of thing. Steal a few baubles and trinkets. Just enough to have money for beer and maybe go out to dinner. But we discovered there’s a rush to stealing something. It was exciting. We felt superhuman. It’s like gambling. Like an addiction. We had fun that night, and we didn’t get caught, so, like the dumbass kids we were, we decided to try it again.”
“You robbed her parents twice?”
Dmitri chuckled. “No, we weren’t that stupid. Just stupid enough to rob her friends’ parents. Alice knew garage codes and where people kept their keys. She knew people’s schedules and whether or not they had a dog or an alarm. She was wickedly good at it. By this time, all her friends had met me, and I was accepted into the group. I had a whole backstory about how I’d ended up in Miami and painted my background as a little more well-to-do. Most of her friends didn’t even know where I lived, and no one thought to question me, because why would they?”
As captivating as his story was, I was bothered by it. This was sweet, thoughtful Dmitri talking. A man I’d trusted all my life. A man who came to the island school and talked to the kids about different kinds of geological formations, about how lightning happens, and how butterflies form a chrysalis. He could have just as easily been explaining to them how to pick a lock or outmaneuver an alarm system. It was so incongruous to what I’d always known about him. Well, not known, I guess. It was different from what I’d believed about him.
He continued with his tale, and I continued to listen. Like watching a car crash in slow motion. I had to stay and see what happened next.
“Mick started working with us, and we’d usually hit houses that I’d been inside of. Alice and I would go to a party or hang out with some friends. One of us would make sure to unlatch a window or unlock a service door. We’d wait a few days, and make sure that one of us could be an alibi for the other two. I have to say, despite it being illegal, we really did have an impressive system worked out.”
“I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this, Dmitri. I just can’t believe you did any of this stuff. I feel bad if I borrow something and forget to return it, so how is it that the guilt didn’t eat you up inside?” I sounded judgmental, and there was just no way to avoid it.
“I should have felt guilty, I agree. All I can say in my defense—which really is no defense at all—is that we did it as kind of a lark. We were taking things from people who could well afford to replace whatever was stolen. We convinced ourselves that we weren’t hurting anyone. Looking back now, though, I realize how wrong we were. We took more than things. We took away people’s sense of security, and that’s not okay. If I had my life to do over again, I wouldn’t have done it. At least, I’d like to think that.”
I’d like to think that, too. “I’m pretty curious, then, if it was all going so well, how did you end up here under an assumed name? In the letters, Alice mentions Mick going to prison.”
Dmitri blanched at that, and despite the irony, I felt bad for saying it so casually. Mick had been his friend. He paused for a minute before answering.
“Like most aspiring criminals, we got a little bolder with each successful score. We got comfortable and we got impatient, and those are two things that prove to be the downfall of many a crook.”
I thought about downing the rest of my drink and asking for another because I suspected his story was about to get more complicated.
“We’d been playing at burglary for about a year. The rush was still there, but we’d run through just about everyone that Alice could get us access to. Then Mick suggested we all get jobs at this upscale hotel. Miami was a pretty happening place during that time, and lots of celebrities would come and stay. He figured if we could work in maintenance or housekeeping or security, we could take advantage of our clearance to roam around the hotel. And we did. In fact, he got a job in security, I worked in maintenance, and Alice got a job as a housekeeper. She told