Freddie laughed. “Shut the fuck up. I recognise you. You look real different, but you’re the woman who gave me the note. You can’t con a conman. I knew she’d try something.”
“Seriously—” started the other one, but Freddie pointed the gun at her.
“Save it, Sister. Ha! It was a good try, I’ll give you that. I’m afraid you got to get up earlier than this to get the drop on Freddie Draper.”
The two guards looked at each other and shared a smirk.
“What’s so funny?”
Freddie felt cold metal below his right ear. He glanced back to see the short maid they’d passed in the hall had a gun pressed to his head. She released the safety.
“But—”
“Yeah,” said the right guard. “She does that.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Dionne hung up the phone. She was standing in the living room, with Arthur Faser sitting down on the couch beside her. The big screen in front of them was streaming the feed from the prison.
Arthur looked up at her expectantly. “Well?”
She nodded. “They got Freddie.”
Arthur clenched his fist. “Yes! Did they get the money too?”
She nodded. “According to Joy, she reckons it’s about two million in cash.”
Arthur’s eyes widened. “Holy crap!”
“Don’t get excited. It isn’t our money, and it definitely isn’t your money.”
Arthur looked hurt. “I wasn’t thinking … I’m just saying, it’s good news. The plan is going well.”
Dionne didn’t answer, she just sat down on the arm of the couch and looked up at the screen.
The plan was going well. So far.
Diller had assured her that he had successfully managed to hijack the Celestial Church of New Hope, and the Sisters had acquired Freddie, having managed to use his own paranoia against him. Dionne didn’t know how Zoya had managed to intercept the phone call, but she had.
Smithy, it seems, had done an excellent job at getting Freddie jumping at shadows. His second role in proceedings also seemed to be on course. Zoya, having worked flat out for two days, had managed to create the truly big surprise that they needed, and now she was on her way to making sure it worked. She needed to be out in the Winnebago for that to happen, and Dionne knew she was asking a lot of her. Thing is, she was asking a lot of them all, and more than anything she hated sitting here with nothing to do.
There were an awful lot of moving parts, but they seemed to be clicking perfectly into place. So far.
And yet …
Dionne looked at the screen. Bunny stood outside his cell as if he were waiting for something. The angle of the camera meant she couldn’t see his face very well. Still, he looked nervous.
Like a man waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Chapter Forty-Five
After far too much procrastinating and prognosticating for her liking, CO Lucile Jacobs had rounded up a couple of the young guards to ship the crate up to the warden’s office. She’d been given the keys to put it in there. They’d rung the warden and got a rocket for their trouble. Apparently, the man was expecting a big box of snakes. He acted like anyone who questioned that was the weird one.
She unlocked the door, reached her hand in and turned on the lights. She tried not to look at the big glass cases full of snakes on the far wall; it was none of her beeswax.
“Come on, boys – get it in here, and for the love of criminy, don’t touch anything. You know the warden is …” She tried to find a word that wasn’t going to sound bad if repeated back. “Particular. He’s a very particular man.”
“Fucking crazy,” corrected Eddie Willis with a big dumb grin as he led the crate in.
The other end of it was being manoeuvred by the new kid – Chad something.
“Eddie Willis,” said Lucile sharply, “you keep your mouth shut. Have some sense.”
“Relax, Lucile. It’s not like he’s here to hear me say it.” He looked around the office. “Where do you want it?”
“I don’t know.” She scanned the room. “Put it up there, in front of his desk.”
She thought to herself there was every chance the man would complain about that too, but the feng shui of reptile containers wasn’t in her job description. She’d only agreed to cover this shift because Doug had relatives in town. He was going to owe her big time.
The two boys did as instructed.
“Alright, c’mon, then,” said Lucile. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Hold up,” said Eddie. “I want to take a look at these snakes.”
“Snakes?” said Chad, sounding alarmed.
“Yeah,” said Eddie. “What did you think we were moving?”
“Skates.”
“Why in the hell would the man want a big box of skates?” asked Lucile.
“Why would he want snakes?” said the big fella, looking very nervous.
“He’s into them, big time,” said Eddie. He pointed a thumb at Chad. “This guy really is new, huh, Lucile?” Then he pointed at the glass enclosures on the wall. “What you think those are, Chad?”
The big guy squinted hard, straining to focus, and then suddenly stumbled backwards. “Jesus!”
Lucile rushed over, not to stop him from falling, but to prevent the big lug from crashing into the wall and damaging anything. “Watch where you’re going, you big dummy!”
Eddie was laughing and Lucile felt suddenly bad.
“You should consider getting glasses, son. You don’t seem to see so good?”
“I forgot my contacts,” admitted Chad, looking sheepish.
Lucile turned around to see Eddie standing beside the glass enclosures. “Eddie Willis, you get away from there this instant, you hear me? Do not smudge that glass. You want to go to the zoo, San Diego has a good one. Don’t be a fool and get us all fired.”
“Alright, Lucile. I just—”
“Now!”
Lucile was surprised by the ferocity of her own voice. It seemed she wasn’t alone in thinking that, as the two young men looked shocked.
Eddie held up his hands and headed for the door. “Alright. Sorry. I’m out of here. C’mon, Chad, we need to get moving.”
Chad nodded,
