Trust Me (14 page)

    "I never said I could open the safe." She'd implied it for sure but never actually said she could do it.

    "I don't fucking believe this," Wade said. He took a step toward Karen. "You just get it out of there, I'll take care of everything else." He turned toward Lloyd and Bobby. "Remember her saying that?"

    "I don't know," Lloyd said.

    "You don't know," Wade said.

    "Cut her some slack," Bobby said. "We'll figure something out."

    "I'm going to cut more than that," Wade said, "we don't get this thing open."

    There was a big construction toolbox made out of wood in the corner of the room. Wade walked over to it and came back to the safe with a sledgehammer and a crow bar.

    Bobby said, "Yeah, that's going to do a lot of good."

    He winked at Lloyd, pointed his index finger at his temple and rotated it, indicating that Wade had a screw loose.

    Wade said to Bobby, "Want me to come over there use it on you?"

    Bobby didn't answer. Wade raised the sledgehammer and swung at the door of the safe, the head of the sledge pinging off the heavy steel. He swung again and again with no apparent damage-sweat popping on his face, finally too tired to continue.

    Come on," Bobby said. "You're close. Couple more swings you'll have it."

    He grinned, having some fun, probably figuring Wade didn't have the strength to go after him.

    "Get me the tools," Lloyd said. "I'll open her."

    "We're not leaving this safe full of money here with one of you," Bobby said. "Have it mysteriously disappear while we're gone. No offense."

    "No offense, huh?" Karen took a drag, dropped her cigarette on the concrete floor and stepped on it. "Maybe we should all go. Stick together till we divide up the money." She made eye contact with each one of them showing she had nothing to hide.

    Wade said to Karen, "How do we know he's not planning to have someone come by when we leave? He rented the place."

    "He said we could trust him," Karen said.

    "And you believe that horseshit?" Wade said.

    "You got a better idea," Bobby said, "let's hear it."

    "Or you can try the sledgehammer again," Karen said.

    Wade threw the sledge and it skidded across the concrete floor. "Don't put this on me. You're the one fucked up."

    Sparks were flying and blue smoke drifted up from the safe as Lloyd guided the saw across the top. The blade was brick red and it was made out of some kind of carbon fiber that ripped a seam right through the heavy steel. Lloyd had picked it out when they were at Home Depot, arriving before the place even opened, waiting in the parking lot in the minivan. Robbing Samir was turning into a major production.

    Under a sign that said "Power Tools," Lloyd found what he was looking for and held up a shrink-wrapped package.

    "This little honey cuts through steel like buttah," he said.

    He bought four carbon fiber blades just in case, and a high-performance Milwaukee circular saw. Standing in Home Depot first thing in the morning with Bobby, Lloyd and Wade was strange. With the boots and Def Leppard tee shirt, Wade could've been a construction worker. But the rest of them were dressed too nice, even Lloyd, GQ-ing it in khakis and a white open-collar shirt that looked like it was made out of linen. Wade decided since they were there, he'd buy himself some new spark plugs for his Fat Boy. Karen asked him if there was anything else he needed, some plumbing supplies maybe, or gardening equipment?

    Wade said, "What the hell for?"

    He was still wound up tight from the night before. She was too after trying to sleep sitting up in the back seat of the minivan, Bobby next to her, Lloyd and Wade in front.

    When they got back to the warehouse, Bobby said to Wade, "There it is and you were worried about someone stealing it."

    Now a layer of red dust and metal shavings covered the top of the safe. Lloyd worked methodically, cutting a line through the heavy gauge steel. The noise was deafening. It was giving Karen a headache. He cut two lines one way and two the other way, forming a square. He wore safety goggles that were coated with red dust. Karen wondered how he could see. Every couple minutes, Bobby stepped in with a can and squirted cutting oil into the kerf. Lloyd had used the word. He said it was a groove made by a cutting tool. Karen had never heard it before.

    Wade said, "Be careful don't get the money wet."

    Lloyd finished the job and put the saw on the floor and took off his goggles.

    Bobby patted him on the back. "Is he beautiful? Man knows how to get jiggy with a saw."

    Wade came over to inspect Lloyd's work. There were four intersecting cut lines on top of the safe. Wade touched the one Lloyd had just finished and burned his finger.

    "Fuck," Wade said, shaking his finger, then sticking it in his mouth to cool it down.

    "Careful, it's hot," Lloyd said.

    Wade glared at him.

    Lloyd picked up the sledgehammer and swung it over his head and put his weight into it, bringing it down on top of the safe. The solid thud sound was gone. There was like an echo now. Lloyd dropped the sledge and picked up the crowbar, wedging it into one of the kerfs, levering back and forth. The cut-out square on top of the safe wiggled. Lloyd drove the sharp edge of the crowbar into another seam. He pulled back and the cut-out piece rose up and then fell into the safe with a metallic
clang.
The safe was empty.

    Wade locked his gaze on Karen. "What the fuck is this?"

    "Don't look at me," Karen said.

    Wade flashed a lunatic grin. "Well I guess we'll all go home and try again some other time, eh?" Wade drew a Colt Python from under his Def Leppard tee shirt and leveled it on Bobby. "Where's the money, slick?"

    "Ask her," Bobby said, looking at Karen. "You must think we're dumb and dumber. We leave the safe here, go to Home Depot and somebody comes by, cleans it out."

    "I don't know what you're talking about," Karen said. She was nervous now, thinking Wade was going to lose it and start firing like he did at Samir's.

    Wade aimed the Colt at Bobby and cocked the hammer back. "Where's the money? You got three seconds."

    "I'm telling you, it wasn't me, I don't have it," Bobby said, pointing at Karen. "She took it."

    Wade aimed the Colt at her now.

    "Think about it," Karen said. "He rented the warehouse. I didn't even know where we were going."

    Lloyd and Wade stood on opposite sides of the safe. Lloyd held the crowbar at arm's length down his right leg.

    Wade aimed his pistol at Bobby. "I believe
her.
Now where's the money at?"

    "If what she's saying is true," Bobby said, "how'd I know the combination? I never even met the man." He gave Lloyd a quick glance. "I assumed someone would try to screw someone over. I figured it would be you, Wade, just out of the joint, overcome by greed, going for the whole score."

    Wade moved toward Bobby, aiming the Colt, and Lloyd stepped around the safe with the crowbar and swung it, making contact with the back of Wade's head. He staggered and went down, dropping the gun. Karen made a move for it but Lloyd got there first and hooked it with the crowbar and sent it sliding across the floor.

    Bobby walked over and picked up Wade's Colt Python and moved back toward Karen and Lloyd. He said, "Where's the money?"

    "I don't know," Karen said. "There were a lot of people who knew Samir had a safe in his house."

    "Strange," Bobby said. "You never mentioned any of this before. It was a slam dunk, I believe was the verbiage you used."

    "It never crossed my mind," Karen said. "Why would it?"

    "Now that it has," Bobby said, "who do you think did it? Which one was the renegade?"

    Karen said, "I have no idea."

    "You dated the man, knew the whole gang," Bobby said.

    Lloyd said to Bobby, "Can I talk to you for a minute."

    "Step into my office." Bobby swung his arm out indicating the open area of floor where the toolbox was. "Would you excuse us?" he said to Karen.

    Bobby and Lloyd walked over to the far end of the room, but Bobby kept his eyes on Karen the whole time.

    Lloyd said, "What the fuck's going on here? You going to let her scam you again?"

    Again? Bobby wasn't sure what Lloyd was referring to but let it go. "No, I'm trying to let her think she's scamming me. It would work a hell of a lot better if we weren't standing here having a conversation."

    "You want to find out where the money's at? Give me a few minutes alone with her," Lloyd said.

    "That's one way to do it," Bobby said. "Or we can make her think we're all in this together. We all got screwed, and follow her to the money. I like the element of surprise myself."

    "You love to give orders, don't you?" Lloyd said. "Tell people what to do."

    Where'd that come from? Lloyd was starting to worry him. "I'm expressing my opinion," Bobby said. "That's all. I'm not giving anybody orders. I'm trying to get the money back the best way I know how. You want to try the hardass approach, go ahead."

    Lloyd gave him a blank look. "All right," he said, backing down, "we'll try it your way."

    "You sure?" Bobby said, "I don't want to give you orders, tell you what to do."

    Karen backed the minivan out of the warehouse and took one last look at Samir's safe in the middle of the floor. When she was all the way out, squinting in the bright morning sunlight, Bobby pressed a button inside the warehouse and the garage door started to go down.

    Karen didn't think she'd ever get out of there. Time had never gone so slowly, the last twelve hours creeping along. It was torture. Karen figured Wade would freak and he did. She didn't know what Bobby would do, or Lloyd. He gave Wade a run for his money in the psycho department.

    Bobby's plan was to have Karen drive the minivan to the parking lot behind Sears at the Oakland Mall, park and walk away. Bobby and Lloyd would pick her up. Let some shopper find poor Wade on the floor behind the front seat, cooking in the hot sun.

    Karen had her own plan: she was going to get away from Bobby and Lloyd, get the money and get out of town. She didn't feel anything close to sympathy for them. They were thieves; they got what they deserved.

    She could see the red Mustang in the rearview mirror, cutting in and out of traffic a few car lengths back. She saw the entrance to 1-75 up ahead and pressed down on the accelerator. She passed a Ford Taurus going maybe thirty, and took a hard right at the last second from the left lane. Wade's body slid across the floor, and banged into one side of the van and then the other as she turned the wheel and corrected her course, merging on 1-75. The Mustang was nowhere in sight. Karen let out a breath.

    "Make it look like she's losing us," Bobby said. He let Lloyd drive so he could keep an eye on the minivan.

    "I don't have to," Lloyd said. "She is."

    As they were coming up on the left in the outside lane, the van swerved right, fishtailing up the expressway entrance ramp then gunning it, heading south on 1-75.

    "All you had to do was hang back give her a little room," Bobby said.

    Lloyd downshifted and turned the wheel hard, making a U-turn over the double yellow, tires squealing, horns honking, cars bearing down on them. Bobby put his hands up bracing himself for a crash.

    Lloyd said, "What's the matter, afraid?"

    For the first time since Lloyd met him, Bobby didn't say anything.

    "You said follow her. That's what I'm doing." Lloyd shot around a slow car and floored it, going left through a gap in oncoming traffic, speeding up the expressway ramp.

    "If we'd a done it my way," Lloyd said, "we'd be splitting the money right now. But you wanted to create an element of surprise. Well surprise, she's gone."