Stuart Woods - Short Straw

The woman looked at him with hatred. "Harold says if you don't do it before he gets out, he'll find you and kill you, Joe Big Bear."

So Harold had found out his name. "Thank you for that message," Joe said. "Give me the money."

She handed him a red bandanna, tied up in a bundle.

Joe peeped inside. "I'm going to count it later," he said. "If it isn't all there, Harold is going to get hurt today. So are you."

She started the truck, backed out of the parking space and drove away.

Joe went back to his truck, got in and counted the money. It was all there. "Jesus," he said aloud, "why didn't I go into this line of work sooner?"

BARBARA PUT DOWN her cell phone and turned to Vittorio. "How long are we staying here?"

"I figure one more night, just to let things cool off."

"I have to go to a bank or a Western Union office today."

"Are you nuts?"

"My sister has an emergency, and she needs money. Don't argue with me, Vittorio; it has to be done."

Vittorio drove her into town, parked in front of a bank, checked the street in every direction and waved her inside. Half an hour later, she was back.

"Everything go okay?" he asked.

"Perfectly," she said.

"Then why do you look so nervous? I never saw you look nervous before."

"Shut up and drive," she said.

EAGLE DIALED SUSANNAHS CELL PHONE NUMBER.

"Well, hi there," she said.

"Are you moved in yet?"

"In a manner of speaking," she replied. "I mean, the boxes have all been dumped here; now they're unpacking them."

"I'm glad you've got help," he said.

"I've got four guys here, working like beavers. If I can keep them from breaking the crystal, I'll have this place in shape by dinnertime."

"I wish I were there to cook for you."

"You cook?"

"When you're a bachelor for as long as I was, it's a survival skill. When are you coming back? I hope you're not waiting until the closing."

"Well, I was going to, but once this place is livable I don't really have anything to occupy me here, until I get some work."

"Come here, and I'll occupy you. In fact, I'll see if I can't get the closing brought forward. I know that the owner has already moved out. And I have a comfortable guest suite, and I'd be very pleased if you'd stay at my house until the closing."

"That would be very nice. See what you can do about the closing, and I'll go ahead and have my furniture shipped."

"Do you have enough to fill the house?"

"No, not with splitting my things between two places."

"I'll give you a list of all the best shops."

"I'm going to need a housekeeper and a secretary, too."

"I'll put my secretary on that right away."

"You're a doll, Ed Eagle."

"I hope you'll still think so a year from now."

"Why a year?"

"I reckon that's how long it will take you to find out."

"We'll see. I've gotta run. Somebody just dropped a Baccarat goblet."

Eagle hung up feeling like a new man, but then it occurred to him that he hadn't received the FedEx package from Vittorio. He called the Apache's cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Vittorio? It's Ed Eagle."

"Good morning, Mr. Eagle."

"Why haven't I received the FedEx package from you?"

"I was planning to send it from the airport yesterday, but I got held up. It'll go out today, I promise."

"Everything all right?"

"Couldn't be better," Vittorio replied.

"Give my best to Cupie."

"Will do." He hung up.

Eagle wasn't going to feel comfortable until he had those blank pages in hand.

JOE BIG BEAR SAT outside the Western Union office, reading a paperback novel, a western. He glanced up at the storefront, watching the clerk inside for some sign that he had received the wire. Nothing. He looked at his watch: eleven-forty. She wasn't going to send it.

Oh, well, he thought, I'll just have to get by with the twelve-five from Harold. At that moment, the clerk left his counter, went to the front door and waved Joe inside. His heart leapt, and he hurried into the office.

"Your wire is in," the man said. "How do you want the money?"

"In cash."

"You sure you don't want a cashier's check? It's safer."

"Nah, I've gotta pay for a car in cash."

"Give me a minute," the man said. "I'll have to see if we've got that much." He disappeared into a back room.

Joe took a chair, picked up a magazine and tried to be cool.

Five minutes later, the clerk returned with a large brown envelope. "I don't have it all in hundreds," he said, "so I had to give you a lot of fifties and twenties."

"No problem," Joe said.

The man handed him the envelope. "Count it, please."

Joe riffled through each stack of bills, counting quickly. "It's all here," he said.

"Sign right here, Mr. Grande," the clerk said, offering him a pen. "Pepe Oso Grande," the clerk mused. "Doesn't that mean Joseph Big Bear in English?"

"Something like that," Joe replied. He signed the document, took his money and walked out. Back in the car, he didn't trust himself to drive for a moment. His heart was pounding, he was breathing rapidly, and he was sweating.

"Thirty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars," he said aloud, mopping his brow. He'd never had more than two thousand dollars at once in his life. He took some deep breaths and started the car. He had no idea where to go, so he just wandered slowly in the direction of home. What would he do with all this money? He hadn't allowed himself to think about that until now.

"Buy a safe," he said aloud. He turned into Sam's Club, stuffed the cash under his seat and locked the pickup. He was back in twenty minutes with a heavy, cardboard box on a dolly. With the help of a clerk, he muscled it into the pickup and unlocked the cab, checking to see that the money was still under the seat.

He drove back to his trailer, got his toolbox and bolted the safe to the floor under a kitchen cabinet. Then he set the combination into the electronic lock and practiced opening it a few times. Satisfied, he took the money out of its envelope and placed it on a shelf in the safe, along with the twelve-five from Harold, then he closed and locked the safe and got a beer from the fridge.

He sat, sipping it, thinking about what he could do with thirty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars. It was all his, and he didn't have to do a fucking thing for it. The woman didn't know who she'd wired the money to.

Then the beer went sour in his mouth. Harold knew who he was, and he had promised to find and kill him if Eagle wasn't dead before he got out of jail.

Joe swallowed hard. It was the first time it had occurred to him that he was really going to have to kill Ed Eagle. And he was probably going to have to kill Harold, too, when he got out. And his wife; she knew his name, too.

BARBARA WOKE UP BEFORE DAWN. VlTTORIO WAS SLEEPING soundly beside her. She picked up her handbag, then walked to where Vittorio's bag stood open and felt inside, coming up with the Federal Express envelope. She took it into the bathroom, locked the door and turned on the light.

It was just an ordinary FedEx shipping envelope; he hadn't affixed the label, yet. She pulled the tab that opened it and removed the signed blank sheets of paper inside. Then she opened her large handbag and took out the FedEx envelope and blank paper she had gotten from the bank. She stuffed the blank sheets inside, sealed it, then put the old envelope and the signed sheets into her handbag. Then she switched off the light, unlocked the door and tiptoed to Vittorio's bag. She put the FedEx envelope containing the blank sheets into the bag, then crept back into bed. "What?" Vittorio said.

"Nothing," she said. "I just went to the bathroom."