Nick Stephenson - Eight the Hard Way

“Why not?” Clinton asked, his smile full of yellow teeth.

She kept looking at Reagan as though answering him. “Well, because people need to be fed, go to the bathroom, sleep, those sorts of things. And the way things sit right now, you’ve made that pretty damn difficult.”

Reagan sighed and pulled a pack of smokes out of his shirt pocket.

“No smoking in the house,” June said to him.

He snorted a laugh. “I’m supposed to go out in the back and smoke?” he asked with a note of incredulity to his voice.

“No smoking out there either.”

She tried staring him down again but lost the battle when he lit a cigarette. He exhaled a long stream of gray smoke in her direction, smoke seeping out the eye, ear, and nose holes of the mask. “Anyway, we know where she lives and we know she has a wall safe there. We know an armored truck made a delivery of cash. And a wealthy woman like her is gonna have plenty of cash on hand, just for times like this.”

“Really? How did you find out she has a wall safe? Because she’s never said a thing about it to me. Seems odd that strangers would know that but not her own sister.”

“Cause we’ve been figuring out a way of getting’ money from her, you haven’t. You and me, we pay attention to different things, and learn different stuff. You know what the brats like to eat, and I know she has money in the house.”

“And you think I have the combination to the safe?”

“No. You just made it sound like you don’t. Which means we need to get it from her.” He grinned at her. “And we ain’t waitin’ till she gets back here. We want the combination to the safe, and the code that will get us past the alarm system at the house. Plus, we want the pass from your car that will get us past the guard at the front gate to the neighborhood.”

“You don’t want much, do you?” June fidgeted uncomfortably in her tight plastic restraints. “Anything else? A helicopter to take you to a yacht out at sea for your get-away?”

“Not a bad idea. But we already have that all worked out.”

June watched the twins watching the television, a colorful and busy children’s show she had never seen before. They had settled down and were more interested in the show than what was going on around them. Both had at least one finger in their mouth. Satisfied there was a measure of control in the house, at least over emotions, she looked back at the man in the easy chair.

“How do you know I’m going to cooperate?”

Silently, Reagan left his chair and went to the couch where the girls were sitting. Holding the cigarette with his teeth, he pushed the girls’ shoulders together, and then their heads. They looked startled to be touched from behind and began whimpering again.

“Hey! Leave them alone!” June struggled against the plastic ties.

He pulled the gun from his jacket pocket and shoved the muzzle up against the side of a head. He slid the gun around in the girl’s hair until it settled onto a point just over her ear.

Reagan looked back at June. “ This is how we get you to cooperate...”

Hot tears welled up in June’s eyes hearing the girls whimpering more.

“Sit still, girls, and be quiet,” June warned them. “Sit still or auntie will be very angry with you.” She looked again at the gun in the man’s hand, and then back at his face. “Do that and you have no leverage at all. It would be a one way trip to the gas chamber.”

“Want to try out your theory?” the man asked, smoke curling up from the cigarette locked between his teeth. “So far we’ve left no evidence, no prints or fibers anywhere in the house. Two bullets would silence the three of you forever. Then we’d simply walk out the front door happier than a gang of missionaries.”

June thought about the situation. Amy had mentioned she was spending the weekend at home, and there was no way she would send these men to her house if Amy was home. The situation was bad enough already; she wasn’t going to let it get worse.

“But I don’t know the combination to her safe! I didn’t even know she had a safe until you told me!”

“Look, idiot. There’s this new technology called cell phones. You’re going to call her and get the combination. Right now.”

“But...”

She watched as he flicked the safety off his pistol, making the gun ready to be fired.

“Fine.”

He left the gun aimed where it was. “This is how it works. We’ll use your phone. Clinton will dial the number and hold the phone up to your ear. You talk nice and calm. No chitchat, no girl talk. Got it?”

June nodded her head.

“You’ll calmly explain the situation to her, about how there is a gun held to the heads of her precious little miracles, but all we want is the money from the safe. Once we get that, we go away and none of you ever sees us again.”

“But what if...”

“No what ifs.” He smiled. “If she hears a gunshot, she’ll know we’re for real.”

June stared back. Her soul wanted to cry, but her mind won that fight. Crying could be done later. Right now she needed to keep a clear mind.

“If she hears a gun shot, she’ll have no reason to give you the combination.”

“We’ll still have you to negotiate with.”

“All you want is the combination to the safe?”

“It’s a complex safe. There’s an electronic password that needs to be put in, plus a dial combination, to get the safe open. You’ll get both, repeat them out loud so I can hear. Any questions?”

She nodded. “How’d you learn all that?”

“Not your problem, is it, auntie ?”

“Where’s your phone?” Georgie asked after he stood up from the dinner table.

“My purse, on the desk.”

George dumped the contents of June’s purse on the desk and collected her smart phone. He began scrolling through numbers looking for the right one.

“How do you have her listed?” he asked when he got to her side.

June kept her eyes on Reagan, and on the pistol held against Koemi’s head. He gave June a look as though she shouldn’t stall. “Sis.”

George kept scrolling.

“Just make sure she understands exactly what we want. No fuss, no long explanations. She needs to know we’re serious.”

Reagan nodded his head at Clinton, who then went to June’s side. She was still in the middle of the living room, wrists and ankles restrained. Clinton pulled out his pistol and set the muzzle against her head, in the exact same point Reagan’s gun was aimed at Koemi’s head, just above her ear.

Georgie found the number labeled ‘sis’ and pressed call. He held the phone out in front of June, where they could hear it ringing. For the first time since being tied up, she broke eye contact with Reagan and stared down at the phone.

She listened to it ring, then another ring, and then again. June listened as it rang a seventh, an eighth, a tenth time. No answer, not even voice mail.

“She’s not answering,” June said. “She’s too busy.”

“Georgie, did you dial the right number?” Reagan asked impatiently.

He looked at the screen. “It’s says sis on it.”

June could see sweat forming on Reagan’s neck below the edge of the mask, running down into his shirt. Part of it was the rubber mask over his head, and maybe part was his nerves. She needed to apply more pressure to force him into a mistake.

“If you take off the masks, you won’t be so hot,” she told them.

“And risk going back to prison? Forget that,” Clinton said.

“Shut your hole!” shouted Reagan.