people riding to the hounds, going to formal parties, and all that stuff, and I liked to look at the photos of the women who just got hitched. You could tell they were marrying money, which is okay, but some of them weren't as pretty as me and didn't have the bod. But what the hell, life is unfair, everyone knows that.
I'm telling you all this to help explain why I decided to go in on Willie Brevoort's caper. It was the heaviest thing I had ever done, and I knew that if we got busted, we'd all do hard time. But it was a chance, you see-maybe the only chance I'd ever have to get out of the rat race and go straight. Because if it went down like Willie said, we'd all be on easy street.
I talked it over with Laura Gunther and told her how I felt.
'Yeah, kid,' she said, 'I know where you're coming from. it could be the answer to your dreams, and it could also be the end of the road.
You know that, don't you?'
'Sure I do,' I said. 'And if I had a better choice, I'd take it. But the only other choice I have is hitting the clubs again or going back to hustling conventions. So I think I'll gamble on Willie. How about you?
' She sighed. 'I guess I might as well,' she said finally.
'Right now I've got nothing in my future but standing on my feet all day in that shitty shop and boffing Big Bobby Gurk at night, that asshole.
Yeah, I guess I'll play along.'
So we gave Willie a call, and he came over to my place and we started planning.
This wasn't going to be a simple job like when you smash a jewelry store window, grab a Rolex, and run. This was a real scenario with a lot of details and tricky timing, and everything had to go just right or we'd all get racked up. So we spent plenty of time discussing possibilities and how we'd handle things that might go wrong.
We didn't get it all figured out at one meeting, of course.
We got together almost every evening, and gradually it all came out smart and tight. The one objection I had was using my place as headquarters.
'It's got to be, Jess,' Willie argued. 'My condo is too small, and so is Laura's. We need a safe house, and you've got two bedrooms. We can't rent a hotel suite, can we?'
'I don't know,' I said doubtfully. 'I don't think I can handle it by myself.'
'Not to worry, Willie said. 'I'll be right here with you until it's over. Okay?'
So I agreed. Talk about your Fatal Errors!
Everything was going along fine, and we were getting to the point where we were ready to set a definite date for the Crime of the Century when Willie showed up at one of our meetings looking worried.
'Something's happening,' he said, 'and I don't like it. I didn't want to mention it to you ladies because I thought I might be imagining it.
But now I know it's for real. About a week ago I thought I was being tailed. I kept seeing this black Toyota Camry everywhere I went.
Always driven by the same man, a little y who wears wire-rimmed specs.
Finally I decided I gu better check it out, so I jotted down his plate number. One of the members of my private club is a cop, and I slipped him five yards to have it traced. The Camry is registered to a shtarker I've heard about who's got a name so long that no one can pronounce it.
So he's called Teddy O and he works as an enforcer for Tomasino, a Miami shylock. From what I hear, Teddy O. is not a nice man.'
'Why would he be following you?' I asked.
It was the first time I ever saw Willie lose his cool, and it scared me.
'Why?' he shouted. 'Why? Use your goddamn head! I don't owe Tomasino, so Teddy O. must have come up from Miami on a special job for someone else. And who could that be but Big Bobby Gurk?
All these South Florida heavyweights are buddy-buddy.'
'You think Gurk is keeping an eye on you?' Laura said.
'What else?' Willie said. 'He thinks the ZAP Project is still alive, and there's a buck to be made. So he puts this Teddy O. on my tail, hoping I'll lead him to the Mcwhortle chemist.
Then Gurk moves in and takes over. I know how that fat slob works.' ii So what do we do now, Willie?' I asked worriedly. 'Call the whole thing off?'
He looked at me. 'Not a chance. I'm just telling you ladies that it's suddenly become a lot hairier, and if you want to cut out, you're entitled. But I'm going to stick with the plan.
Gurk may have the muscle ve got the brain. If I can't out-finagle that stupe but, I might as well go back to pimping. No, I'm not giving up just because a hatchet man is on the scene. if push comes to shove, I'll figure a way to handle Gurk and Teddy O. Now what about you two?'
Laura and I exchanged a glance. I was impressed by Willie's confidence, and I admired his sass. I think Laura did, too.
'I'll stick,' she said. 'What the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound.'
I nodded. 'I'm still in, Willie,' I said.
He smiled at us. 'You ladies are the real thing,' he said.
'I love you. We'll come out of this smelling like roses, you'll see.
Now, Jessica, I want you to find the Barrow home and learn the neighborhood. Not only the main drags but the back roads.
Make a couple of trips from the Barrow place to here at legal speeds, and time how long it takes. This whole caper is going to depend on timing.'
So I did what he said. The Barrows lived in a nice clean development, a real family place where everyone seemed to have little kids and big lawns. There was nothing Town amp; Country about it, but it looked solid and respectable, and you just knew that no one who lived there had problems.
I drove around and learned how to get in and out of the development and the fastest route back to my home. I kept track of the times and how long it would take even if traffic was heavy or I got stopped by red lights. I also found another route that took a little longer, a two-lane road with no traffic lights.
On the second day I did this, I drove back to my home in the late afternoon and as I turned into my street, a black Toyota Camry passed me, going the other way. it had just gone by my house. I was spooked me model that Teddy O when I saw that car, the sa shadow Willie Brevoort. the hit man, was using to of a good But that wasn't what set me shaking. I got a look at the guy driving it, and like Willie had said, he was a small gink wearing wire- rimmed cheaters. I had seen him before.
He was John R. Thompson, who had talked his way the property tax appraiser into my house to count the rooms-he said. I started e me, I know how to do it. cursing-and believe The moment I got home I looked up the property directory… he tax appraiser's office in the telephone number was different from the one Thompson had make absolutely certain I had given me to call. just to aid been diddled, I phoned the legit number. They s med John R. Thompson. they had no appraiser na at myself I could scream.'hung up, so furious had let that little prick con me, and it made me feel like a moron. I thought I was street-smart, and I fell for a crude scam like that.
Then I started thinking. If Teddy O. knew where I lived and had cased my home, he and Big Bobby Gurk would know I was connected with Willie Brevoort and the chemist at Mcwhortle Laboratory. g time. I knew I'd I thought about my choices a Ion have to tell Willie and Laura that our 'safe house' wasn't so safe anymore.
But before I did that, I decided, I better call a real estate agent and get my beautiful home listed. I had a feeling I wouldn't be living in it much longer.
DR. CHERRYNOBLE you would think, wouldn't you, that being a practicing psychiatrist with all my working hours filled with the problems of my patients, I would welcome a placid and trouble-free private life. But that wasn't the case at all. Sometimes I wondered if problems are necessary to feel truly alive. And if they don't come to us, we create them.
All I know is that my existence would have been unutterably empty and sterile if it hadn't been for my relationship with Chas Todd. My work was satisfying on a professional level, but it didn't totally engage me, I wanted something more. I suspected it might be a need for personal drama.
Chas asked for my advice on how he might assist his brother and how best to handle the intention of his niece, Tania, to run away from home. What was most significant to me was his confidence in my judgment and his willingness to seek my help.
It was an added bond between us, another signal of our growing intimacy.
