A. J’s would later say it was $257,000 and that was the amount quoted in newspaper articles).
He took a wad of bills and folded it and put it in his pocket and put the rest back in the bags. He stood on the bed and reached up and pushed a ceiling tile in. The room had a drop ceiling. He put the money up in the space and replaced the tile.
He heard sirens outside and got off the bed and went to the window and pulled the curtains apart and saw two police cars speed by on Campbell, lights flashing. If they got split up, they were supposed to meet at the Rodeo Bar on Speedway. But first he had to have something to eat. He was starving, hadn’t had a thing since morning and it was going on six in the evening. He walked out of the motel and crossed the motor court and went two blocks to a taco stand with picnic tables he’d seen earlier, called Guero’s. He wanted an ice-cold Dos Equis for his parched throat and a plate of chicken burritos and beans and rice for his empty stomach but got a couple of Glock nines in his face instead.
Jack never found out who dimed him but suspected the old dude who checked him in the motel. He was watching TV when Jack came in the office, a western-dandy type with a waxed moustache, wearing a lot of turquoise and silver jewelry.
DeJuan said, “Motherfucker got greedy, decide to take it all for his self.”
Teddy grinned, showing a mouthful of beans. He said, “Now you know why he’s over there and we’re over here.”
They didn’t have a clue and Jack wasn’t going to explain it. He felt like a fool for letting these clowns get the jump on him. Never saw it coming. But he had to admit, DeJuan was a lot smarter than he seemed.
What bothered Jack as much as losing his share of the money was finding out he had a kid. Never thought he’d be a dad, marriage not being something he ever wanted any part of. And yet, he found himself studying Luke, checking him out to see if there was any resemblance. Looked at his features: his nose and eyes and ears and forehead and cheekbones. Jack thought he favored Kate more than him. Had her fair complexion and thick full hair and thin build. But it was Luke’s hands that caught his attention. They were his hands-only a smaller version. Luke being his kid wasn’t going to change anything. It was way too late for that now.
Jack thought about his life and wondered: If he could do it over, would he do it different? And the answer was-no. He pictured himself belly-chained like he was, going back to prison-a two-time loser-doing ten years this time and it scared the hell out of him. He had to figure a way out of this somehow.
He watched the group at the table like some dysfunctional sitcom family. Kate got up without saying anything and moved into the main room.
Teddy said, “Where you think you’re going?”
“Upstairs,” Kate said. “I’ve got to get Luke some clean clothes.”
“The hell you are,” Teddy said.
Kate ignored him. She went to the stairs and started up.
“Hey,” Teddy said, “you hear what I told you?”
DeJuan got up. “I’m on it.” He came around the table and went after her.
She was in Luke’s room, taking a pair of jeans out of his dresser, when DeJuan came in, standing in the doorway, the shotgun in his hands like it was glued to him. He sat at Luke’s desk, watching her.
Kate glanced at him. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
DeJuan smiled. “You not? What a relief.”
