Corbin raised one eyebrow. “I find that incredibly disturbing.”
“What? That I watch the business channel or that they would say something like that?”
“Both.”
Corbin’s phone rang. It was Kak. “Small conference.”
Molly sighed. “Speaking of the disturbed. Fun’s over.” Molly moved toward the door. As she did, Corbin’s officemate raised his hand to get her attention. “Don’t talk to me new guy,” she said, as she left the room.
Corbin downed his coffee and went to Kak’s office. Kak was in a bitter mood.
The following day Corbin and Alvarez cruised up I-95, opening the rest of the bank accounts. Unlike the relationship between Alvarez and Beckett, Corbin and Alvarez got along well. This made the day go smoothly and neither found themselves the slightest bit nervous. Still, the real test wouldn’t come until they returned to collect the money.
The next morning, Corbin called dozens of banks to get the credit cards they would need. He would have preferred making these calls from his couch, but he didn’t know if cell phone calls could be traced to particular locations. Thus, he made the calls from the scenic overlook on the GW Parkway overlooking Georgetown. It was raining and somewhat foggy, though he could see the row of restaurants that lined the river on the other side. Two folders and a duffle bag sat on the seat next to him. The first folder contained personal and account information for each of the identities they had stolen. Corbin had meticulously summarized this information on a series of forms and charts. The second folder included information on hundreds of credit card companies and the cards they offered. That information too was summarized, with individual cell phone numbers matched up to individual names and specific credit card companies so that Corbin wouldn’t use the same cell phone or identification twice with any company. The duffle bag contained each of the cell phones they had acquired.
Corbin hated creating so much documentation, but he had no choice. He intended to destroy everything as soon as he could. In the meantime, he began dialing.
“You seem a lot happier lately,” Blue proclaimed, as he poured Corbin a beer.
“Do I?”
“For a couple weeks now. You finally quit your job?”
“No, but I’ve been working on a new project I’m enjoying. It gives me a lot of energy to finally put my mind to work again.”
“And here I thought it might be your lady friend?”
Corbin’s “lady friend” came regularly to hear him play. He first noticed her because she brought a single pink rose with her and set it on the table, something she’d done every night since. Despite his fascination with her, they’d only spoken briefly, so briefly in fact, he didn’t even know her name. Tonight, she sat at one of the well-lit tables under a cone of yellow light, which gave her silver mini-dress a fiery appearance. As usual, a single pink rose lay on the table.
“Know what, Blue? Tonight’s gonna be special.”
Blue smiled. “A’right, if you gonna talk to that young lady, then you gots to do something special tonight. Not nex’ week, tonight. You ready to show me what cha got?”
For weeks, Blue had been pushing Corbin to expand his musical horizons. Corbin resisted on the grounds he didn’t want to bore the audience with music they didn’t know, to which Blue always responded: “they gonna know it if you make ’em feel it.”
“I don’t have anything new prepared,” Corbin demurred.
“That’s a good start. Get your ass on stage and just do it. Trust yourself.”
Corbin looked across the room at the stage. He set down his beer. “All right Blue, it’s time for something new.”
A few minutes later, Corbin sat down with his guitar before the microphone. He’d spoken to the band on his way to his seat. Being Friday, Blue had assembled a larger band than the one which normally played during the week. This gave Corbin considerable freedom to experiment. Corbin looked out at the audience sitting just beyond the silver stage lights. The audience grew each week. Blue attributed this to Corbin, but Corbin never gave it much thought. Tonight’s audience numbered about two dozen, plus the woman with the pink rose.
“Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages, tonight we’re gonna try something new. Mind the exits. . just in case.”
The audience laughed.
“Before we start, let me give you a preview of where we’re headed.” Behind Corbin, the drummer quietly brushed his snare drum. “You might recognize the baseline as ‘Take Five.’ When everything feels right, we’re gonna lay a little ‘Terminal Frost’ from Pink Floyd right over ‘Take Five.’ I always wanted to see what would happen if we did that.”
Blue smiled. Corbin picked a challenging combination, as these two songs didn’t naturally merge. Blue closed his eyes and waited to hear if Corbin could pull it off.
Chapter 15
The sun beat down on the rental car as Corbin and Alvarez sat outside the mailbox store. The first mailbox waited inside to be emptied. Alvarez nervously turned its key over and over in his hand.
“There’s no danger. You’re just picking up your mail,” Corbin said soothingly.
“If it’s so easy, why don’t you go in there?”
“Because I can’t show up on the surveillance tapes. You know that.” Corbin tapped his thumb against the steering wheel. “Why is this bothering you? You didn’t complain when we opened the accounts?”
“No one was looking for us then; no one could have been looking for us. This is different. For all we know, they’re waiting for us, and I’m supposed to walk in there and present myself on a platter? You’ll have to excuse me if it takes a few minutes to get my courage up before I step out of this car.” His mouth was dry.
“You’re being irrational. No one’s figured this out.”
“How do you know one of the credit card companies hasn’t figured it out? What if they called the cops and the cops are
“First of all, none of the credit card companies has a clue. If they did, someone would have called the cell phone numbers I gave them to verify information. I not only used the cell phones as home and work numbers, but also as employer reference numbers.”
“What if they contacted them directly? What if they had the real numbers?”
Corbin pursed his lips. “No one in my office can take a shit without everyone knowing. All they do is sit around, drink coffee and gossip. If somebody got called by their credit card company, it would be all over the office. Nothing like that’s happened. As for calling the cops, the cops don’t care. Not to mention, there’s
Alvarez took several deep breaths. He looked over his shoulder toward the store. “What if the clerk calls the cops when I get in there?” he asked, before quickly adding, “I’m not nervous, I just want instruction. What do I do if they start acting all strange?”
“Stay calm, it’s your box. You have the right to get your own mail. All you need to do is walk in there, empty the box, and get out. Don’t take off the glasses. Don’t take off the ball cap. Don’t talk to anyone unless spoken to, and then only respond in kind. Get the mail and get back out as efficiently as possible. If the clerk calls the cops, just finish your job and leave. Even if they have the cops on speed dial, we’ll be long gone before the cops can even assign someone to follow up on the call, much less show up.”
“Security guards?”
“Stores like this can’t afford them.”
Alvarez took another deep breath. “Ok, I’m going. Do you see any cops?”
Corbin looked out the rear window. “All clear.”
“Here goes.”
The tattoo and piercing-covered clerkbarely noticed Alvarez enter the store. He was working on a crossword
