“Good. And what you have to do right now is bring me what you took today.”
Stuckey creaked back in his wicker chair. He wanted to protest but was unable to think of anything. “It’s just little shit,” he said finally. “Like a keepsake. Something to remember Mr. Ivy by.”
Rivera looked to the kitchen cabinets and back. Stuckey sighed. He got up and went over to them, opened one and came back with a paper shopping bag. He’s just like a kid, Rivera thought. Once he was caught, Stuckey would always give it up. He opened the bag and turned it over. Loose bills dropped out, women’s costume jewelry, a Masonic lodge ring with small diamonds, a man’s watch. Lastly, Chester Ivy’s wedding ring clattered on the table, too large for him to wear for many years.
“Maestro, look,” Stuckey said. “From that time with the Nesbitts, I thought—”
“I made a mistake with the Nesbitts. I let you get away with it, so now you think you can take things without telling me. Get me a kitchen knife.”
Stuckey dropped the empty bag and stepped back to the kitchen counter. He rattled cutlery in the dish rack and came back with a paring knife. Rivera took it and picked up the watch. It wasn’t a Rolex or a Piaget, but it was a good one. From the weight he knew it was real gold. He began cutting along the rib of leather where the band was attached.
“Have a seat.” Stuckey again sat opposite. The strap fell off, and Rivera started on the other half.
“I’m not mad you took this,” he said. “You do things for people. Help them go to the toilet, get out of bed. And I know the pay isn’t great. What’s going to keep people in this line if there isn’t a little something else? A little profit-sharing? I understand, Dennis. I started out just like you. Even lower. I washed dishes at a hotel, then I cleaned toilets. Scraped out garbage cans on a cruise ship. Then landscaping. Trimming hedges, spreading mulch. You don’t know what real work is until you dig drainage ditches in this climate. In the summer.”
“Not me, man.” Stuckey watched the knife. “It’s not part of my work-study plan.”
“No, you wouldn’t be good at it. Okay—”
Rivera finished cutting off the watchband. He held the timepiece between his thumb and forefinger. “You have a little money you found. Maybe a hundred dollars Mr. Ivy put in a drawer and forgot. The jewelry isn’t valuable. The rings you could pawn for maybe fifty dollars. But you can never be sure, Dennis. When the family shows up, sometimes they know where everything is. If something is missing, you can have trouble. With Ivy it’s not a problem. The son kept him down here to get him out of the way. He stopped thinking about his father a long time ago. But you don’t know that. Are you listening to me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“What I’m saying, Dennis, is always tell me first. Every time, no exceptions. You pick out what you want and show it to me before the family comes. Not some of it, all of it. I put it someplace safe, in case they ask. ‘Where’s my father’s watch? What happened to my grandmother’s amber necklace?’ I go get it for them. I tell them I had it stored for safe keeping. You know how they react? They’re grateful. They tell others, and All Hands on Deck gets more clients.”
Stuckey looked up from the watch and nodded solemnly. “I get it.”
“Good. Now this—” Rivera wagged the watch “—is worth more. Maybe a thousand or fifteen hundred. Do you want it?”
“I was pretty sure—”
“Do you want this watch, Dennis?”
“I want the watch.”
“And you want the job.”
“Hey, look, I get what you say. I tell you every time. I show you—”
“Do you want this job?”
Knowing something was coming, Stuckey took a breath and faced away. He looked back at Rivera. “Yeah, I do,” he said. “This is good for me, I want the job.”
“Good. This is a test to prove to me you mean it. You see I took off the band.”
“So you can weigh it?” Stuckey looked up again from the watch. “They buy just the watch part, I get it.”
“I cut off the band because it’s leather,” Rivera said. “Meat. I respect your beliefs and values. You’re a vegetarian. If you want to stay with All Hands on Deck, you have to eat this watch. But I don’t want to make you do something against your values.”
Stuckey stared at him. “Eat the watch.”
“You get to keep it, and the money and rings. But you have to swallow the watch in front of me. Right now. You can eat it with tofu if that’s better for you, I don’t care. You eat a high-fiber diet, you should pass it pretty soon. There’s no battery in this one, and it’s real gold, it won’t hurt you. That’s what you have to do.”
“Swallow a fucking watch—”
“Yes or no, right now.”
Stuckey looked around the small house and back to the money on the table. Once he was home, he had put on his earring. It was probably one of the diamond studs he had taken from Mrs. Nesbitt’s jewelry case two weeks ago. He touched it now, thinking, then grabbed the watch from Rivera.
“What time is it?” Rivera asked.
“Huh?”
“On the watch. What time is it?”
Stuckey looked. “Ten to ten.”
“That’s your lucky number, Dennis. Double tens.”
Very quickly Stuckey put the watch in his mouth. He worked with his tongue to position it, got the bottle of soda and filled his mouth. Looking at Rivera, he threw his head back and swallowed. He sat forward, alarmed, following the watch’s progress down.
Rivera stood. “I’ll let you get back to your dinner.” Stuckey was still assessing the change in his condition. “Time is money, Dennis,” he said.
