Bad Pennies Chapter 16
“What safe?” Erica said again.
Erica didn’t repeat herself a third time, letting the words hang.
“My dad’s safe,” the sharp-faced man standing next to Josh. “It always stuck when we tried to open it, but Josh had some trick to get it open.”
Josh looked like he might blow over. She could see his sweat from here. The next words from Josh told her why.
“Honey,” Josh said to her. “This is Paul. He’s…an old friend.”
Erica tried to contain her surprise and excitement. This was Paul. THE Paul. In the Story of Josh, Paul the ex-boyfriend loomed large. Josh had told Erica stories of their relationship that almost made her jealous. Childhood friends. More than that in high school. Then what seemed like a real relationship until Paul ghosted him and disappeared.
And now Paul stood right here in her condo. He seemed like a mythical figure. She never expected to actually meet him. But judging from Josh’s choice of words, Erica figured their relationship wasn’t a topic of conversation right now.
“Paul, this is my girlfriend, Erica.”
Was it Erica’s imagination that Josh put some emphasis on ‘girl’ in that word? Paul held his hand out. Erica shook it lightly. His hands felt damp as if he’d just put on hand sanitizer, but at least he didn’t crush her hand like some guys liked to do.
She took this opportunity to look into Paul’s eyes, imagining what Josh might have felt (might still feel?) for this man in front of her. He looked better than his photos. And those eyes had something in them. Something wild. Or maybe it was blazing jealousy. Erica had keen observation skills, but seeing what’s there isn’t seeing what’s behind it.
“Nice to meet you,” Erica said, self-editing the word ‘finally’ out.
“You also,” Paul said. He nodded at her, giving them both a thin smile that disappeared as fast as it appeared. “I should get going.”
Josh nodded.
“Where are you headed?” Erica asked.
“Oh, um, north,” Paul said unconvincingly.
Erica considered digging deeper, but figured he’d probably just keep telling lies of various qualities. Paul was cute, but everything about him reminded her of a snake. He probably got boys like Josh to fall for him only to say, “I don’t want to hurt you,” when the time comes. That way later he can say he warned them he was a snake. No, best to just let the snake leave rather than continuing to play with it. If she wanted the truth, she knew how to get it out of Josh.
“Have a safe drive,” Erica said.
“It was good to see you,” Josh said and hugged Paul.
Erica waited until Paul was definitely on the stairs or elevator before approaching Josh and saying, “You okay. That was Paul Paul, right?”
Josh nodded.
“What’d he want?”
“He just stopped by to apologize. He was in town.”
Erica cocked her head at Josh.
“I wasn’t worried when he lied to me. From what you’ve told me, he tells lies. But when you start lying to me, I get concerned.”
“I’m not-” Erica held up her hand hoping to stop another lie.
“Tell you what, let’s go for a drive.”
Erica pulled her keys out of her pocket and started heading for the door. Josh began to follow. So she turned around.
“This is what I want,” Erica said. “You get in the car. We drive. And everything we say while we’re in the car is true. If you can’t do that, don’t get in the car.”
The ‘office’ if it was here wasn’t much of an office. That’s what Dano thought as he tried the door to brick building in downtown Tacoma that allegedly held the corporate offices of Pro Service Process Servers. The glass door to the front of the building was locked with no buzzer. He could see an empty hallway and little else. He walked around the corner finding a steep hill. Halfway to the alleyway there was another door, this one to the 2nd floor. He hiked up to the door and tried that one. He opened it finding a hall with half a dozen doors. Three of them were open. One woman was cutting another woman’s hair in one. In another open door there was an Asian man sitting at a keyboard in front of four computer monitors. The third open door was a restroom and to the left of it, a door marked with a stairs icon. He doubted this place had an elevator.
Almost ten minutes later he found the door to Pro Service Process Servers. It had a new lock that might be heavier than the thin wood door itself. Dano knocked on the door.
A tough-looking Black man in his 50s came to the door. He was a head shorter than Dano and half as thin. His eyes had none of the wildness of Dano’s. This man’s eyes were dead calm.
Dano suddenly had the thought that maybe this was a bad idea. He figured this Cooper guy must be loaded if Paul stole as much money as Byron seemed to think he stole, but if the guy was loaded why have such a shit office in a nothing building?
“You Dano?” Cooper asked.
“If you’re Cooper.”
“Come in.”
Dano walked in and realized this office was smaller than his first apartment. The entire contents of the office included an flimsy wood desk with a laptop on it, two chairs, two gigantic white boards with information about his business or whatever, and a safe. In fact, the only thing in the whole place that made him think this guy had anything was that ornate antique safe built into the far wall of the office. It was shut at the moment. Might be empty. Might be full of cash.
“You said you had information about my being robbed,” Cooper said, sitting at his desk and gesturing for Dano to sit. “How’d you come by this information?”
Dano looked dubiously at the plastic chair unsure if it would actually hold his weight. He decided to chance it and was surprised to find it sturdy if not comfortable.
“I’m a freelancer. Most the time I’m a bounty hunter. I deal with a lot of the criminal element. They like to talk. Heard some information. Thought it might be good enough that you’d pay for it.”
Cooper frowned. Dano had tried to keep things light, but Cooper wouldn’t have it.
“Counter offer,” Cooper said, pulling open a desk drawer and pulling out a dull, black pistol. It looked like a Glock. “How about you tell me what you know out of the goodness of your heart and I don’t shoot another intruder?”
“Another?” Dano said, far calmer than most people would while having a gun pointed at them.
“Shot an intruder a couple years ago.”
Paul didn’t know where he was driving. He didn’t know what to do. He’d ended up on Tacoma’s waterfront, found a empty parking space at a closed down restaurant, and pulled his Mazda to the curb facing the water.
Josh had moved on. He couldn’t blame him. Should Josh have waited for Paul when Paul didn’t even say, didn’t even know he’d come back?
A cargo ship, hauling hundreds of containers entered Commencement Bay. Mostly full of cars probably. Hondas, Hyundais, Toyotas. Did Mazda even make cars anymore? He had a car he bought for three thousand dollars of his parents’ money twelve years ago, some clothes he kept in his car, his phone, a gun, and a duffel bag with $150,000 or so in cash.
It was time to go. He couldn’t take the cash on a plane. He didn’t trust that he could get through security with it. Maybe he could take a train. Did they check bags on trains?
Whatever the case, he knew that the odds of the Mazda making it long distance weren’t good. Sure, it spent more time out of the shop than in. That’s good for a thirty year old car. But it wasn’t the sort of vehicle for long journeys. How weird was it to buy a car with just cash? Would they call the police or something? No, a dealership is going to do paperwork with his name on it.
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