Eddie always said he could do eighteen months standing on his head.
I’d never been in jail, but I imagined it wasn’t as easy as Eddie let on. Nothing ever was.
* * *
We sat down the block for half an hour, watching people and traffic come and go. Crown’s was relatively quiet. No one had gone in or come out in the last half hour. I looked at my watch. It was 4:30. Dottie had told me the armored car always came at 5 o’clock on Friday. Old man Crown usually spent a couple of hours getting the shipments ready in a locked back room, meaning the diamonds would not be in a safe. Ronnie could crack a safe, but not in three minutes, which was all we had. I had yet to find a locked door I couldn’t put my foot through in a couple of seconds.
“Okay, let’s do this,
” I said. I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with Eddie. “Everybody be cool, do what you’re supposed to, and we’ll be in and out in no time.”
Chunk pulled out of the parking space and stopped directly in front of Crown Jewelers. Me, Eddie, and Ronnie pulled our black ski masks down over our faces, put on black latex gloves, and made it from the van to the store’s front door in three seconds. Chunk pulled away and Pete stood casually on the sidewalk outside.
We came through the door so quickly that the guard barely had time to react before Ronnie shoved the stun gun into his meaty neck and knocked him out cold. Ronnie took the guard’s gun and emptied the rounds from the chamber, then slid the gun back into its holster. He pulled the guard’s hands behind his back and zip-tied them.
I set the timer on my watch to three minutes. Eddie locked the door and flipped the Open sign to Closed. We were all relieved to find no one else in the showroom. I went directly around the display case and into the doorway that led to a short hall. On the left were an office and a restroom. On the right was a door with two deadbolts installed.
“Fucking deadbolts,” Eddie said with a grin. “Seriously?”
I rolled my eyes, then lined up and put the heel of my right boot into the door, next to the knob. The door frame cracked, but the door didn’t open. I lined up and kicked it again, this time next to the deadbolts. The door frame splintered and the door flew open.
Old man Crown was sitting at a long table with a diamond loop in his eye and a horrified look on his face. On the table in front of him were a dozen tidy little piles of loose diamonds.
Eddie and I looked at each other and smiled.
* * *
I set the black duffel bag I’d carried in on the table while Eddie put the old man on the floor and zip-tied his hands. Crown didn’t say a word. He just held up his hands and complied with Eddie’s commands. I guess his six or seven decades in the jewelry business had taught him not to resist during a robbery, especially when everything we were stealing was probably over-insured.
Inside the duffel was a pair of sweats and an old pair of tennis shoes with socks stuffed inside. I tugged out the socks, then carefully scooped up each pile of diamonds and slid them into the toes of the tennis shoes, which were lined with plastic. Once I had every diamond from the table inside the shoes, I shoved the socks back into the shoes and zipped the duffel bag. I glanced at my watch. We had thirty seconds to go.
“That’s it,” I said, grinning at Eddie. I picked up the duffel and held out a hand to motion him to the door. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, little brother.”
Eddie grinned back at me. He ran his tongue over the silver tooth and pulled the small walkie-talkie off his belt. “Chunk, you fat motherfucker,” he said happily. “Pick us up.”
* * *
Ronnie was waiting by the door. When he saw Eddie and I emerge from the back room, he grinned and unlocked the front door and led the way out.
The white van skidded to a stop in front of us. I saw Chunk behind the wheel, but I didn’t see Pete, who was supposed to be standing lookout on the sidewalk. I assumed that he was already in the van. I’d give him hell for breaking protocol once we were safely away.
“Where the fuck’s Pete?” Eddie asked as he reached for the van’s side door.
“Beats me, let’s just go,” I said, looking up and down the street. A feeling I’d never felt before came over me, like a cold wind blowing down my neck. I glanced at Chunk. He had tears in his eyes. He lifted his left hand from the steering wheel to show me the handcuff around his wrist. The other end of the cuff was clipped to the steering wheel.
The van’s side door slid open with a loud metal clank. Inside the van were three SWAT members in full black Ninja gear. They all had M-4 automatic rifles, one each aimed at Ronnie, Eddie, and me. Little red laser dots danced across our chests. One of them grinned and put the dot between my eyes, blinding me. He said, “Gotcha, motherfucker.”
The sidewalk around us quickly filled with black uniforms. I dropped the duffel bag and held up my hands. I told Eddie and Ronnie to do the same.
It was over.
The Wright Brothers had pulled their last job.
Oddly enough, all I could think about was Sandy, waiting for my call, ready to run away with me to start a new life.
I wondered how long she would be willing to wait.
SANDY