“I-I’m sorry.”
“He’s sorry,” the man with the gun chuckled. He pushed the gun into my throat. “What you going to do about it?”
“Brendan,” I said. “Could you give him the money?”
That made the man laugh harder. “It don’t work that way, smart guy. You stole from me, now you going to pay me back. You got any money?”
I shook my head.
“Then you owe me. I have a job I need help on and you’re it, smart guy. You gonna help me steal some money.”
“No,” I shook my head.
“No?” he raised an eyebrow. “It’s okay to steal my money but not someone else’s?” Then, low and mean, “You say yes right now or I blow your goddamn head off.”
Brendan lurched forward, his eyes wide with excitement.
“Do what he says, Nicky!”
I didn’t say anything. The man with the gun growled., “You think I’m joking?”
I shrugged.
“Okay, smart guy,” he said. “You don’t care about yourself, is that it? What if I take your brother inside and blow his head off instead?”
Brendan was screaming at me. “My God, Nicky. Marge and the kids are home! Please Nicky, try and understand what’s happening!”
“I’m sorry,” I told him. I turned to the other man. “I guess you better take him inside.”
Brendan’s jaw dropped. The man with the gun gave Brendan a questioning look, like he was unsure of what to do. Lisa broke out laughing. I slapped the man hard and his eyes went dumb. I slapped him again. Lisa laughed harder. The man’s eyes exploded with fury. He raised the gun and I hit him across the mouth with my open palm, splitting his lip. Brendan reached back and grabbed the man’s arm, the one with the gun. He shouted at the man, “No Mike! No!” Then he turned to me. “What the hell—”, he choked it off, swallowed and tried again. “Nicky, what are you doing?”
I faced my brother. “You wanted me to steal the money. You had her take me to the apartment so I’d steal the money.”
“No, Nicky.” He was shaking his head hard like that would settle the issue. The other man had gotten his arm free, but just sat silently holding a handkerchief against his mouth.
“The detective you hired,” I said to Brendan. “I saw him six months ago and I saw him other times too. He was keeping tabs on me until you needed me.”
“Oh boy,” he muttered. “Oh boy. You’re confused and—”
Lisa interrupted, her eyes shining. “I thought you little brother would be too dumb to guess what was going on. Isn’t that what you said?”
Brendan’s face flushed. He glared at her, then turned to me, but he couldn’t look me in the eye. “I’m sorry, Nicky. Can we talk?” I told him we could always talk. We drove to Lisa’s apartment and during the ride no one said a word.
Inside the apartment, Brendan was grinning and acting like nothing had happened. He introduced Big Mike, the heavyset man I slapped around. He then told me about a client of his, Paul Dreason, who was the top man in the local crack trade. Dreason had five million dollars and Brendan told me we were going to take it away from him.
We sat down and Brendan explained it to me. The five million was sitting in a safe in an empty warehouse waiting for the mob to pick it up. Brendan asked Big Mike to get the blueprints of the warehouse, and then he spread them out, showing me where the safe would be.
I looked at Brendan. “How do you know about this?”
“It’s a long story, Nicky. I don’t think you’d understand.”
I didn’t push him on that, instead asked, “Why isn’t it being protected?”
Lisa smirked at Brendan. “For someone as dumb as you say he is, he asks a lot of questions.” Brendan’s face went white. He turned to her, his lips pressed into a tight smile. “Will you lay off!” he ordered. I brought his attention back to me, asking, “What do you want me to do?”
Dropping his hand, he turned back to me. “This is going to be easy, Nick. Big Mike has already put together a bomb that will blow off the safe cover. It works on a timer. All I need you to do is place it next to the safe and carry out the money after it blows open. It won’t take more than five minutes.”
I stared at him and kept staring until his smile cracked. Then I asked Brendan why he needed me to blow up the safe. Why he or Big Mike or anyone else couldn’t do it.
He looked rattled. “I need someone I can trust. And you’ve been in Vietnam, you know how to handle yourself in difficult situations. I’m going to be in the car driving. And Big Mike needs to be watching the building in case there’s any trouble. I need you, Nicky. You won’t let me down, will you?”
“No, I guess not.”
Relief washed over his face, leaving a broad, wide smile. “Okay, Nicky. Why don’t we go home and get some sleep.” Lisa grabbed Brendan by the arm and the two of them turned their backs to me and talked in hushed voices. I could see Brendan nodding and then he turned back to me. “Nicky,” he said. “Why don’t you stay here tonight. Is that okay?”
I told him it was. “One more thing,” he hesitated. “We have it planned for twelve tomorrow afternoon. We have to do it then. But don’t worry, the explosion will just be a little pop, no one will hear us.”
I told him I guess it didn’t matter. He smiled, nodding his head. “I’ll pick you up at eleven. Don’t worry, Nicky. Everything will work out fine. And Dreason deserves this. We’re not doing anything bad.” He got up to leave. Big Mike joined him, glaring at me as he left. I could see his lip had swelled.
Lisa took me to the guest room and helped me make up the bed. She gave me a funny look. “Yeah, what do you want to ask me?”
“Why did Brendan want me to stay here?”
“Because,” she smiled slightly. “I promised your brother I’d make sure you didn’t run out on us. But that’s not the reason I wanted you to.” She started to unbutton her blouse, her flesh warming to a soft pink as she did.
“Are you and Brendan…” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“Maybe. He’s planning on leaving his wife for me after we get the money. Why, does it matter?” She gave me a hard look and stopped unbuttoning her blouse. “I guess it does,” she said, softly.
She took hold of my chin and studied me, then nodded to herself. “You do look a lot like your brother,” she said. “You’re about the same height and have similar features. But you’re better looking, you’re heavier, more muscular, and you don’t have his shifty eyes.”
She laughed and walked over to the door. “No,” she said. “You got big, dumb eyes, like you don’t know a damn thing.” Her face softened. “Nicky, it’s not too late for you to just walk away. You could leave now and be in another state by tomorrow.”
“I-I can’t. I promised Brendan.”
“The two of us could go, Nicky. We could walk out together. Would you like that?”
“But the five million dollars –“
“Skip it.” Her eyes hardened. “You really don’t have a clue, do you?”
I shook my head.
“I guess you don’t,” she said, her voice brittle. “You see, when I’m driving at night and I catch an animal in the headlights, and they freeze and look at me with big, dumb eyes like yours, you know what I do?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t—”
“I step on the gas. Have pleasant dreams, bright boy.” And she slammed the door shut.
You can’t steal five million dollars from the mob and expect to live. It’s not that easy. They’d be after you for the rest of your life. And they’d catch you. Brendan had to know that much, And besides, there were too many holes in the way he told it for it to be that way. I took out a pack of cigarettes and lay down on the bed.
Of course, I knew why Brendan needed me. I knew why I had to be the one to bring the bomb into the warehouse. The warehouse had to be rigged with explosives, so when the one bomb went off the whole place would go up in flames.
Brendan and I are the same height and we do look a lot alike. The extra bulk I have would be burned off in the fire and wearing his clothes would cinch it. All that would be found in the warehouse would be a burnt body that would be identified as Brendan’s and a pile of ashes that the mob would think used to be five million dollars. That’s the only way it could work. Which meant that the money had already been taken out of the safe.
I lit another cigarette and inhaled deeply, letting the smoke fill my lungs. If Brendan had asked me straight out to do it, I probably would’ve. There’s not much for me anymore, and besides, I’m tired of feeling dead inside. But I couldn’t do it for him now, not with him acting as if I was dumb. I was sick of acting dumb.
I thought about Lisa, about the way she’d been acting, and decided all she was doing was playing games with me. She could’ve told me the truth, but she really didn’t want me to walk away. If I was as dumb as she thought I was, none of her hints and nudges would’ve helped me. I guess it was part of her nature. I couldn’t walk away from it anyway. I don’t have much, but fighting for the little I have could make me feel something. I had to stick around and see if I could feel something.
# #
The next morning Lisa made us pancakes and bacon. While we were eating, she kept giving me nervous glances. Finally, she cleared her throat and told me Brendan had called while I was asleep and changed the plans for midnight.
I didn’t say anything. “Well?” she asked angrily. “Do you understand what I said?” I nodded. Her face relaxed. “Your brother asked me to give you some money so you could see a movie or something. How’s that sound?”
I looked at the clock on her stove. It was ten thirty. I told her it would be fine, that I’d leave as soon as I finished breakfast. I then slowed down with my eating. Every once in a while I’d glance up at her and she’d give me a jerky smile. I pushed my plate away a couple of minutes before eleven.
Her face turned red and she hollered at me, “You’re a real smart guy, aren’t you?”
I played innocent and watched as Brendan walked through the door. “All set?” he asked. Lisa shook her head as she walked by me. Big Mike was sitting in the back seat of the car waiting for us.
Brendan and Lisa sat up front. I joined Big Mike in back. Brendan held up a bag, “The bomb’s in here, Nicky. It’s set to go off at twelve fifteen. You have to be careful with it.”
Lisa deadpanned, “Yeah, make sure you don’t blow yourself up.”
Brendan handed her the bag, “You better hold it,” he said, giving her a cold stare.
As we drove, the buildings got more and more run-down. Finally, Brendan pulled up next to a large gray one. Big Mike ran out and about a minute later came back puffing. “It’s all ready,” he said, lowering himself back into the car.
No one talked. Brendan kept looking at his watch. Finally, he took the bag from Lisa’s lap. “It’s time,” he said. He reached back and handed me the bag. He kept his eyes away from mine. “Okay, Nick. We’ve got seven minutes. You better get going.”
I leaned back in my seat. “I’m not sure I understand what I’m supposed to do. Maybe we better go over it again?”
Lisa gave Brendan a quick sideways glance. “Your brother’s a real bright light, isn’t he? I think we should just forget the whole thing before he screws up on us. I think we should leave the bag here and go.”
Brendan’s head snapped as if he’d been slapped. He growled at her, “I think I should knock your damn teeth out!”
“I don’t know.” I interrupted. “I forgot what I’m supposed to do.”
Lisa let loose with a nervous laugh. Big Mike was looking impatient, his ears turning a bright red. “You stupid idiot!” he exploded. He started to pull his gun from his jacket. “Take that stinking bag and go in there before I blow your goddamn head off!”
I swung my right arm and caught him hard with my elbow. His head bounced off the door, making a dull thud. I think he was unconscious, but I hit him again. His gun had dropped from his hand. I picked it up and brought the handle down on his skull. Blood started to spread across his forehead, down into his face.
Brendan’s mouth dropped open. Lisa’s eyes were sparkling. “Brendan,” I said. “I think it would be better if you did it for me.”
I tossed the bag onto his lap. He couldn’t talk, at least not right away. Finally, he sputtered, “N-Nicky, w-what’s going on?”
I reversed the gun in my hand and flicked the barrel across his cheek, drawing blood. “Don’t make me shoot you, Brendan. Please, open the door and get out of the car. We don’t have much time left.”
He hesitated. I flicked the gun again, this time catching a soft spot on his neck. He got out, his legs looking like rubber bands. The bag hung from his left hand. I got out and joined him. Lisa also got out.
“Go ahead,” she said to him, her voice shaking with contempt. “Do Nicky’s job.”
“You stinking bitch!” he swore. He lunged to hit her. I shot him in the hip. Lisa giggled. Brendan turned towards me, his eyes wide with terror. His mouth tried to work, but no noise came out.
“Brendan,” I said. “If you had leveled with me and asked me to do it, I would’ve. But you shouldn’t’ve done it this way. You shouldn’t’ve treated me like I was stupid. There’s a difference between being stupid and not giving a damn.”
He was wobbling on his feet like a fighter in the tenth round who had taken too many shots to the head. He turned from me, and then staggered back. He pulled a locker key from his pocket and handed it to me. “At the airport, Nicky. Please, forgive me,” he half-said, half-sobbed. He held out his arms as if he expected a hug. I pushed the gun into his chest. “We don’t have time for this,” I said. “Get moving.”
He nodded, and turned towards the building. He moved as if he were an automaton, as if his legs were disconnected from the rest of his body. As if he were a corpse. He reached the door, stepped through it, and closed it behind him. The explosion came seconds later. The windows shattered, flames seared through them. There couldn’t’ve been much of Brendan left.
Lisa gave me a funny look, half appraising, half scared. “You’re not as dumb as you act, are you? What other tricks do you have?” I showed her a bare-fanged smile. “Get in the car,” I ordered. I pulled Big Mike from the back seat and left him in the street. It was going to be a while before he woke up. I had enough time to do what I had to before he talked. As we drove to the airport, neither of us said a word. I found the locker that matched the key. There were two briefcases inside. I opened them. You wouldn’t think five million dollars would’ve been able to fit in them, but it did. I took a large chunk out of one of them and counted half a million dollars. I closed the locker. I put the key back in my pocket.