First Schreiner sent a registered letter on his Robert R Schreiner Attorney at Law stationery, telling Samir he had a week to give Karen Delaney back her $299,560 or he'd file a complaint with the Oakland County Circuit Court. The way Schreiner told it, he went to work a few days later and there were three dark-haired guys in his office who looked like they were beamed from the streets of Fallujah. They surrounded him as he walked in. The one who did the talking wore a track suit and had a lot of chains, and looked like he worked at a party store. He told Schreiner if he filed a lawsuit or ever contacted Mr. Fakir again, they'd come back and break his legs. This was the warning.
Schreiner asked them who they thought they were talking to? He was an officer of the court and if they threatened him he'd have them arrested for breaking and entering and intent to do great bodily harm.
That's when the guy in the track suit stepped in and hit him in the side and took the wind out of him. Schreiner said he bent over, trying to draw a breath. He told Karen the whole story when he stopped over the next day, moving like he was in pain, showing her white tape the doctor wrapped around his fractured ribs.
Karen said, 'Did you call the police?'
Schreiner shook his head. 'I'm going to file your lawsuit next week.'
'If you do, it's going to be your last.' She admired Schreiner's tenacity, but there was no way she could go through with it. 'Next time they're not going to break something, they're going to put you out of business.' She wasn't going to let Schreiner get hurt or killed over the money. She'd have to figure out another way to get it back.
He said, 'Fuck them. They can't get away with this.'
She said, 'I agree with you, but it's not worth it.'
They became friends after that. They had dinner occasionally and smoked weed and watched movies on Schreiner's plasma TV.
Then she met Lou.
Chapter Five
Megan had come up with the idea of robbing gamblers of their winnings one day when she was handing $9,600 in crisp, just-off- the-press $100 bills to a guy named Lou Starr.
He'd said something dumb like, 'Be still my heart, I think I'm in love,' staring at her chest. She heard a lot of bad lines so that was nothing special. Most guys took their shot and moved on, but he wouldn't give up, this guy who looked fifty-five-older than her father-wearing a toupee, she was sure of it.
'Everybody bet the Yankees,' he said.
Megan said, 'Except you. How'd you know?'
'I have a system.'
'Well it obviously works,' Megan said. 'I have to tell you though, you're responsible for paying your own taxes.'
'I'm going to run right home, fill out a 1099 and send it to my Uncle.' He gave her a big grin. 'I'm Lou. Want to come upstairs, see the Presidential Suite? It's got a hot tub. We could have some fun.'
'I've seen it,' Megan said, wondering if Lou thought he was irresistible or something. Like she was going to go up and bang this little ape on her break.
The next time she saw him he was with a redhead, who even Megan had to admit was a knockout, the redhead standing next to the little guy, towering over him in four-inch heels. Megan wanted to say, hey Mr. Starr, do you still want to take me up to your room have some fun?
Lou Starr had taken his money and walked away, but the idea of robbing the winners stayed in her head. And the more she thought about it the more sense it made. People won money playing blackjack and craps and roulette. People won money betting the sports- book. They won and came to Megan to cash out and she handed them stacks of bills. It was amazing what people told her too, offering things about themselves: what they did, where they worked, where they lived, like Lou, who had a house on Walnut Lake in Bloomfield Hills.
Anybody who won more than $1,200, the casino was supposed to deduct the taxes. Megan had a chart that showed her how much to take out, and the gambler had to fill out a form. Everybody except the regulars. If Megan knew the guest was a regular she could waive the tax form.
Guests like Lou Starr, once she got to know them, could take home the full amount they won and pay their own taxes. So what would they do with the money? Put it in the bank? No way. They'd hide it somewhere in their house. It was fun money. They were going to spend it.
She pitched the idea to Bobby, the guy she was seeing.
He said, 'Sweetie, that's genius.' Then he hugged her and looked into her eyes and said, 'Megan, honey, you've got it all: beauty, brains and balls.'
They would work out the logistics later and come up with a plan. They'd start with Lou Starr and see how it went.
Megan and Bobby found the Starr residence, a ranch house right on the water. It was fun. They felt like spies, parking and watching the place. Bobby had even thought to bring binoculars. They snuck through a wooded area and went down to the lake behind the house. They used the tall reeds for cover, crouching at the water's edge. A line of little ducks swam by following their mother. Megan said, 'Oh, look at all the little duckies. Aren't they cute.' She told Bobby her mother loved ducks and had a house full of duck things: decoys and paintings and little duck knicknacs.
Bobby said, 'That's really great. Thanks for telling me. I forget are we here on a nature hike or are we casing a fucking house?'
Bobby had no patience and would get pissed off at little things, but she liked him. He was real funny too. She watched Lou Starr and the redhead from the casino she now knew was Karen, his fiancee, through the binoculars. They were sitting on the deck behind the house talking. They looked like they were having an argument. Karen got up and went in the house. Lou turned and looked at her and said something.
Bobby decided they'd go in the next night, Bobby and a guy named Lloyd, he met in a bar. Lloyd had done time in the Oakland County Jail. Megan thought he was weird and creepy-looking. Bobby said it wasn't a personality contest, okay? He liked Lloyd, said he was real, no pretensions, an old-fashioned American. Best of all, Bobby said Lloyd took direction well, did what Bobby wanted him to do.
Megan asked Bobby what Lloyd did time for and Bobby said, assault, beat a guy up for cutting him off in traffic. Lloyd followed him to his house in Birmingham and broke his jaw. Megan said she wanted to go with them. Bobby said no way, Lou Starr knew who she was. It was way too risky.
That was the last she'd heard from him. They were supposed to meet at Bobby's the next morning, split the money three ways and plan the next one. So, where the hell was he? She'd left six messages on Bobby's machine and hadn't heard back from him. He could've been in jail for all she knew.
Megan had met Bobby at the Post Bar downtown one Friday night. The place packed as usual. Bobby introduced himself and they started talking and found out they had some things in common. Bobby liked to play blackjack, his most fun thing in the whole world, and Megan was a cashier at a casino.
'How do you like that for karma?' Bobby said. 'This is wild. I'll bet you've cashed my chips, and here we are together.' Megan thought he was overdoing it a little. After a few drinks, Bobby said, 'Ever fed a piranha?' 'Not in the last few hours,' Megan said. 'Want to?'
'Do you really have one,' Megan said, 'or are you giving me a line?'
'I really have one,' Bobby said.
Thirty minutes later they were in Bobby's apartment, standing next to his fish tank.
Megan said, 'What do you feed him?' 'They're not too particular,' Bobby said. 'That's Larry,' Bobby said, handing her a cosmo in a martini glass. He had one too. 'I named him after my former boss. He has razor-sharp teeth too, and devours his enemies.'
Megan was staring into the tropical fish tank and Bobby was behind her, pressing himself against her, pointing at an ugly little fish with a red belly.
