Andrew Price - Without A Hitch

Just then, Molly appeared at the door. It was obvious she’d heard the entire conversation. Corbin’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“I thought I heard your roomie?” she said.

“Uh, no. He’s at the front office,” Corbin replied uncertainly.

“You know, I haven’t seen him all day?” Theresa interjected.

“He’s been busy. He should be along any second.”

“Uh huh,” Molly said, though her tone left no doubt she didn’t believe this. “Corbin, I’d like to see you for a moment, if you can break yourself away. It won’t take more than a few seconds. T, you can talk amongst yourselves while he’s gone.” Molly stepped back into the hallway.

Theresa snarled her lips. “How did your date end, Molly?!” she called out.

“It ended well. How did yours end?” Molly countered, as she walked off.

“What date?” Theresa said to herself. She hadn’t had a date in some time. Suddenly, the puzzled expression on her face twist into rage. Her forehead creased and deep wrinkles appeared under her eyes. Her teeth visibly clenched and her nose flared. She now got Molly’s point.

“You started it,” Corbin said without sympathy.

Theresa squinted at Corbin. “Can I tell you something?”

Corbin looked at Theresa suspiciously. “Ok.”

“You can’t ever tell her or you and I are finished, got it?”

Corbin agreed.

“I was a lot like her when I was younger. No guy was ever good enough, and I made it very difficult for. .,” she paused. “Well, that’s all I’ll say.” But she continued: “Let me tell you! There are a lot of women out there who would be grateful to get as many dates as she gets. She makes the rest of us look bad,” she grumbled before slipping off the end of the desk and heading for the hallway. “You know where to find me.”

Alvarez walked to the coffee shop where Beckett had set up shop. Alvarez looked harried, but Beckett looked quite comfortable sitting in a recliner near a small table. The duffel bag lay at his feet.

“You were supposed to wait for me outside the bank. I don’t like having to find you.”

“I told you I’d wait for you here. Besides, standing outside the bank looks suspicious. Did you get it done?”

“Of course I got it done.” Alvarez pulled the bank documents from his pocket and handed them to Beckett. “Have you figured out if any of the other documents are screwed up?”

“They’re fine. It’s just the one sticker.”

“You better be right.”

Beckett pulled another wallet and cell phone from the duffel bag. “The next bank is inside this building, out that door and down the hall.”

Alvarez pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “These things are killing my eyes. I don’t know how people go through life wearing them.”

“They make you look like Mr. Magoo.”

“I’m not wearing them for fashion.”

“That’s a relief. Whose are they?” All morning, Beckett kept asking questions like this, little questions which would give him more insight into Alvarez’s life than Alvarez wanted to share. Alvarez immediately became cross.

“Does it matter?! They’re not mine!”

“Calm down.”

“Fuck you.” He replaced the glasses. “After this, I’m taking a break for lunch.”

“Fine. I’ll meet you at McDonalds. It’s up the street, on the corner. You can’t miss it.”

A few minutes after Theresa left Corbin’s office, Molly reappeared at Corbin’s door. “She’s not very good at this, is she?” Molly asked with a laugh.

“I’m not taking sides. I do wish you two could get along though.”

“No chance of that. Here’s your mail by the way, that’s why I wanted to see you. Stuart gave it to me by mistake.” Molly handed Corbin several envelopes of varying shapes and sizes. She looked toward Beckett’s desk. “So where is your playmate really?”

“Am I my playmate’s keeper? What do you care anyway?”

“I don’t. Do I look like I care?” Molly made a show of nonchalantly flipping through a file she was holding.

“Then why did you ask?”

“Because I’m a nice person, and I’m trying to make you feel better about yourself by feigning interest in your life.” Her good mood had returned. “I’m that ray of sunshine that makes your life worth living.”

Corbin smiled despite himself. “But you’re not feigning interest in my life, you’re feigning interest in Beckett’s life!”

“Beggars can’t be choosers. Take what you can get, partner.”

Corbin laughed. Usually, he and Molly followed the unwritten rule that neither would laugh at the other’s verbal jabs, but this one struck Corbin as particularly funny. “All right, you win. Forget I mentioned it.”

“No need to forget, I wasn’t listening anyway.”

Alvarez pushed open the door to the McDonalds and headed straight for Beckett. Over his shoulder, he saw the police officer enter the McDonalds, the same officer who followed him from the bank. Alvarez even changed his pace twice, hoping to elude him. Yet, here he was. Upon reaching Beckett’s table, Alvarez all but tossed the wallet and paperwork at him.

“Is he coming this way?!”

Beckett looked around Alvarez. “Who?”

“The cop.”

Beckett looked again. “No. He just sat down two tables behind you.”

Alvarez breathed a sigh of relief.

“Wait a minute! Are you saying you thought a cop was following you? And you came right to me and threw the incriminating evidence at me, like some punk throwing his gun out the window when the cops start chasing him?”

“Fuck off.”

“Fuck off?! I’ll tell you-” Beckett stopped mid-sentence as the officer rose from his seat. “Shit! Your friend stood up.” Beckett jammed the wallet into his back pocket.

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s talking to the woman behind you.” Beckett folded the paperwork and slipped it into the duffel bag without taking his eyes off the officer. “Now he’s sitting down at her table.”

Alvarez’s shoulders slumped. “I feel sick.”

Corbin looked at the food before him. The meal was planned perfectly to appear on the receipt as if two people were eating. When he first arrived, he sat in the bar and ordered a beer and meal-sized plate of nachos, both of which he abandoned when he moved to a table. After moving to the table, he ordered a Coke, a tuna melt with vegetables instead of fries, and a side order of onion rings. He finished it all off with a coffee and two cookies. To disguise the fact he didn’t eat most of the food, he cut everything into small pieces and piled the dishes on top of each other. He shoved the cookies into his pocket.

Today’s waitress was Alice. Not coincidentally, Alice served Corbin and Beckett the day before as well. Corbin learned months prior how to choose a waitress by asking to be seated in particular sections. Using this method, he chose Alice both as a waitress and an alibi.

“Where’s your friend?” Alice knew both Corbin and Beckett. In fact, they tipped well enough that all the staff knew them.

“He’s back at the office trying to finish some project. Tomorrow is his last day.”

“Aw! We’re going to miss him! Is he coming tomorrow?”

“As far as I know.”

“Remind me, I’ll get him one of the birthday cakes.”

“Chocolate, yellow or other?” Corbin raised an eyebrow.

“It’ll be a surprise!”

“Great, he loves surprises.” Corbin handed her Beckett’s credit card to pay the bill. She never noticed. One well-practiced forgery later, Corbin was on his way to the next restaurant.

The lunch crowd packed the counter. Alvarez and Beckett stepped into one of the lines, though it was more of a cluster or a rabble than a line. Alvarez kept looking over his shoulder at the officer, prompting Beckett to tell him to “stop acting like an asshole” and “face forward.” Eventually, Alvarez found himself with only one customer between himself and the counter, but this customer was having problems ordering.