Page 43

Since You Put It That Way

Late the next afternoon, Andre pushed his bifocals up his nose. “It’s my vision that’s not so great. My hearing is perfect. And I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

He tried to slide back in his seat, but the sofa’s plastic gripped his thighs, and he had to lift his butt up and sit down again.

Hector shifted his gaze to Hank and Larry.

Larry said, “How did they figure out we’re alive?”

Hank shook his head. “Larry, you’re playing with fire every time you open that laptop. You must have done something. Plus, what did you expect with all the goodbye notes you guys left behind? You two are like fucking Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs for anyone and his brother to follow us.”

Hank knew he was overreacting. Being cooped up in Hector’s mother’s house was wearing on them. But his Spanish was coming along, and the food was fantastic. Empanadas, tamales, quesadillas. He was still hoping to learn how to make pupusas.

But he, Larry, and Andre had to get on with their lives or they were going to kill each other. Hank didn’t care about the money anymore. Well, that wasn’t totally true. He still cared, just not as much as he had for the past four years now that it no longer was feathering a nest for him and Pam as a couple. But he didn’t care enough to die for it. Or for Pam to.

Being trapped here for eleven days had made him realize anything would be better than this. Once they were out in the world, they could find a way to survive. Start over. Plenty of people did it. It would have been easier with $9.3 million, but they were smart and resourceful; they’d find a way to make a living. They had to move on or they’d die.

Larry scowled at Hank, then asked, “You’re sure they know we’re alive?”

Hector nodded. “No doubt in their minds.”

Hank sipped his chichas. He hadn’t expected this turn of events, although he was happy to see Hector arrive. Then at least he knew things were moving along. Hector would give them news from home, then, to protect their wives, they’d negotiate a fee in lieu of the hundred grand the girls couldn’t pay. And finally, he, Larry, and Andre would be free to leave this house. Or Hector would hold a gun to their heads, make them give him the millions they’d stolen, and then they’d be free to go. Or they’d be dead. At this point, Hank was fine either way.

But then Hector sprung this on them.

“And the casino guys from Mumbai, they’re the real deal?”

Larry asked.

Hector nodded.

Hank shot glances at Larry and Andre. “Not to beat a dead horse, but you see we were right to run. The casino was after us. I didn’t make us blow up our lives out of paranoia.”

Hank felt vindicated now that someone had finally laid eyes on the bogeymen they’d fled. For the past few days he’d been wondering if maybe he had misread things. Maybe Dave had died in a freak accident. Maybe it wasn’t a murder and a message after all. Maybe Padma wasn’t warning him. Hank looked around at Hector’s mother’s living room, his disheveled friends with their scruffy beards, wrinkled clothes, and tired eyes. But now that Hector had actually seen the casino’s men from Mumbai, it was real, and he was right. He’d saved them from having their naked bodies swing from a bridge.

But what about their wives?

Andre stood. “Can I remind everyone, a few days ago we were sitting here worried he”—Andre pointed at Hector—“was going to kill us because our wives hired him. No offense, Hector.”

Hector waved him off.

Andre continued. “And now we’re sitting here worried some hitmen from India are going to kill our wives because we stole some money. And now you’re talking about giving back everything we worked so hard for, to save them. And these are the same three women who hired him”—he pointed at Hector—“again, no offense, Hector, to kill us.”

Hector waved him off again.

“Are you fucking nuts?”

Andre sat down.

Larry said in a quiet voice, “If you remember, Andre, they’re the reason we did all this to begin with. For our wives.”

“Yeah. Well. That was before we knew our wives wanted to kill us. And, I think it’s important to note, they thought they did kill us. We’re just lucky we killed ourselves first. I think it’s fair to say that circumstances concerning our wives have changed.”

Andre pushed his bifocals up his nose for emphasis.

Hank realized Andre hadn’t accepted it yet.

Hank had.

Hank knew the moment Hector had found out there were more than nine million reasons for the guys to run, they weren’t keeping that money. At least not all of it. They were sitting ducks in Hector’s mother’s house, with the bars on the windows, the walled garden, and the man at the door. They’d stayed too long, and it would cost them. He’d expected they’d be giving a chunk of the money to Hector. But he sure hadn’t expected they’d be losing it all. Especially not back to the casino.

Hector said, “If you don’t give the money back, the casino’s men will kill your wives for the principle.”

A chill traveled up Hank’s spine.

Hector looked at Andre. “You may wonder why you should care—and no one’s making you care about your wives—but if you don’t give the money back, your wives will tell the men from Mumbai you’re alive. That, and knowing you ran, will prove to them that you have their money. And they’ll come for it. First, they’ll come see me, and I’m not gonna die for you. Knowing the odds are not in my favor, I’m not gonna lie for you either. I may be able to take care of one or two, but probably not all five. Even if I were to kill them, they’ll send more. And they’ll keep sending guys until they get their money back. You’ll run until you’re dead.”

They sat quietly for a few moments.

Hector said, “If you’re not gonna give the money back, you should start running now.”

Larry said, “Even if we wanted to give the money back, how do we do that? It’s not like I can PayPal them. It’s not a bag of cash. I have it split up in different accounts. I’d have to find a money transfer service or wire transfer system to handle it. I’d have to have an account to send it to. That all takes time.”

Hank said, “You were going to send money to the girls. Before you knew they hired Hector to kill us. How were you going to do that?”

“I brought their account info with me. I was going to transfer a series of small amounts. But now we’re talking the whole shebang.”

Larry rubbed his jaw. “I could consolidate the accounts and get a bank draft. That’s as close as we’ll get to cash. I suppose I could set up a virtual safety-deposit box and upload the bank draft.”

“Whoa,”

Andre said. “Let’s stop for a second. We seem to have moved right past the question of whether we want to do this, to how to do it. Can we pause?”

Larry thought a moment, then said, “What’s the point of pausing, Andre? If we give the money back, the girls live, and they don’t tell the men from Mumbai we’re alive. So we live too.”

He continued, “If we don’t give the money back, the girls die, but first, they’ll tell those guys from Mumbai we’re alive, so they’ll come after us and we’ll die too. Even if we run, eventually they’ll catch us. We’ll just die later.”

All eyes were on Andre.

“Well. Since you put it that way.”

Andre looked up. Then chuckled. “You’ve got to give them credit. We fucked our wives over, even if we didn’t mean to, and they fucked us right back.” His chuckle grew louder, and he shook his head. “In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been fucked so hard. And it only makes sense if I were to get fucked that hard, that it’d be my Shalisa doing the fucking.” He stood up and headed down the hallway toward the bedrooms, his laughter rolling back to the living room. “My fucking Shalisa. Man, I miss my queen.” They heard his door close.

Hank looked at Hector. “How much time do we have?”

Hector answered, “I’m on the red-eye back tonight.”

Hank looked at Larry, who nodded and then gingerly peeled himself off the plastic-covered sofa. He went to the table, flipped open the laptop, and said, “The bank draft will be pretty straightforward.”

He looked at Hector. “We’ll set up a virtual safety-deposit box for you—with biometric security. Requires fingerprint and facial recognition access. I’ll show you how to do it. You might want to take notes, because you’ll have to show Nancy how to create her own. We’ll upload the bank draft to your VSDB, then back home, you’ll transfer it to Nancy’s. At the handoff—” He glanced at Hank. “There’s a term I never expected to use in my career at the bank.” He gave his head a little shake, then turned back to Hector. “At the handoff, Nancy will transfer the draft to the casino’s guy. Chances are, they’re financially savvy so they’ll be familiar with the VSDB. It’s not rocket science.”

Hank picked up his glass of chichas. “How much money does the casino think we got away with?”

“Ten million.”

“Not quite. We made it to nine, and then Dave was killed. That’s all we have.”

Hank took a sip of his drink and then asked, “What do you get out of this? You said our wives owe you a hundred grand, but they can’t pay you. Now we can’t pay you either. Do you get a finder’s fee from the casino?”

Hector shook his head.

Hank had to know and, against his better judgment, asked, “How do we know you won’t just take that bank draft and run?”

“For exactly that reason. I’d be running. That’s not how I want to live, Hank. I’ve seen those men, and I don’t want to be looking for them in my rearview mirror the rest of my life. Brenda is happy at her new job, and what I get, you can’t put a price tag on.”

Hank raised an eyebrow.

“I get a happy wife. And a happy life.”

The men raised their glasses to each other, and Hector rose to join Larry at the table. Hank shot a look to Larry, hoping he’d overheard Hank say nine million. If the casino thought it was ten, and didn’t have proof, they’d believe it was nine. The guys could find a use for the remaining three hundred grand.

They had to have something to show for all that work. And three hundred grand was better than nothing. He sipped his drink and as Hector sat down, Hank caught Larry’s eye, and he nodded back.