It had been at least two months since Kari had run into Andrew in Paradiso. After years of living on the farm, she did not need much persuading to take on the next job. Pablo and the other farmers were disappointed to see her leave, but her guilt was quickly relieved after the first few payments.
The average day was spent counting money and ensuring that a number of the businesses under her boss’s payroll were meeting their end. There wasn’t much of an interview or any chance to meet the “boss” as everybody had called him. Andrew had been the one she reported to every day, and he had been true to his word—she had never been put in a situation to fire a shot.
After getting dressed every morning, she always returned to her lock box to retrieve her Glock—which she had barely maintained over the last few years. The cash she had place over the top from before had since been transferred to a literal hole in the floor. She could keep a paper trail for most of her income, but the hundreds of thousands she had amassed over the years was still fair game to the IRS. After every pickup, she received a small cut—many times it would be a grand or two—that she would have to transfer to a small case inside one of the floor vents.
It beats stuffing it in a mattress. She had been mindful of how her cash was stashed away. While walking around her new beach side apartment, she kept trying to repeat the name of all the stops she was supposed to make. She slipped her feet into her running shoes before taking a look into the mirror. Today, she had chosen to wear her track suit—a nice baggy uniform she could hide a gun over. Baggy clothes were always the way to go when it came down to this. She would never have to pull it out, but it made sense to keep it unnoticed.
The gun inside the lockbox had glimmered in the morning sun as she began to inspect it. While in the midst of loading it, she had taken notice of a tiny card still wedged in the back of the metal casing of the box. She pulled it out and began to read the front of the card to see, “Patty’s Boutique, 1408 W Penn St” across the front. She hesitated for a moment and tossed the card back into the case without bothering to tuck it away.
I don’t know why I kept that, she thought to herself. For the first time in years, she started to think of encountering Patricia and receiving the card. It’s all over, don’t think about it.
The phone on her countertop began to ring, giving her a quick fright. After walking over and pressing the speaker button over the top of the old corded phone, she had been greeted with the sound of a engine.
“You about ready?” Andrew’s voice buzzed through the tiny speaker over the receiver.
“Yeah,” Kari replied after shaking her head. “Give me a few minutes.”
She had let her plans for today slip her mind. It wasn’t common, but today she was expected to ride shotgun for a few extended pickups. Downstairs, Andrew had been waiting in his DROF Bronto—a 1982 model still build with old Japanese steel. The old muscle car had been idling in the parking lot downstairs burning a gallon every twenty minutes. It had a faded green exterior with four doors—one still which had been painted black. Kari made her way down and through the front door of the apartment complex where she was greeted with the smell of exhaust.
After approaching the passenger side and pulling the door open, she let out a quick cough and said, “I can’t believe you still drive this piece of shit.”
“This is a ’82 DROF Bronto, it’s a classic. It’s polished, it’s mint, and reliable.” Andrew said back.
“Well you know what they say,” she said after taking a seat and closing the door behind her. “You can polish a turd, but at the end of the day it’s still a turd.”
“Oh, ha-ha-ha,” he put the vehicle in drive and started to pull his way out of the parking lot. “What do you want me to do, just get rid of it?”
“You could trade it in.”
“Naw, I like this car. This thing can deflect bullets,” he muttered before starting to trail off. After all of his promises of no gunshots, he turned back to her and shook his head. “Not that we’re going to get shot at or anything. What’s the old expression?”
“Better safe than sorry?” she chirped.
“I don’t want to drive around in the dope-boy mobile like half these chumps.”
While the car started had made its way to the first stop light, the two had taken notice to a two-door sports car as it came to a stop next to him. The banana shaped vehicle had revved its engine, causing Kari’s eyes to perk up as she pointed over to it.
“Why not get a nice car like that?” she asked.
“Naw, that guy spent over a hundred grand on that chariot. You know what would happen to this car if I slammed into it? The only dent on my car would be his car.”
“I didn’t know you knew so much about cars.”
“I’ve been stealing them since I was sixteen, you know?”
Kari laughed while she started to think of the old days. Andrew had been different from the others in their crew. While the others were hot headed and quick to violence, he had tried to remain calculated. Being able to get such good pay for little work was a dream come true. The continued down the road to continue on with the pickups.
Each had involved her having to go into the establishment, feed some code words to the person at the counter, and then always walk around the back to get the dough. At this point, she was certain that a lot of the money going through these places had been dirty or from some other operation. Money laundering was not always easy, and the only way she could get through this was just trying to turn a blind eye to whatever was going on behind the scenes.
Old habits die hard, she began to think again. The first two stops had gone off without a hitch. The first establishment was an old laundromat in the Chinatown district while the second had been some family fun place—laser tag, ball pits, video games, and the works. Kari had taken all the money from the deposits and placed it into her black handbag she had carried for every job. By now, she had around eighty grand in hundreds stuffed inside. After getting back into the car, Andrew began to make his way towards the third stop.
“I don’t think I’ve been to this place before, or any of them for that matter.” Kari said to him.
“The boss doesn’t do pickups here as often. I guess he needs some dough for lunch.” Andrew replied.
“For lunch,” she muttered before finally making the connection. After a sigh, she gently pressed her fist into the dashboard. “I forgot all about it.”
“I don’t think he’ll mind the tracksuit, but the boss really wanted to meet you finally.”
“What for?”
“I dunno,” Andrew started to steer the car through another intersection. “Maybe a promotion, or something. You’ve been doing good.”
“A promotion to what exactly?” she asked before turning back to him. Andrew shrugged it off, giving her a strange gut feeling. She looked back out the window and down the sidewalk to see the streets already alive. Up ahead, she could see another intersection and had taken notice of the street signs. She spoke up again, “Where are we going?”
“Some place on Penn Street,” he said again, trailing off for a moment while trying to recall the name of the establishment. “I think it some boutique or some girly place. Boss has owned it for a while.”
Kari looked up to the sign to notice “West Penn Street” printed across it. After they turned to the right and continued up the road, she felt another chill after taking notice of the next stop. Andrew pulled the car up towards a small beauty parlor on the right hand side of the street. “This place?” Kari asked him, trying to keep composed after looking up towards the front.
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“Yeah, this place.” He replied.
Kari looked up towards the small yellow building to see “Patty’s” in the marquee over the front door. She could feel her hands starting to shake but tried to remain calm. The fight or flight response began to battle it out in her head.
“What is this?” she asked.
“It’s a beauty parlor,” he replied. Once she turned back to him, he gave her a nod. “You alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
She smiled to hide the many emotions bubbling beneath the surface. Once she opened the door and began to make her way towards the parlor, her heart started beating out of control. She thought of the days back on the job when she thought something was amiss and remembering getting an awful gut feeling.
It had started to make its return. She reached towards the front door, firmly gripping the handle while constantly repeating over in her head, keep cool, they don’t know anything.
The inside of the boutique had been greeted with a faint chime. There were only a few customers inside—most of them sitting in the waiting area by the front. She took a deep breath and started to make her way towards the front counter. A middle-aged woman had been seated behind it with a lollipop in her mouth and her eyes fixated on an issue of the Hip-Stylist. Kari placed her hand on the countertop and cleared her throat.
“Are you my three o’clock?” the receptionist behind the counter asked, not taking her eyes off her magazine.
“No, I heard you going to be renovating the place.” Kari replied.
“The place has been like this for years.”
“Oh, I see,” she readjusted the bag over her shoulder and gently slapped her hand against the wooden surface between them. “That’s not what they were saying on the phone last week.”
“Oh,” the woman quickly popped her head up before her face had lit up with shock as she had been taken off guard. “Sorry about that, its around back.”
Kari smiled and started to make her way around the counter until she had come to a hallway. Before stepping through, her eyes had been drawn to a mural hanging on the wall. It had contained a picture of Patricia with two bouquets in a V-shape beneath. Seeing her face had made her seize up again. She had immediately thought of meeting her on the bench before the shootout. The music inside the parlor had been drowned out by the sound of Isamu sobbing—another event that she had tried so hard to never think of. A tear had started to bead down her face, only forcing her to brush it off.
“Excuse me,” Kari spoke back to the receptionist. “Which way?”
“Right.” She replied.
The hallway had stretched on past a few restrooms and towards a small room in the back with the word “management” written over it. She made a cautious approach before reaching out to give it a knock.
“Maintenance.” Kari called out.
“It’s open.” A woman had called back. Kari slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. The gun inside of her jacket felt as if it were calling out to her. Her stomach slowly began to turn after the smell of cigarettes had caressed her nostrils. The dark interior of the office had only been lit by a few rays of sunlight piercing through the blinds. A woman had been sitting behind a desk with a cigarette burning between her fingers. The sun in behind her had cast a shadow over her face while her red, short, and curly hair remained illuminated.
“I’m here for the pickup.” Kari declared. She had scanned the interior of the office with her peripheral vision to not cause any alarm. At first glance, it had appeared that they were alone, but she kept turning her eyes over to the door in the back.
“You got something in your eye?” the woman asked.
“No, it’s just the humidity,” Kari blurted out before running her hand over her eyes. “I’m here for the load.”
“I wasn’t expecting you, where’s blondie?”
“He’s outside.”
“Go get him.”
The attitude had caused the adrenaline to surge inside of her veins. She quickly laughed at the gesture and started to rub her head.
“You mean you want me to walk back out front, to the car, and then walk right back in with another person?” Kari said after scanning the room again.
“Is that a problem?” she snapped back.
“Yeah, it is. I’m in a hurry to meet the boss and I would like to be on my way.”
“It’s not here yet, so you better go get him.”
Kari cupped her hand over her mouth while the snappy remark started to make her even more unnerved.
She remained calm and finally said, “Then we have a problem.”
“Oh yeah?” the woman replied.
“I’m gonna sit right here until it gets here,” Kari muttered as she started to walk over towards a chair across the room. She dropped the bag to the ground and turned back to the woman before taking a seat and asking, “What’s your name?”
“Who’s asking?”
“Who the fuck do you think,” she raised her voice again. “Don’t play around.”
“Alright, I’ll get the money.”
The woman slowly rose from out of the chair and extinguished the cigarette in her hand, causing a hiss as the embers had been pressed into the moisture inside the ash try. To the right of the desk, there was a small safe with another picture of Patricia standing on the top. She started to walk towards it where she eventually bent down to get at level with it. The exterior of it was jet black while the combination lock had been coated with gold.
After a few turns of the lock, the woman turned back to Kari with a smirk and said, “I forgot the combination.”
Kari felt her eye start to twitch after the remark. Before being able to say anything else, there was a loud knock at the door that had caused her to instinctively reach for the weapon under her jacket.
“Hey,” Andrew spoke up as he peeked his head into the door. “What’s the hold up?”
“She didn’t say please.” The woman said before letting out a chuckle.
“Who is this?” Kari asked.
“My apologies, I forgot Tina was holding down the fort today,” Andrew said. “Tina, this is Kari. Kari, Tina.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Tina said while starting to open the safe.
“I forgot that she’s a real bitch.”
Kari started to lower her hand from her jacket. There was a rush from touching the pistol that she had not felt in a long time. She had enough excitement for one day and had been on edge longer than she would ever hope to.
“I was getting the vibe too,” Kari said after trying to force a laugh out her mouth. She rubbed her forehead and started to stand up before saying, “Next time, don’t take so long.”