take it, so long as I don’t have to keep checking in, like I was on parole for life or something. I won’t wear that jacket.”
“Just sit here for a few minutes, all right?”
“Sure,” I said.
He got up and walked away. I didn’t even turn my head. If he was going to pull something, I didn’t want to see it coming.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said when he came back. “That misdemeanor you told me about?”
“Yeah?”
He waved his hand like a fly was after his food. “How many times do you think you can slide on serious crimes? You’d think a guy with your record would know better than to go down on a possession charge.”
“Possession? Possession of what?”
“A firearm, of course.”
“For real?”
“It’s already done. Ask your lawyer. One Hector Santiago-Ramirez, I believe? He must have done a hell of a job getting the DA to let you plead down to a possession charge instead of what you deserved, an ex-con carrying around a loaded handgun, like you were.”
He leaned in closer to me. “Understand, you’ve still got two felony convictions. Robbery, age seventeen; criminal possession of a weapon, age thirty-three.”
I took off my glasses. I wanted him to see what I was doing. He didn’t flinch. And he had to know he was swearing on his life.
“Then I’ve got something else for you,” I told him.
“What?”
“I did the jewelry job. You already know that, and you already know I’m not rolling on anyone else who was in on it. Only, now I’ll give you the planner. Solly. Him I’ll give up in a heartbeat. I’ll tell the truth: Solly and the jeweler, they put the plan together. Solly told me that.
“I couldn’t understand why he’d tell a guy at my end that kind of stuff. But now I get it. He was pulling me closer, so it’d be easier to have me hit. And that was his plan all along.”
“You’ll make that statement?”
“Yeah. Right now, if you want. And if I ever get hooked up to that polygraph—”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. Listen for once: If I ever get questioned, the truth will be that I didn’t get a dime from rolling on Solly and that jeweler. Not from you, not from anyone. All I asked was for some protection, and for you to tell that girl I didn’t rape her. All true. What’s that worth to you, pal?”
“Everything you asked for,” he said. “And now it’s my turn.”
“I thought you said it was already—”
“I apologize,” he said, holding out his hand.
His grip felt just right.
Lynda took the Greyhound to Chicago. Took her only a couple of days to find a place. For her and her husband. He was coming after he cleared up all the paperwork at his office. Their plan was to buy a home, so they were really only looking for something for maybe six, seven months. So she could just pay the whole thing now, if the landlord wanted.
She’d have to pay cash, because she didn’t have a Chicago bank account yet. She hoped that was okay with the landlord. He turned out to be a real agreeable guy.
While Lynda was setting up, I got put on videotape. And everything I said was the truth.
I asked the cameraman to come in real close. In case they wanted to show the girl who’d gotten raped what my face looked like when I said the part about doing time for another man’s crime. And my promise to kill him if I ever found him.
The guy who sold me the used Ford Crown Vic in Youngstown didn’t mind cash, either. I told him I’d bring back the plates as soon as I got it registered. The way he shrugged, I could see the plates were already NFG—probably his insurance had run out or something like that.
I left the Toyota in a mall lot. Nothing was open that early in the morning. And I could see a lot of them weren’t going to open—the place looked like a ghost town. I left the keys in the ignition.
It was Lynda who showed me how I could read the Daily News without buying a copy. Or even being in New York.
I wouldn’t have asked her, myself. I knew I’d never trust any planner again, and I wasn’t ever going back home, either. So I didn’t care about checking to see if anything looked ripe for a one-man job.
Lynda, she liked the Times.
“Honey,” she said one day, “come here. Take a look