Without a Hitch (14 page)

“They’re just
kids.”

“Yeah well, with
the bank manager’s accusing stares, they seemed more like his own personal army
of winged monkeys, watching me. . . staring at me.”

Beckett looked
at his watch.  “Come on Dorothy, time to get back to Kansas.”

Molly walked
straight into Corbin’s office without knocking and sat down at Beckett’s desk. 
She scanned the desk for signs that Beckett had been there recently.  Watching
her examine Beckett’s coffee cup, Corbin congratulated himself for emptying
half its contents only moments before.

“This is getting
old.  Where is he?!”

“Around.”

“No, he isn’t. 
You two are up to something.”  Molly picked up the coffee cup to see if it was
still warm.

“No, we’re not,
Molly.”

“I know you
are.  Your little friend hasn’t been in here all day.”  Molly flipped through
the papers on Beckett’s desk.

“Yes, he has.”

“Hello!  I’m in
the office next door.  I would know.”

Corbin shrugged
his shoulders.  “What do you want me to tell you?”

“How about the
truth?”

“You won’t like
the truth.”

Molly spun
around.  “Let’s hear it!” she demanded.

“The truth is
he’s been in and out all day.  Every time his rear hits the chair, someone
calls him or e-mails him, and he takes off.  The only break he’s had, that I
know of, came when we went to lunch.”

Molly shook her
head.  “No.”

“I don’t know
what else I can do to prove it to you?”

“
Habeas
corpus
counselor, produce the corpse.”

“What is it with
the big words today?  Did you swallow a dictionary last night?”

Molly waved her
finger at Corbin.  “I know he hasn’t been here, and I’m going to prove it.  You
can let me in on your little secret now, or I’ll expose you later.”

“There’s nothing
to expose!”

“Yes, there is,”
she said, rising from Beckett’s chair.  “The more you deny it the more I’m
convinced.  You won’t get away with it, whatever it is, so you might as well
tell me now.”

“Go away.”

“I’m warning
you.  Just when you think you’ve gotten away with it, there I’ll be, and you’ll
be sorry you didn’t let me in on your little plan.”  Molly slammed the office
door.

Beckett stood in
the middle of 30th Street Station.  A towering statue of the Archangel Michael,
lifting the body of a dead soldier, looked down on Beckett from the entranceway
to the cavernous room.  Beckett felt relieved.  They’d gotten away with it, so
far at least.  The money still had to be collected, but that was up to Corbin
and Alvarez.  Beckett’s role was over, so he planted himself on a wooden bench
and let his eyes roam the room, enjoying the artwork and watching the passersby. 
As he sat there, all of his muscles relaxed and he nearly fell asleep.

Alvarez joined
him after buying a Coke.

Beckett ran his
hand along the heavy bench.  “This bench has probably been here at least a
hundred years.”

“Could be.”  Alvarez
felt more drained than relaxed.

“I wonder how
many thieves sat on this very spot during those hundred years?”

“Whatever it is,
add two more.”  Alvarez rubbed his eyes and popped the top on his Coke.  “I
need to go to the bathroom.”

“Don’t let me
stop you.”

“Corbin wanted
me to take the duffel bag.”

“To the can?”
Beckett asked facetiously.

“You know what I
mean.”

Beckett waved
his hand toward the bag.  “All yours.”

“Is everything
in there?”

“Yep.”

“Your pockets
are empty?”

Beckett raised
an eyebrow.  “Yes.”

“Do you want to
check again.”

“No.”

Alvarez grabbed
the bag.  “I’ll see you on the train.  Remember, we agreed to board
separately.”

“I remember.”

Alvarez pulled
the duffel bag over his shoulder.  He looked up at the station board.  The
train was running late.

For the past
hour, Corbin fended off several waves of well-wishers, many of whom were repeat
visitors who wondered why Beckett had yet to come see them.  So far, everything
ran smoothly, but Corbin knew Beckett needed to make an appearance soon or
things could unravel.  Before Beckett could make his appearance however, Corbin
needed to pick him up.  To do that, he had to get rid of Molly.  This was
proving to be difficult.  As the day progressed, her suspicion level
increased.  Beginning an hour ago, she started making spot checks in Corbin’s
office.  Now she tried a new tactic.

Molly entered
the office without knocking and made her way to Beckett’s chair.  “Fancy
meeting you here, too bad I can’t say the same thing about your roomie.”  She
was shaking something between her fingers.

“What’s
shakin’?”

Molly showed
Corbin a small glass bottle containing a liquid that matched the dark-red color
on her nails.  “I was sitting all by myself in my office, thinking about doing
my nails.  Then I remembered you were all alone, so I thought I’d come over
here and keep you company.  I brought plenty of polish, if you want to share.”

“I’ll pass.”

“How are
things?”  Molly set the nail polish down and began filing one of her nails.

“I’m actually
kind of busy, Molly.”

“Don’t let me
interrupt you.”

“That’s not what
I meant.” Corbin waited, but Molly didn’t respond.  “Ok, let’s be blunt. 
Please leave.”

“No.”

“I don’t want to
throw you out, but I will.”

“Doubt it.” 
Molly concentrated on her filing.

“I can make you
want to leave.”

“Not until I
find out what you two are up to.”

“If you don’t leave,
I’ll start making lewd comments until you do leave.”

“You wouldn’t
know how.”  Molly still didn’t look up from her work.

“Fine, you asked
for it,” Corbin said reluctantly.  He slowly examined her up and down, as if he
were a computer conducting an electronic scan.

Noticing his
silence, Molly looked up to see what Corbin was doing.  “What are you looking
at?”

“I understand
that one of the hardest things for strippers to deal with are guys who show up
just to nitpick their bodies.  I’m going to put that to the test.  First, I’m
going to guess your weight, then I’m going to move on to guessing other
measurements.”  Molly was by no means fat, but she wasn’t exactly thin either. 
And while Corbin found her figure quite attractive, he knew her weight was an issue
for her, as he’d seen the much slenderer Theresa score direct hits on this
point several times in the past.

Molly’s smile
vanished instantly.  “You wouldn’t dare.”

“If you’re still
here after that, I’ll start cataloging defects.  Last chance to leave.”

“You wouldn’t
dare,” she repeated.

“Let’s see,
you’re certainly north of 150 pounds.”

Molly’s face
flushed.

“I’d say you’re
probably north of 160 as well.”

Molly’s face
turned bright red and her eyes bulged.

“Maybe as much
as 164, though I wouldn’t rule out 170.”

Molly’s jaw
dropped.  Not only had Corbin guessed, but he’d guessed somewhat accurately. 
“Bastard!” she spat out.

“Are you
leaving?”

“No,” Molly said
resolutely.

“Those are some
mighty big feet you got there, Molly, not to mention some saggy—”

“Stop!”  Molly
jerked herself out of the chair.  As she stormed out the door in a huff, she
cursed Corbin over her shoulder.

Corbin breathed
a sigh of relief.  Now he could get Beckett.

When Beckett and
Alvarez boarded in Philadelphia, their car was nearly empty.  By the time they
reached the outer suburbs, they were alone.  With no one to overhear them, they
began arguing and accusing each other of making the entire trip unnecessarily
difficult.  This continued until they reached Baltimore.

Alvarez rose as
the train rolled to a stop.  He grabbed the duffel bag.  “Don’t take this the
wrong way, but I never want to see you again.”

“Ditto.”

Without another
word, Alvarez left the train.

Beckett watched
him leave.  “Idiot.”

Chapter 12

Beckett climbed
into Corbin’s car.  Corbin had already spoken to Alvarez and knew the trip had
been successful.  He also knew Alvarez and Beckett had not gotten along and
that Beckett would need to blow off a lot of steam.  He took the long way back
to the office.

“You’re late,” Corbin
tweaked Beckett, as Beckett had tweaked Alvarez earlier.

“Talk to the
train.”

“Sure, blame an
innocent train.  How’d it go?”

Beckett wasted
no time unloading.  “I don’t know where you dug that guy up, but what a
freakin’ loser!  He kept panicking!  If I wasn’t there, he’d be in jail right
now describing you and me in detail.”

“I take it you
two didn’t get along?”

“That’s the
understatement of the century.”

“But you got it
done.”

“Of course, we
got it done!  I told you we would do it, and we did it, but that’s not the
point.  I’m not in this for the adventure and I don’t get off on the
adrenaline.  I’m only doing this because I have no choice.  I need to support
my family, and my boss made sure I couldn’t do that within the system. . .”

Corbin let Beckett
ramble.  Several minutes later, he was still complaining.

“It makes me
nervous as all hell that we’re working with a guy who spent the whole time
sweating like a pig, whining like a baby, and freaking out every time he saw a
cop.”

“Nerves are a
fact of life.”

“You promised me
this guy was solid.  He wasn’t.”

“What do you
mean not solid?  He voluntarily walked into bank after bank and handed them
fake identification paperwork, knowing he was a sitting duck if they called the
cops.  Besides, from what I hear, you were nervous just waiting around
outside.”

Beckett glared
at Corbin.  “Who told you that?  Did that weasel call you and bitch about me?!”

“Take it easy.”

“Did he tell you
about his eruption at the McDonalds?!  Did he tell you he nearly started a fist
fight at the counter with a cop ten feet away?”

“Calm down. 
It’s over.”

Beckett’s
nostrils flared.  He took several deep breaths.  Finally, he began to calm
down.  “You’re right.  The hard part’s done.”

Corbin turned
off the main road.  They were two minutes from the office.  “We’re almost
back.  Last chance to yell, scream, whatever you need to do to get the
adrenaline out of your system.  Then we need to get you back into office mode.”

“I’m all right. 
Tell me about the office.”

“You spent the
entire day out processing and being pulled from office to office so people could
wish you good riddance.”  Corbin handed Beckett a sheet of paper.  “Here’s a
list of everyone who dropped by to see you.  The checkmarks mean you e-mailed
them that you would drop by later.  Patricia’s looking for you.  She wants your
out-processing file.  I’ve got that in my desk.  Kak came by a couple times.  I
think he wants to give you his standard goodbye words of wisdom.”

“He won’t do
that at the party?”

“No, he never
goes to the party.  He’ll corner you privately and tell you you’re a flawed
human being and that someday you’ll thank him for telling you that.  That’s his
way of making himself feel better.”

“Jerk off to the
end, huh?”

“Yep.  At this
point, Molly’s the only one who’s suspicious.  She’s been a royal pain in the
ass.  She doesn’t believe you’re in the office today.  She thinks you’re
playing hooky.  Don’t commit to being in the office at any particular time, she
may have been tracking her visits.  Also, don’t tell her you were at your desk
for more than five minutes at any one time.  F-Y-I, you’ve bought two cups of
coffee today and drank about half of each, but never right away, just sips
whenever you made it back to the office.  You and I went to lunch around 12:15
and got back at one.  On the post-lunch coffee trip, we ran into Stuart, who
told us about his TiVo recording porn during the days.  At that point, the
front office came and took you away.”

“Who from the
front office?”

“I didn’t say. 
I’d go with Zolensky, he won’t remember if he talked to you.”

“Won’t Stuart
know I wasn’t with you at the time?”

“No, he’s
actually pretty sure he saw you several times during the day.  Also, Stuart
won’t mention the porn thing to Molly or anyone else, so there’s no real chance
of anyone investigating the story.  Finally, remember you’ve been busy meeting
people all day.  You need to be calm, if not a bit worn down, and very, very
bored.”

“Got it.  How
did the alibis go?”

“Perfectly. 
Traceable phone calls, computer usage, e-mails, lunch receipts, credit card
bills, and one court reporter.  It all went off without a hitch.”

Beckett stared
out the window as the mall parking garage came into view.  “I’ve got to hand it
to you, this thing is working like a charm.”

When they
stepped off the elevator, Corbin scouted their hallway.  It was clear.  He
waved Beckett through.  “Go to the end, down by Theresa.  I’ll lure Molly out
of her office.  When you hear her, come around the corner like you’ve been up
at the front office.  Take this,” Corbin whispered, as he handed Beckett a
file.  Beckett took the file and walked silently to the end of the hallway.  No
one saw him.  After he ducked around the corner, Corbin knocked on Molly’s
door.

“Come in,” she
called out.  Her mood soured when Corbin stuck his head through the door. 
“What do you want?”

“I wanted to
apologize.”

“Go ahead.”  She
folded her arms and stared at him with cold eyes.

“Sorry.”

She squinted at
him and furrowed her brow.  “That’s it?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Keep tryin’,”
Molly said with great annoyance.

“I’m
really
sorry?”

“If that’s all
you’ve got—”

“I could build a
temple in your honor?”

Molly
involuntarily cracked a smile, but quickly regained her grim expression. 
“That’s a start,” she said, trying to sound “not convinced.”

“Seriously, I am
sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” Corbin said genuinely.

Molly’s grim
facade softened and her lips surrendered their frown.

“I’ve got an
extra cookie in my desk,” Corbin continued.  “Would you accept an offering
instead of a temple?”

“Maybe. . . let
me see the cookie.”

Corbin stepped
into his office next door.  Molly followed him as predicted.  When she entered
the hallway, Beckett turned the corner.  Molly saw him a millisecond later.

“O-M-G!  It’s
the invisible man!”

“What?” Beckett
asked.

“Where have you
been?!”

“Front office.” 
He walked past Molly to his desk and sat down.

“I mean all
day.”

Beckett looked
confused.  “I don’t follow you?”

“Where have you
been
all day
.”

“I don’t
understand?  I’ve been here all day.”

“I can most
definitely say you have
not
been in this building all day.”

Beckett at
Corbin.  “Did I miss something?”

Molly’s
expression changed to anger.  “Fine!  Be that way!  But I know the truth.  I’ll
figure it out, and you’ll be sorry.”  Molly backed out the door, slamming it on
her way out.

Corbin signaled Beckett
that Molly could be listening at the door.  Beckett nodded.  “What was that
about?” he asked loudly, toward the door.

“Insanity.  Sad
when it happens to someone you know.  Cookie?”

After reading
his e-mails, Beckett set about visiting everyone who had been promised a
visit.  He found this extremely tiring, but knew it was necessary to solidify
his alibi.  Interestingly, not one person, other than Molly, suspected he had
been gone.  Some even believed they saw him during the day.  Once again, Corbin
accurately predicted human nature.

Toward the end
of the day, the front office arranged to serve cake in one of the conference
rooms in Beckett’s honor.  This was an ancient office tradition which Beckett
knew was coming.  He liked the idea of the free cake, but knew the price of
admission would include a goodbye speech.  He also would have to endure one of
Wilson’s infamous “tribute” speeches.  Wilson never set out to offend anyone,
but his stream-of-consciousness speaking style combined with his general lack
of judgment to create what some in the office maliciously termed “verbal
diarrhea.”

“You ready?”
Corbin asked Beckett.

“Ready as I’ll
ever be.”

“Any idea what
you’re gonna say?”

“I wrote
something last week I thought I’d read.”  Beckett pulled a piece of paper from
his pocket.  “When I came here a year ago, I had a very negative opinion of
this office and particularly the management.  It is now a year later.  Thank
you all for your best wishes, goodbye.”

Corbin laughed. 
“I’ll give you five bucks, cold hard cash, if you say that!”

“Don’t think I
haven’t given it serious consideration.”

“What are you
really going to say?”

“I don’t know. 
Something will come to me.”

Beckett entered
the conference room to the sound of applause.  Everyone from the office was
present, with the notable exception of Kak.  As Beckett acknowledged the
applause, Corbin whispered in his ear:  “Think they’ll clap when they see their
credit reports?”  Beckett ignored the comment.

Kak’s secretary
called Beckett over to the cake.  There were two nearly-identical cakes with
white frosting and little sugar flowers.  She cut a piece from the corner of
the closest cake and handed it to Beckett.  “We didn’t know what kind of cake
you like, so we got one of each.  This one’s chocolate.”

“Thanks, Pat. 
I’m sure they’re both fine.”

“Mr. Kak wanted
to be here, but he was called away.”

“I’m sure.”

No sooner did
Beckett put fork to cake, than Wilson came over and tried to shake his hand. 
“Everett, it’s been good having you here.”  Wilson held his hands up to quiet
the crowd.  “People, people, quiet.  I’d like to thank each of you for coming
to help us give Everett a warm send off, though I suspect many of you just came
for the free cake.”  Everyone laughed uncomfortably.

“‘
Everett
’?”
Molly whispered into Beckett’s ear.  “Bet he doesn’t know your last name
either!”

Wilson
continued.  “Still, now that we have you, I’d like to say a few words about
Everett.  Everett was the kind of employee I’ve always felt we needed more of
around here.  He was hard-working, dedicated and prompt.”

“Unlike the rest
of you,” Corbin whispered to Molly.

“I keep telling
George that we should hire more married men like Everett.  They’re more
responsible.  I guess they learn to follow orders from their wives!”  Wilson
smiled, but the audience remained silent.  “One thing I have to say, though, is
I am disappointed you’re leaving us so soon.  We like our employees to stay at
least two years.  That way we know they have plenty of time to learn about what
we do.  Of course, we don’t want employees staying too long either, do we?  Ellen,
where are you?  There you are.  How many years have you been with us?”

“Six,” an icy
voice responded from the crowd.

“That’s a lot
more than Everett.  Still, we enjoyed having you here and getting to know you,
Everett.  Let me propose a toast.”  Wilson lifted his glass of punch.  He was
one of only five people in the room to get punch before he began speaking.  “To
Everett Beckett, good luck with the new job.”

Everyone clapped.

Beckett set down
his cake.  “Thank you Mr. Wilson, thank you everyone.  There are probably many
things I could say at a time like this to reflect upon my time here.  Today,
however, I’m thinking of the future.  So let me just say that I profited
greatly from my time here and that each of you enriched me more than you will
ever know.  Thank you all.”

The clapping
began again.

Corbin scanned
the crowd for any reactions.  No one seemed to grasp Beckett’s double meaning,
except Molly, who had a strange look on her face.  Corbin felt uneasy.

Corbin returned
to the office while Beckett remained in the conference room wishing people
well.  Molly soon appeared at his door.

“‘Profit
greatly’?  That’s subtle.  I would love to have been there when he returned to
the office this afternoon.  I can see it now.  ‘Gee, Becks, good to see ya. 
How’d it go?’”  She pointed at Corbin.  “That’s you, in case you haven’t
guessed.”

“I figured.”

“Then he says to
you.  ‘Hey, Corb,’ or whatever he calls you, ‘guess what you’re an accessory
to?’  Then you said something like.  ‘Doh!  I wish I’d listened to Molly when
she warned me about you.’”  She smacked her forehead with her palm.  “How’m I
doing so far?” she asked with a big grin.

“Very vivid
imagination.”

Just then Beckett
appeared at the door.  “Still think I’m not here, Molly?”

“Oh, you’re here
now, but that’s not the issue.  Where were you all day?  That’s the question.”

“Are you here to
quiz me or say goodbye?”

Molly shrugged
her shoulders.  “No need to quiz you; I’ll get what I need out of Corbin.  As
for goodbyes, I don’t like them.  I prefer ‘get the hell outs.’  See ya round,
Beckers.”  She left.

Now it was
Beckett’s turn to laugh.

“You got all
your stuff?” Corbin asked, scanning the office.

Beckett looked
over the few personal items remaining on his desk.  “I think so.”

Corbin closed
the door before handing Beckett a cell phone.  “Keep this.  It’s a prepaid
phone.  It’s untraceable.  There’s one number in memory; it belongs to this phone.” 
Corbin held up a second phone.  “If you need to reach me, call that number. 
When you call, the caller ID will light up and I’ll see you called.  Don’t
leave a message.  I’ll call you back that evening after 10:00 pm, got it?”