Cha-Ching

            The short, black-haired woman with sunglasses is pointing a gun at the clerk. She seems to know how to handle a gun fairly well. She barks out orders to the masked members of the group she entered with; she must be the leader because she feels no need to hide her identity. The others go around ripping jewelry off the frightened people on the floor. They take their gold watches, pearl necklaces, money in their wallets, and anything else of value they can throw in a bag.

            “Put the money in the bag! All of it!” the lead woman yells at the clerk.

                                                *          *          *

I love the sweet smell of a big, fat paycheck. I love getting them, too, especially after making a bust and sending an evildoer to jail. May not be the highest-paying job or the cleanest, but it has its thrills. I’m a detective and I have my own firm. I get the job done and that’s why everyone knows who I am. When they need help, they look me up. I have connections to all the detectives in New York state. We help each other out and stick together.  A knock on the door downstairs. “Who is it?” I yell down from my recliner.

“It’s Al,” says a deep voice behind the door.

I get up and tread through “People” magazines, lipstick bottles, dresses, and bras lying on the floor. My place is a mess with all the late night cases I have to work on. I have to unlatch all four locks on my door; New York is a dangerous place, after all. “Hey, Al. What’s the plan for tonight?”

“Stakeout. Got a new case at the door today.” A hulking, sleek-haired man holds up a manila folder.

“Ok, let’s have a look.” Al hands the manila folder over and I take out the papers. “Alright. When we going?”

“Got your stuff ready?”

“Nope, not yet.”

“Get it together and we’ll leave at six.”

Al leaves and drives off somewhere. I sit back down in my chair and grab some of the essentials for our stakeout like flashlight, pistol, taser, and my sandwich. I make a call to a colleague of mine to pick up any cases I get while I’m gone. We’re probably going to be out late on this stakeout, like all the others. So, I close my eyes and think about vacationing in Cabo. Soon enough, I’m there, but only in my dreams.

                                    *          *          *

Al knocks on the door loudly and I groggily get up.

“Let’s go,” he says in his baritone voice. I grab the bag with the stuff and hurry into the car to avoid the rain. We get to our destination, the district bank, and park in an alley across from it.

“So why we staking this one?”

“Just checking it out. There was a threat made to this one from an anonymous earlier. Says he called himself ‘an insider.’ The manager is scared and asked us to look out for anything. ”

“Heh, alright. Piece o’ cake. As long as we get our due, I’m good,” I smugly say.

We listened to the radio for a while. I ate my sandwich. Al took a nap. Nothing for four hours. “Hey, Al. Let’s go check it out,” I say as I shake Al to wake the big lug up.

We decide it is about the time when most burglars would strike at midnight. We get out of the car and peer inside. There are some lights on, but nothing to suggest any activity at this time of day.  We circle the perimeter to check if there are any signs of burglars or if there’s another way in that they might have used. Nothing. We get back in the car and wait in the dark alley. Still nothing. Al drops me back at my house and I hit the sack. Another boring stakeout. But at least I get paid for it.

                                                *          *          *

            The sun breaks through into my apartment, which doubles as my office. I lazily walk to the door to pick up The New York Times. Under the paper is an envelope. “Another case,” I groan. I find a check of the standard down payment for a new case inside the envelope. The check sweetens the deal a little bit, I guess. I take a look inside. My next assignment is to go follow some man around. His wife thinks he’s cheating on her and taking their money to spend on his affair. So, I get ready to go investigate. I pack my binoculars, camera, and fake I.D. in case I have to intervene and then I head out.

            I follow standard procedure for this type of case: I go to where the suspect should be; their job. I get to the guy’s workplace and ask to see him. “Not here,” the secretary says. Oh well, can’t say I didn’t try. I’ll get back on the hunt later on. Hunger strikes me after doing all that work. It’s about grub time anyways. I leave and get a hot dog from a vendor in front of an alley in front of the guy’s office. I see the vendor trying to peer over my shoulder. Luckily, she can’t because she’s so short.

            “Hey, want any jewelry? I got all kinds. Real cheap,” she says shadily. She opens her jacket so I catch a glimpse of her stock.

            “No, I’m good.” That is the woman who stole from that store that contacted me last month…later, not now. She backs into the alley until all I see is the glint of the light reflections from the buildings across the street on her sunglasses.

I try to plan my next move in tracking this guy down while I munch on my lunch. I read his file again and head to my next clue; a house with a phone number he calls a lot at his office.

            The house is a large, gated estate in upstate New York. It takes me four hours to get there. I have to use the caller and inform who I assume is the butler that I’m a detective and need to talk to the owner. The gates slowly creak open and I walk up to the house. A woman with black hair and a svelte red dress is waiting at the door. She looks like a woman who is expecting company. She has an air to her that tells me she gets what she wants, when she wants it. But that won’t distract me from the task at hand.

             “Do you know this man?” I hold up the picture I have from his wife.

            “Yes, that is Mr. Monroe.” At least she knows his real name.

            “And what is your connection with Mr. Monroe,” I inquire.

            “We’ve gotten together to discuss business a few times.” No lie there.

            “And what business was there to discuss?” I ask expecting a certain answer.

            All of a sudden, a terrified look appeared on her blushed face. “Oh no…is he married or something? I’m so, so sorry. He never mentioned anything. I’m so -”

            “Yes, he has a wife,” I cut her off. She was about ready to burst into tears. “She contacted me to find out if he was cheating on her. Guess I found out…”

            “Well. Thank you for informing me. I won’t be seeing Mr. Monroe anymore,” she bluntly states. She turns her back and slams the door.

            “At least it was easy,” I say to no one in particular. I head out and get in my car. On the four hour drive back, I think about my next assignment. Should I go the stealthy route? Or should I be direct and strike fear into the unsuspecting victim? Eh, I’ll decide later with Al. I get back to my house really late and hit the sack.

                                                *          *          *

             I wake up late again, but luckily in this business, work comes to you. I get the newspaper again and find no new case. I relax because no case in the morning means no work for me. I sit down and sip my coffee slowly while reading the entire newspaper to see what the latest happenings are. I think about what I have to do for the day. I write a task list for me to follow for the day. “Go to bank…Groceries…Upgrade cell phone…” are at the top of the list. I head to the grocery store to stock up the fridge. At the store, another colleague of mine is there doing the same thing I am.

            “Grimes,” I greet to him.

            “Hey, K.C.,” Grimes says to me. “So we gonna’ bust this guy ‘The Insider,’ right?”
            “Well, we’re gonna’ try. Still waitin’ for his call. But we’ll hit whatever bank he calls. See you there,” I reply with a whisper.

            “Should I bring anything?” he asked with an eager voice.

            “Welllllll, I guess you can bring the heat,” I answer. Grimes smiles because I knew that’s what he wanted. My next stop is the cell phone store so I can get some stuff added to it. I walk past and head to the person I called, Sammy.

            “Hey, Sammy. Got what I asked for?”

            “Yup, everything. Just gimme the phone and I’ll do the rest,” he says and holds his hand out. I give him my phone and he takes it into the back room. “Come back after lunch, K.C.”

            I get lunch and then go to the phone store to pick up my phone. I go back home and file some papers for a few hours. Just about time to rouse Al. I walk to Al’s place just three blocks away. I use my key to get in. The big lug is sleeping of course. The place is a mess. He can’t clean. All he does is drink, eat, and go on stakeouts with me. I walk around in his house hoping he will wake up on his own. No dice. I walk in and wake him up.

            “Yo, Al. Time to roll.”

            “MMMMMRMRRMHMHMMRM,” comes from the pile of blankets covering Al. “Now?”

            “Yup. The others are waiting     for us at the rendezvous.”

            “Fine,” he grumbles and the pile of blankets starts to fall apart. Al goes to the bathroom and washes his face to wake up. “Alright, lemme get my stuff and we’ll go.”

            We head off to the meeting spot where we meet up with Grimes and a few of his friends.

            “Alright. So what’s the plan?” asks one of Grimes’ goons. Grimes looks to me for the answer.

            “I’m thinking we go the fear-striking route today, you guys. We go in and call out our target to show himself,” I reply.

            We put on all our gear, hash out a plan, and head into the bank. The man flanking my right shoots his gun, as planned. I taze the security guards and they crash to the floor. “Everyone on the floor,” he yells out after grabbing their attention.

            “Nobody move! We’re looking for ‘The Insider.’ One of you is him and we need to talk,” I yell at the nervous people on the floor. I search the room with beady eyes under my shades. I spot a guy dressed as a clerk who looks suspicious. I go up to him, point my gun at him, and put my mouth next to his ear and whisper, “Are you who we want?”

            “Yea. Where were you guys? I was waiting for a long time,” he grins and gets up. He goes to the back and opens safes and registers. I toss him a bag.

            “Collect all the valuables from these people, Al! Grimes, take out the cameras! You two! Lock this place down!” I bark out to the others. I turn on my cell phone and it jams any other signal in the bank so no help can be called for. I go back to our clerk-friend and yell, “Put the money in the bag! All of it!”