Smoke & Mirrors

Chris and I drove and parked behind the gray surveillance van that belonged to Kevin Morris and his crew...
We had tumblers of coffee, doughnuts and pastries and orange juice for Kevin, Sean Jackson, Clerow, Kool Kat ,Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson..

''Hey Thanks Guys...we should work for you cats more often." Laughed our friend Kevin, who was only too glad to help us..

Just two days before we rented the entire first floor of our new condo out to Bruce Studden...We had Lockpick Johnson and Peeping Tom wire the entire floor for sound and video... Clerow and Sean Jackson drove around the complex ...Always in a different car snapping photos of all of the shady charactors coming and going... A lot of them were drug couriers coming to drop off the days take and pick up payments...Some were pimps ,dropping off money and receiving payments for the girls...Others were just people who owed Bruce money.  True to his word...There was no actual illegal activity being run from the building, but neither Chris nor I wanted Bruce and his cronies collecting and distributing money used in a criminal enterprise in our building either.


"Chris...Chess...With the phony paper work you got from Robert Foxworth and Chance Howard and the existence of this tunnel and just the shady ex-cons we have going in and out of this building..We got enough to send Bruce Studden back to prison for violation of his parole." said Kevin...

'Yeah ,I know...but I want to really put the kibosh on him..once and for all...I know this cat is planning something big...the robbery of that bank...He's being cool for now..but I know it's just a matter of time.." said Chris.

Chris and I had mostly kept a low profile..We sent Owen Todd around to collect the rents with Donald Smooth and another guy usually waiting in the car....They never saw Kevin's people and even if they did...Except for Kool Kat..They didn't know any of them...

Then one night, Kevin called Chris and Me...we got the break that we wanted.

"You guys gotta hear this." said Kevin as Peeping Tom played the videotape.... There sat Bruce Studden and four guys who we knew to be expert box men and heist guys....

''Everything ready boys." said Bruce .


''Yeah.. We got silent explosives...Flashlights and cuttin materials..." said one guy...


"And we got bags and two cars parked three blocks away." said another..


''What's the take?" asked the third guy.


"This is a big take...I'm talking close to ten million a piece for all of us... Tomorrow night...We go through this basement and walk in and take the vault....We come back through here and we all walk out and vanish into the night....Just like that." said Bruce Studden.


"What about the alarm?" asked a third...


''Already taken care of...When we bought the design of that bank from a "friend" a few years back, we found out where the alarm is....I gotta guy on the inside who will cripple the alarm just before midnight....Then we walk in ,blow the safe and walk the hell out." said Bruce Studden.


'I gotta admit Brucie...When you told me about this when we was in the joint...I thought you had gone mad..but I gotta admit...This is incredible..." said one guy...


"My stuff is already packed and shipped... I plan to just vanish into thin air...Like I was never here....By the time these jumolks figure out what I did...I'll be a thing of rumors...like that D.B. Cooper guy.Hahahahaha." laughed Bruce.


"They don't call ya Killer Bruce for nothin." said the fourth guy.


"Hahahahahahahahahahaha."laughed Bruce.

Sean got good photos of all four of our bank robbers. That and the video footage ,plus copies of the fake paper work was all we needed to box up and send anonymously to one Special Agent ,Burt Shylock of the FBI.

Chris and I shook Kevin's hand....

''Kev...you did it again." I said.

"Nah Chess, Chris...You had this whole thing figured out before we even got involved..." he laughed...

Me, Chris, Kool Kat, Donald Smooth, Kevin, Sean Jackson, Clerow, Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson all opened a bottle of champaigne and toasted.. Tomorrow night was going to be an interesting night.

II-

It had been the first time I'd actually been in Rita Davis's presence since we had made the deal to buy the condo...

She was a completely different woman around Chris than she had been just a month ago when Conrad Nelson and I were going through the initial negotiations... I don't know what Chris had done to her, but she was friendly...engaging...warm...

The power of love!

"Ohhhh Chess, I'm sooo happy for you and your wife...You've got to bring your new baby around for me to see...and if you need a baby sitter, I am available." she cooed.. "I just love babies." she said.

"Heyyyyy...what about me?" said Chris, pretending to be hurt...

''Awwwww...mama didn't forget about youuuu.." she cooed..

"Damn right..cause you know I need my little snickerdoodle.." said Chris...

This was sooo unlike him....I think I liked her better when she was a harpy...

A little after midnight...We heard what we had been wanting to hear....

"FREEZE SLIMEBALLS...YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST!!!!! I AM SPECIAL AGENT BURT SHYLOCK OF THE FBI...IT'S ALL OVER BABY BLUE!"

Chris looked at me.....

"Where does he get his dialouge?"  he asked...

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders....

''It's all over baby blue? He sounds like he was on Miami Vice." laughed Rita..

The three of us looked out the window and we saw about 16 FBI agents with automatic weapons marching four guys in handcuffs to a huge van....

We saw our old friend Agent Shylock perp walking his prize catch, Bruce Studden to the van alone...Killer Bruce looked perplexed, He couldn't understand just what had happened.... Everything went perfect..except that when he and his four guys entered that bank from the sub basement...The FBI ,(who had been anonymously tipped off by us) was waiting!!!!!How could they of known???...He had told nobody..Nobody..except the people actually involved and they were all in handcuffs...He must have been thinking.....

Chris said that it had taken him and Owen Todd close to six hours to find the entrance to that secret sub-basement and tunnel..It had been very well hidden...Which was why all of the construction crews and work men and inspectors who were running in and out of that building knew nothing about it....Not to mention that the paperwork detailing the work had been well hidden for years!


The three of us watched as they drove off with the would be bank robbers in tow...We raised our glasses of champaigne and toasted...

"Nice going guys...I'm glad that that toad is going back to jail..." said Rita.

''So am I...He was just trouble." I said.

"Wow, guess you guys are nice guys after all...Looks Like I was wrong about you two." said Rita.

"We told you." said Chris as he kissed her on the cheek..

A kiss on the cheekturned into a long passionate kiss on the lips between Chris and Rita that frankly made me feel uncomfortable ,being that I was there without a woman myself!!

With that...I saluted them both and headed home to my own wife...I doubt that they even noticed that I had left.

EPILOUGE:

Bruce Studden was sent back to State Prison to finish out the last three years of his original sentence and then he faces five years in the federal pen for the attempt to rob the bank...The other four guys all got five to ten in the federal pen for their part in the bank robbery....

A few days later, Owen Todd, Donald Smooth and I sat in a Dunkin Donuts having Coffee and doughnuts..

"Anybody seen Chris?" asked Owen Todd.

"Nah...I aint seen him." said Donald Smooth...

''He'll be around...Right now,he's in love...He's with that babe, Rita, twenty four seven." I said.

"Wow...I've never seen him like that , Not over no one broad..." said Owen Todd.

"Nah, me neither.." said Donald Smooth.

"First time for everything gents." I laughed as I sipped my coffee and stared out the window.