Purgatory Blues (2013), page 16
Just then Dennis zipped around the corner and pulled up along side Andy. He flipped up his visor, “where’s Eddie?” he asked as Andy’s window came down.
“He’s following the Toyota, let’s give him a call and we’ll catch up with him, you can take the next tail, I’ll never catch him in this anyway”, Andy said.
Before Andy could hit the dial button, he received a call from Eddie, “yeah?” Andy answered.
“He stopped bro, he’s parked at a house over here, I’m like, on my bike hiding behind a tree bro”, Eddie said.
“Is he stoned?” Dennis mouthed to Andy.
Andy waved Dennis away and asked Eddie, “address?”
“I’m outside, umm…” Eddie began and then paused. “I think I’m on St. Thomas bro, I’m next to number thirteen”.
“Ominous”, Dennis added, referring to the superstition of the number.
“We’re on the way”, Andy said as he hit the ignition. Dennis waited for Andy to drive out and then followed behind him. It was a short trip. They were there in less than five minutes. Andy spotted Eddie and parked opposite him, Dennis pulled in behind Eddie and they both got in to Andy’s car out of the rain, Dennis in the passenger’s side and Eddie in the back.
Dennis and Andy both fist bumped Eddie once they were all inside. “What did you see?” Andy asked.
“Same as what you see bro, that must be his house, he’s been there for a little while now, there’s the car”, Eddie said, pointing it out. “Who is this guy anyway, why are we following this dude?”
“He’s the guy that sells this”, Andy said, pulling out the little plastic bag of brown powder.
“Very addictive, very dangerous, these guys have been picking up new clientele in club territory and peddling this stuff to the kids”, Dennis added.
“That house looks like shit though, must be a burner, if things go sideways they drop a match and move on to the next one”, Andy said.
The house looked like it shouldn’t even have been standing up. There was no wall or fence, just a driveway and no garage. They were hiding in plain sight. The house looked like it was two rungs up on the ladder from a crack den. Andy had to admit, it was very, very clever. Security meant you had something to protect, to the average passer by this was just a house ravaged by poverty and time. Andy surmised that there couldn’t be more than four rooms in it, the house looked very small from the outside.
“So what do we do now?” Eddie asked.
“Watch and wait”, Andy answered.
Eddie paused for a moment and then a big smile came to his face, he tapped Andy on the shoulder excitedly, “just like one of those hypothetical situations we talked about bro”.
Andy thought for a moment, “yeah, maybe”, he said as he pulled out his phone. He went to the calculator, “let’s see, at three hundred a bag and assuming they move an average of forty bags a day, that’s twelve thousand, times thirty days in a month, that’s three hundred and sixty thousand. Thirty times forty is twelve hundred bags a month and that’s probably a conservative figure. After cutting a kilo you’d get way more than that. Depending on the time of the month and how much they’re really pushing, there could be anything from a couple hundred grand in there to a million”.
“It’s the hypothetical situation bro!” Eddie said with glee.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dennis asked Eddie in frustration.
“He wanted to rob a drug dealer”, Andy said to Dennis with a smile.
“I’m surprised this idiot doesn’t have to remind himself to keep breathing. You, robbing a dealer, nice one Eddie”, Dennis said cruelly.
“Don’t be mean bro, what crawled up your ass and died?” Eddie sounded genuinely wounded.
“You crawled up my ass Eddie, you did, you just forgot to die while you were in there”, Dennis said in a belittling tone.
“Leave him alone Dennis”, Andy said, hardly paying attention. It was like controlling two brothers who were constantly bickering.
“Yeah Dennis, leave me alone”, Eddie in turn was like a child gloating when their mother reprimanded the other kid.
Andy was quiet for the next few minutes, the pensive look on his face kept everyone silent. Finally he spoke. “I’ve got to tell you guys something”, the tone in his voice was more serious than they’d heard in a while.
“Yeah?” Dennis asked, prompting Andy.
“Sharon’s going to lose the bar”, Andy said it the way you’d tell someone that their relative had cancer.
“Sharon who? I don’t know any Sharon”, Dennis said.
“The girl who owns Sink”, Andy said, remembering that no one knew he called her Sharon.
“That’s not her name, it’s Liz, and her sister is Jennifer”, Dennis said impatiently, “are you talking about Liz?”
“Yeah I meant Liz, it’s a long story, but she’s losing the bar”, Andy answered.
“So?” Dennis asked, wondering why it was any of their concern.
“Yeah, so what man?” Eddie joined in, followed by a quick “shut up Eddie” from Dennis.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a while, it might be serious, I don’t know, but anyway, she needs money. There’s money in there”, Andy said, pointing to the home of the black Toyota.
“You’ve got money”, Dennis snapped back, plainly unwilling to entertain the idea, “why don’t you help her?”
“Well, that’s the other thing”, Andy began, “I’m broke. I haven’t worked in a year, they just pulled my last advance and I’ve pretty much flushed away everything that I had. There’s no money left”. The confession hurt Andy but he delivered it like he couldn’t have been bothered.
“How the fuck does someone piss away that kind of money Andy? You wrote a fucking best seller!” Dennis said in shock, “didn’t you invest some of it or manage it somehow? Give it to a broker or something?”
“What are you now? My fucking financial advisor? It doesn’t matter how it happened, the point is it’s gone”, Andy fired back angrily, “what difference does it make how I spent it?”
“Wait”, Dennis said, suddenly aware of what was staring him in the face. “Did you bring us here with purpose of robbing these guys? Did you plan this? Because if you did, that’s just fucked up Andy”, the disappointment in his voice was thick enough to slice with a carving knife.
“Of course I didn’t!” Andy was outraged by the accusation. “We needed to find the guy so I found him. Eddie and I were talking about a similar situation earlier and that’s the only reason why it came to mind. I didn’t fucking conspire to bring you here because you’re the world’s greatest fucking cat burglar”. Andy hated sarcasm but he found that the words always flowed easily when the moment was ripe for it.
“Guys”, Eddie said quietly, causing both Dennis and Andy to turn back and look at him, “do you think that the bad people in the house might, like, notice the car full of dudes screaming at each other and waving their arms around?” Dennis and Andy both turned away silently. “I’m just saying guys”, Eddie added with satisfaction.
“Look”, Andy said after a moment, “she needs that money, so I’m going in there to get it. I didn’t ask for help. Just give me your piece and I’ll take it from here. I’ve got nothing to lose and I figure I’ve got at least fifty-fifty odds of making it out of there. I’m willing to roll the dice on this one”. He sounded calm and resolved, so much so that it scared Dennis.
“First”, Dennis started, “you’re not taking my gun. Second, I’m not letting you go in there by yourself. You don’t even know how many people are in there, you don’t know whether they’re armed or whatever the fuck else you might find behind that door. What is this nothing to lose bullshit? Suddenly your life isn’t important enough anymore?”
“Okay”, Andy said after conjuring a new way to phrase his proposal, “how about this, we were supposed to take these guys out anyway. If Allen came here with his wrecking crew it’d end up in a bloodbath and the whole club gets put under a spotlight. No one knows we’re here. We have the element of surprise and a small group of rational individuals can get this done a whole lot easier. We go in, shake them down, get the money and destroy the product. We just make it too expensive for them to keep operating”.
Dennis was silent. Andy could tell that he had his attention so it was time to sweeten the deal, “if all goes well, I’ll have solved my problem. The club is rid of these guys and since Eddie is helping, we can even recommend that he get his patch. How about that?” Andy asked.
“You and I both know that you’re just guessing”, Dennis asserted. “We have no idea what’s in there. What if there’s no money and that’s not even the right guy?”
“It’s the right guy”, Andy said confidently. “How many times have I been wrong?”
“There’s always a first time”, Dennis replied.
“Well it’s not today”, Andy said. He gave Dennis a look that said “trust me”.
No one spoke. Andy was waiting for Dennis to say something and Dennis was trying to find a reason to do something that he knew was reckless. They just sat there until Eddie blurted out to Andy, “hey, I’m in bro! Leave this Nancy pants here if he doesn’t want to come”, he added in reference to Dennis.
“Fuck it!” Dennis said, indicating that he was on board. “Is there some kind of plan or are we charging in and hoping for the best?”
“How many guns you got on you?” Andy asked.
Dennis pulled out a Glock 17 from under his jacket and then took out his backup PM9 from his boot, “that’s what I’ve got”, he said.
Andy picked up the PM9 and showed it to Eddie, “you okay with this one?”
“Yeah bro, totally”, Eddie said, taking the gun.
“I want that back”, Dennis said, warning Eddie.
“Relax Nancy pants”, Eddie said to Dennis, attempting to rile him up.
Dennis closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he exhaled he had a murderous grin on his face. It was taking all his self-control not to attack Eddie.
The street was quiet. The rain had stopped. It was a Monday night and it was nearing eleven “o clock. Andy had no plan and still had no idea what he was doing. As usual, he was playing the situation by ear. ‘Okay, I’m gonna go, just stay here for a bit, if I signal you or it looks like something is going down, then come in, otherwise stay put. I’m going to check out the situation and see what we’re dealing with, I’ll be back in five minutes or less’.
“You’re leaving me alone here with him?” Dennis asked, sounding agitated.
Andy gave Dennis a look that said “really? Is this the time to do this?”
Dennis looked away in resignation, “fine, but be careful”.
Andy winked at him and stepped out of the car, just then a thought occurred to him and he looked back at Dennis, “these weapons registered?” he asked.
“Just the Glock”, Dennis replied.
Andy nodded, closing the door behind him. He was wearing dark colors as he normally did, but he stuck to the shadows nonetheless. He kept away from streetlights and anything else that might chart his course to onlookers. Though there didn’t seem to be any eyes on him at present, vigilance was key.
He had to appear inconspicuous, but not creepy and up to no good. As he walked toward the house he knew that what he was doing was the furthest thing imaginable from a good idea. After talking to Eddie and coming up with a well laid out plan earlier, he was ignoring everything that they’d discussed. This was stupid and reckless, but he knew it might be the only opportunity that he’d get to help Sharon. He wasn’t going to pass it up.
He stopped for a moment to check if there was anything on him that might give him away, his clothes weren’t noisy, so that was fine, but his phone was. He pulled out his cell and changed it to the “do not disturb” mode. As he put the phone in to his pocket, he took a deep breath and looked back at the car. “What the fuck am I doing?”
He steeled himself and walked on. “Too late to turn back now”. The small house appeared to be on a slightly raised foundation. Andy realized that it probably wasn’t a house, but more likely a small office or shop that had been left without tenants for too long. They’d probably rented the property and converted it to something of a temporary shelter for their operations, cash upfront and no paperwork.
There was a small flight of steps leading up to the front door. The car was parked in the driveway on the right in front of the house.
On the left of the house Andy could see a window at about shoulder height. He crept up to it, being extra careful not to make even the slightest bit of noise. He approached from the extreme edge so as not to betray his presence even for a microsecond.
Once he was directly under the window, he raised his head slowly to find a view between the curtains. There were two men inside. One of them appeared to be the big Nigerian that he’d thrown out of the Firk on Saturday. He was sitting on a couch playing video games. Red cap was there too, he was arguing with the big guy. Red Cap was counting money and stacking it into a gym bag.
Andy thought that the chances of looking into a window and seeing this had to be a hundred to one. He’d foolishly pursued an idea, half expecting nothing to come from it, but his instincts had yet to let him down, the only question was whether they were leading him down a righteous path or a damned one.
There were empty bottles of beer all over the table in front of the couch. It looked like they were arguing because the big guy was lazy and hadn’t counted the money. It was all in a foreign language. Andy tried to take in the rest of the room but there was no angle of view. There was a small wooden fence a few feet away from the window that he was under, blocking access to the back of the property. “Too noisy to climb over”, Andy thought. He’d just have to hope there was no third or fourth man in the house.
Andy made it back to the car as quickly as he could. He opened the passenger side door and looked in the glove compartment for his brass knuckles. As he was putting them on, Dennis asked “well?”
“Let’s do it, there’re two guys inside, there’s cash, one of them has been drinking. Follow my lead, should be a cake walk”, Andy said, assuming the role of the leader.
“Better leave this here”, Dennis said and pulled off his jacket with his kutte, it had his club patch on the back.
When they were all out of the car, Andy looked to both of them, “ready?” he asked. They both nodded. Andy began walking toward the house with Eddie and Dennis on either side of him.
They hadn’t been on the road for three seconds when Andy saw Red Cap leaving the house with his gym bag. Andy didn’t pause, they were improvising from the very start, this way they’d catch one of them alone and they wouldn’t have to sneak inside. Andy was thinking on his feet, and that’s what he did best. “I got him, take flanking positions”, he said, his voice little more than a whisper. He pointed out spots for both Eddie and Dennis to approach from. He didn’t break his stride.
Red Cap hadn’t noticed them yet, if he did, he showed no sign of it. Andy kept his footing light. Red Cap was putting the gym bag on the back seat of the Toyota when Andy came up from behind him. “Hey”, he said conversationally.
As Red Cap turned, Andy let out a ferocious right hook with all of his might using the brass knuckles. He caught Red Cap squarely on the jaw, it should have broken bone…but he didn’t go down, he was only stunned. Andy laid into him with elbows and the brass knuckles. After five more strikes targeting the head, ribs and kidneys, Andy had him on the ground.
Andy cursed under his breath, it’d taken too long to put him down and he’d made too much noise. It was at exactly that moment when things took a turn for the worse. Before Andy knew what was happening, the big guy was at the door, up and to Andy’s left, he shouted something incomprehensible and let off two rounds. Andy ducked as soon as he heard the first shot. The lead missed him by inches.
A second later Dennis appeared from the right behind Andy, he shouted something to the big guy to draw his fire. Andy didn’t hear what it was. He was out in the open with no cover. Dennis got off three quick shots before catching a bullet in his left arm. It spun him, taking him off his feet. Everything was chaos. One more shot hit the side of the car and in that split second, exposed and helpless, Andy knew that he’d made a mistake, he knew that he shouldn’t have done this. His options were to try for Dennis’s Glock, which had been thrown from his hand and was now out of reach…or pull Dennis to cover, options that risked them both. His last option was to protect Dennis till the shooter ran out of ammo, by then Eddie or Dennis would be able to take him down.
He’d made his decision, but suddenly it didn’t matter, Eddie made his presence known barely a second later. Andy heard the distinctive “pop, pop, pop’ of the PM9 as he shielded Dennis with his body. Eddie calmly walked across the front lawn letting off round after round. Nine bullets later, Andy heard empty clicks and saw Eddie still pulling the trigger. It’d been a brief period of madness followed by a mausoleum like silence. The only sound that split the air was Eddie’s trigger finger.
Andy stood and surveyed the area before looking at Dennis. He was holding his arm. “Is it bad?” Andy asked, offering Dennis his hand to help him up.
“I don’t know, just gimme a sec”, he said, opting to stay on the ground for the moment.
Andy grabbed the Glock off the ground and passed it back to Dennis before he rushed over to Eddie, he’d stopped clicking but he was still aiming the gun at the front door. “Eddie”, Andy called out softly. “Eddie!” Andy repeated, shaking him after receiving no response.
“Huh?” Eddie answered, suddenly snapping back to reality.
“Put it down”, Andy said.
