“It involves me giving you the key to an apartment and the combination to a safe.”
The man took a drag from his cigarette and smiled. “What’s in the safe?”
“Some cash.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
The Frenchman tilted his head from side to side. “A lot is a relative thing. What might be a lot to you, might not be so much to me.”
“At least twenty thousand . . . and some jewelry that’s worth more than that.”
He stabbed out his cigarette. “Why me?”
Rapp blinked his eyes nervously and said, “Because I’m an American and I don’t fucking know anyone in Paris. At least not anyone who’d be willing to walk into this bitch’s apartment and take what’s mine.”
“This money is yours?” he asked skeptically.
“Yeah . . . I earned it. We had an arrangement. She was supposed to pay me, but now she’s fucking screwing me.”
“What kind of deal?”
“That’s not important.” Rapp looked over each shoulder as if she’d walk up on them at any moment. “The bitch treats me like a slave. She’s got my passport in the safe, and my money, and she won’t give it to me.”
“So why don’t you just open it yourself and take what’s yours?”
“She doesn’t know that I know the combination and . . .” Rapp let his voice trail off as if he was too embarrassed to continue.
“And what?”
“She’s friends with my parents. Good friends. If they found out I’ve been sleeping with her they would shit.”
The Frenchman lit another cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “Let’s back up for a second. Why me? How did you find me?”
“I’m not a druggie,” Rapp said defensively. “I mean, I’m not hooked. I use them from time to time, but I’m not strung out. I have some friends at the university. Everybody knows this is a place where you can get hooked up. You and the fat guy across the street.” Rapp jerked his head in the man’s direction.
The Frenchman smiled broadly, revealing a pair of sharp canine teeth. “So why do you think I would want to help you steal from this woman?”
“You sell drugs. You already break the law and what you do day in and day out is a lot riskier than this. Here’s the deal,” Rapp said, pressing his case. “This bitch is rich. She isn’t going to miss any of this. We’re supposed to go to an art gallery exhibit tonight. We’ll be gone for at least two hours. I can give you the key, the security code, and the code for the safe. I don’t give a fuck what you take. I just want my cash and my passport.”
“You say there’s a lot of jewelry.”
“Yeah.”
“Jewelry is not easy to get rid of.”
“When I say jewelry I mean diamonds . . . little packets of them.” Rapp held his hands together. “I don’t know how much they’re worth, but it’s got to be a lot.”
The man nodded while he thought it over. “If I decide to do this I will take half the cash and all the jewels.”
“Shit!” Rapp came half out of his chair. “Why does everyone want to fuck me?”
“I don’t want to fuck you, I just want it to be worth my while.”
Rapp took a couple of deep breaths and settled down. “Fifty-fifty . . . that’s the only way I’ll do it. You want half the cash then I get half the diamonds.”
“I don’t think so. I am taking all the risk.”
“If I don’t bring this to you, you get nothing. Now you get half of a lot, and all you have to do is walk in there while we’re at the gallery tonight.”
“And how do I know you’re not setting me up?”
Rapp shook his head as if the idea was preposterous. “What . . . you think I work for the fucking police? They hire Americans now? If they wanted to bust you they’d roll up on you right now. I just want my money and my passport and some of those diamonds.”
The man was quiet for a long moment as he looked off into the distance. “How do you know you can trust me?”
“Easy . . . everybody around here knows who you are. If you don’t meet me tomorrow with my stuff, I’ll turn you over to the cops. They’ll know where to find you.”
“Then you will be implicated.”
“I’ll play the dumb American and tell them you got me high and I blacked out. I woke up and my wallet was gone. I had the key and codes written down on a piece of paper in my wallet.” Rapp stopped and waved his hands. “But listen, we don’t need to go down that road. There’s more than enough for us to split. No need to get greedy. You do it tonight, we meet up two days from now right here, and we’re both happy men.”
