Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,83

sleeping rough on park benches and under bridges, he lay there between the soft sheets and suddenly realised he had something that other bums didn’t have.

Women were attracted to him.

He’d humoured the family, sensing Christina had taken more than just a passing interest in him. That instinct was justified when she snuck into his room late at night about two weeks into his stay. But after a while the situation started to feel claustrophobic. Reese hadn’t grown up in a family environment and he sure as hell didn’t need one now. He didn’t care about anyone but himself and after they’d taken him to church one Sunday he’d realised enough was enough. So, just under a month into his stay at the family’s residence, he’d slid open the bedroom window and headed for the first train out of town.

But not before he’d cleaned the house out of as many valuables as he could carry.

And that’s where his grifting began. Conning became a game, one he was very good at. And the better he got, the more money he made. Given his youth, people underestimated him. He’d lost count of how many women he’d ripped off using a variety of routines and set-ups. Often it was as easy as going home with a girl from a bar, then robbing her blind the moment she fell asleep. He’d always skip town before anyone realised what had happened or had a chance to call the cops.

However, something his mother had said just before he left home had always lingered at the back of his mind. He’d tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back. He knew piss-all about his father but one night, in a drunken, drug-induced haze, his mother told him that he had an elder brother.

Apparently the guy lived in a town called Roller, down in Texas towards the border with Mexico.

Eventually, two days after his twenty first birthday and with money in his pocket from a successful rip-off, Reese had made a decision. He’d booked a flight to San Antonio then taken a bus out to Roller, arriving just after 9pm. He’d dumped his bag at the only motel in town, then gone to the only bar for a beer. He was planning to have a few drinks, get his head down then ask around and find his brother the next day but the man he was there to find had walked in less than an hour after Reese, with some of his friends. Looking up from his Bud, Reese had done a double take. The guy was the spitting image of him. He’d stepped off his stool and walked over to him, apprehensive.

The man had seen Reese then done a double take himself. The two men spent a few seconds staring at each other. It was like looking in a mirror.

The night that followed was still the most enjoyable of Reese’s young life. He’d been apprehensive on the journey down there, wondering if his brother would acknowledge him, whether he’d turn out to be an asshole or if he was even still here. But he needn’t have worried; they’d spent the entire night getting drunk and catching up on twenty one years of history. It turned out their father was dead too. After he put all his money in a bad investment four years ago he’d drunk a bottle of Jack, put a shotgun in his mouth and eaten a shell. Finn had enjoyed hearing the tales about his brother’s grifting, how he conned his way from place to place and ripped people off.

In return, Finn told him about his work. Six months ago he’d joined a local right-wing chapter called The Stuttgart Soldiers. He’d done six months upstate and had been cell mates with one of their members. They aren’t just Nazi dumbasses Finn had said, seeing the look on his brother’s face. This was a business and a civic responsibility, taking the fight to domestic enemies. Reese had assumed all they did was burn books and run non-whites out of town, but Finn told him how they took guns and dope back and forth across the borders. They patrolled the area in trucks, searching for immigrants and then removing them from the land, taking back their country one wetback at a time.

Interested, but too self-centred to be concerned with other people’s issues, Reese had made the right noises then spent the rest of the night drinking whiskey and having a great time with Finn and his