“I’m releasing you and recommending that you see your family doctor tomorrow. He may order more tests and help you work out a plan for a healthier lifestyle.”
Sherri drove him back to her house and helped him go back to bed. He fell asleep immediately. He woke up after two hours and saw her lying beside him. He touched her bleached hair, her sleep-closed eyelids and soft cheek, her smooth shoulder and thin waist and the swell of her hip. He had so much to regret.
18
IT WAS AFTER 2:00 A.M. Jeff and Carrie sat in her white car down the street from Siren and watched the building from a distance. A dozen people walked out the side door in a small gaggle, talking to each other, and stepped onto the darkened parking lot. A couple of them waved, and all of them got into cars. In the headlights from one of the cars, Jeff picked out Lila from the corn-silk blond hair and her tall, thin silhouette. She got into the little red Honda and started it. Jeff watched her as she drove off the lot and disappeared down the road.
“I don’t see any lights on,” Carrie said.
“There aren’t any windows. It’s a strip club.”
“Oh. Yeah. I suppose they don’t want to give it away for free.”
“They’re closed for the night, so the neon light on the roof is off, and the floodlights for the parking lot.”
“How did you think of this place?”
“It’s the club where the money came from last night. Those three guys who were outside the bank last night work for Manco Kapak, and the money was his profit. They were depositing it for him.”
“I could see what they were doing with it. But don’t we have all their money now?”
“No. That was just last night’s take—l ast night’s money. We want tonight’s money.” He looked at her closely. “Unless we don’t. You were the one who said you wanted to do a robbery tonight.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to rob a strip joint.”
“Fine. Let’s go home.”
“Not so fast. I’m thinking. Have you cased this place—gone inside so you know your way around in the dark?”
“I have. I know the layout fairly well.”
“You’re so pathetic. Coming out here and sitting in a dark bar with a couple hundred of your fellow losers to see one girl dance naked. Couldn’t any of you get a date?”
“In the first place, it isn’t one girl, it’s like four or five at a time. Over an evening, it’s a lot of them.”
“Oh. Only fifty to one, then. No wonder you’re an expert.”
“I was checking the place out so I could rob it.”
“Were all those tits and asses better than mine?”
“The ones I saw weren’t. But I may have missed some, because I was looking to see where the doors are and the windows aren’t, and so on. So far, you’re the best-looking woman I’ve seen.”
“I wish it were lighter in here so I could see your face.”
“I’m not lying to you. It’s true.”
“What’s your plan for this place?”
“It’s almost the time when they show up at the bank every night. We can’t go back to the bank. They’ll be expecting us. They’ll have armed guys hiding all over the neighborhood waiting. So I’m thinking we might be able to stop the bagman before he gets there—maybe force him off the road and rob him. He’s probably going to be alone tonight, because they’ll want everybody else out of sight.”
She smiled. “That’s such a good idea, baby. I love it that you’re not as stupid as I thought. Let’s do it.”
“Okay. The regular employees are gone. We can just wait until the bagman goes out to his car and heads for the bank.”
They sat quietly, now and then shifting in their seats to get a better view of the Siren parking lot. Jeff was glad that all the waitresses’ cars were gone. The idea of meeting Lila in the middle of a robbery seemed to be the biggest worry, and it was gone. After a time Carrie said, “It’s been an hour, and nobody’s come out that door. What do you suppose is going on?”
“Nothing that I can see.”
“So why isn’t it? Did they take the money to the bank already?”
“I doubt it. We were here at, like, eight minutes after two. They couldn’t have counted all the money and bagged it and filled out deposit slips in eight minutes. Could they?”
“I don’t know. You’re the bandito.”
“Exactly. I can tell you this is not normal.”
“Maybe they’re sick of getting robbed, so they’re doing things differently.”
“That’s got to be it,” he said. “You have a talent for this.”
“I do?”
“Yes. Maybe what they’re doing is having an armored car come and pick it up, the way supermarkets do. But no armored car came after closing, so the pickup must be tomorrow morning.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“I’ve got to think. I can’t see waiting and trying to shoot it out with an armored car crew.”
“Nothing to argue with there.”
He was silent for a moment. “I think I’ve got it. They’ve always deposited the money at closing time. They didn’t deposit the money tonight, and the armored car didn’t come, so it must be coming in the morning. I’m sure of that much. Meanwhile, there will be somebody in there watching the money. Does that sound right?”
“Yes. It does. It would explain why there are two cars still parked by the building.”
He craned his neck to see the cars, then nodded. “It probably takes two guys to watch money, because they’re mostly watching each other. It has to be the dullest thing there is to do.”
“Sounds true.”
“Those doors are going to be locked and probably deadbolted, so we aren’t going to get through them. The two guys have to come out and let us in.”
“Okay.” She waited.
“We have two choices, I think. One is to go to the side of the building, find the phone junction box, and cut it. That will get rid of the alarm. Then we find the main circuit-breaker panel and flip the switch to kill the power. One of them will come outside to see what’s wrong. I hold my gun on him and tape him up with duct tape. When he doesn’t come back inside or anything, the other one will come at least as far as the door. He’ll call out to his friend—’Where are you? What’s going on?’ At that moment you put your gun to his head. We tape him up too.”
“Then what?”
“If there’s a safe, we make them open it. If they can’t, we put tape over their eyes and make them carry the safe to our car. It won’t be a big safe, or they could just leave the money in it and go home.”
“What if they’re asleep? If they’re asleep, they won’t even know the power and the phone are turned off”’
“Well, that’s true, but these are guys who work for a nightclub company. They have to be used to staying up late. If they don’t come out after ten or fifteen minutes, we can knock on the door and pretend to be cops who saw their cars and want to know who’s in there at this hour.”
Carrie sat absolutely still for a few seconds, then said, “All right. I’m in. Let’s get at it. Should I park at the back of the place, behind the Dumpster?”
“Yes. That way when they look out they won’t see it.”
She drove her car up the street, turned into the parking lot, turned off her headlights, and circled the building from a distance. She saw the spot she wanted and coasted up to it, then got out.
Carrie took her big .45 pistol out of her purse, pulled back the slide to bring a round into the chamber, and put the purse back into the car under the seat. She hid the gun in the back of her pants against her spine and covered it with her sweater.
She moved to the brick wall and walked along it to the door. She stood with her back to the wall at the hinge side and nodded to Jeff.
He moved off around the building to find the phone junction box and the circuit-breaker panel.