Trust Comes Easy Ch. 04

"Give him to me or I'll shoot you!"

Kaye turned to me. "Just give it to her."

"I can't!" I yelled to Kaye, and then I turned to Amanda. "Why are you being so cruel?"

"Well first off, because I can, and second, because there's two million dollars in there."

Startled, I looked at Mr. Pookie, then at Amanda. "The money?"

Amanda shot a hole in the wall just above Kaye's head, making both of us jump away. She leveled the gun at Kaye. "Give me the fucking doll or she dies!"

With that I gained my sense back, along with quite a bit of shock, and I held out Mr. Pookie. Amanda snatched him from me, stepped back and put Mr. Pookie in her bag.

"What's in there?" Kaye asked. "Diamonds? Gold?"

"Neither."

"Well you took a hell of a chance leaving it here."

Amanda zipped up her bag and stood up. "I realized if they caught me with the money I'd lose it. The best bet was to turn it into something else and leave it behind. That way I could come back for it, or if they caught me it would fund my legal defense. I'd have a better team than O.J."

"And then you waited four years?" Kaye asked.

"I waited two years for the police interest to die down. Then I had a problem and got held up where I was living. When that was over I had trouble finding Maggie. Never thought she'd move to fucking New Jersey."

She aimed the gun at us and cocked it. Both Kaye and I tensed. Amanda said, "I have half a mind to kill you both right now."

Kaye grabbed my wrist. Then her hand moved down and her fingers intertwined with mine.

Suddenly Amanda un-cocked the gun and lowered it. "But there's something more fun in leaving you two alive to suffer together, or apart if you so choose. Knowing you were so close to this money and now you're left with nothing but each other."

With that, Amanda went out the door.

We both stood there, frozen, half worried she'd come back. Our hands were still interlocked. Finally I turned and said, "Kaye, I..."

"Quiet!" Kaye looked like she was counting to herself.

"What –"

She held up her hand. Then she nodded. "Okay." She ran out the front door and I followed her. At the end of the hall she went to the window. I looked out with her and we watched Amanda crossing the street three stories down. On the other side she stopped and looked back at the building.

Under her breath, Kaye said, "Come on, come on, come on..."

I wanted to ask, but didn't want her to yell at me again. A few seconds went by, and suddenly Amanda looked down the street. Then she ran up the block and turned the corner. Two police cars with lights flashing pulled in front of the building. A big black cop stepped out of the first car and walked up our steps.

"You really had Lisa call the cops?"

"No." Kaye ran back to the apartment and I followed her. The buzzer sounded and Kaye hit the button, opening the downstairs door for the cop.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Kaye turned and slapped me hard on the face.

"What the—" I started, but Kaye stuck her finger in my face.

"Don't you ever, ever, ever plan a murder without me again, do you understand? We are soul mates, and that means we do everything together, got it?"

I nodded.

"Good. Now get your stuff together, we've got to get packing."

Kaye ran into the bedroom and pulled a suitcase out of the closet. I walked towards the bedroom, rubbing the side of my face. "Kaye, what the—" Then there was a knock at the door. Kaye ran past me and opened it.

"Thanks for coming, Alex." she said to the cop.

"No problem. How long you going to need us?"

Kaye winced. "Three, maybe four hours. That too much?"

Alex the Cop smiled. "For you? We'll be out there as long as you need." Alex the Cop turned and left.

Kaye headed back into the bedroom and I followed her. I said, "Okay, at least tell me how you know Alex the Cop?"

"Father of one of my students. His daughter stole some things and I called him instead of the authorities. With her record she'd have been facing serious time, and afterwards he told me that if I ever needed anything to call him. Why aren't you packing?"

"Why am I packing?"

Kaye was throwing things into her suitcase haphazardly. "Because we're moving to Chicago. You always said you liked Chicago, right? I've never been, but I trust your judgment. So we're moving there."

I shook my head. "How are we moving there? We can't fit everything in our car."

"Fuck! Thank you, I almost forgot." She pulled out her cell phone and started dialing. She waited and then said, "Yes, we're ready. Thanks." She hung up and looked at me. "I have a moving truck waiting three blocks away. There are four movers and they're going to have us out of here in a couple of hours, so get as much stuff as you can together."

I shrugged and rolled my eyes and dropped my butt on the bed. "Jesus Kaye, can I remind you we're both jobless now? And you want us to move somewhere where we don't know anyone! This is going to cost a lot of money! It's money we don't have!"

She stopped what she was doing and went to her workbag, pulled out something and tossed it at me. I caught it. It was Mr. Pookie.

Kaye smiled and said, "We've got two million dollars babe. Now start packing."

23.

Amanda had stopped crying an hour ago. Sitting in a crappy motel room in Sweden, she had finally done what she should have done in the first place. What she really should have done in the first damn place. But from the moment those police cars showed up in front of Maggie and Kaye's apartment she knew she was on a clock, and probably had an hour or less to get out of the country before the cops and the Feds had the airports locked down. Besides, she'd checked it twice over the weekend, still leaving it inside Mr. Pookie in case she figured wrong about Maggie and Kaye and they called the cops.

At the airport Amanda brought her bag on the plane as a carry-on. No way she was checking it and risking the news that they lost her bag when she landed. She went through the X-ray machine without a problem, since she'd dumped the gun before getting to the airport. On the plane she put the bag in the compartment above her head and relaxed in the thought that she finally had her power. It was with her, and safe. Inside Mr. Pookie.

They were three quarters through the flight and the only thing bothering Amanda was the incessant chatter of the woman behind her, complaining over and over about airport security measures and how strict they are now. How they make you take off your shoes and how unsanitary that is. How they make you take off your belt and risk your pants falling down in front of everyone. And how the X-ray machine always makes the dumbest things look suspicious. Suddenly Amanda's jaw dropped, her face went slack and she felt the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach. They hadn't stopped her at the airport. They X-rayed her bag and hadn't stopped her. Meaning they didn't see anything suspicious inside Mr. Pookie. Meaning it wasn't there.

She wanted to grab her bag and go to the bathroom and check. Maybe the security agents on duty didn't see it as suspicious. Maybe their attention was taken away right as Mr. Pookie passed through. But then the stewardess announced they were about to land. Amanda stayed in her seat. She didn't really want to check. It was too horrible a thought.

By the time she landed she convinced herself that there was no way those girls were smart enough to fool her, and to prove that to herself she didn't check it at the airport. Amanda took a cab to the cheapest motel the driver knew, got into the room, and took it out. And that sent her into a rage.

Amanda threw things and cried and threw things again. She sat on the bed and bawled like a baby, wrapped herself in the thin comforter and wished she was a little girl again, at home in the suburbs with her parents, playing with her friends at a time and place where the world was safe and fun and not this big nasty thing. After an hour she sat up and thought, pushing herself to face where she had gone wrong, the Stupid Move. She had planned to stay with them one night. The next evening she would propose a toast to her leaving, drug their drinks and leave before they woke up the next day.

But then she felt it. The power. Being with Maggie again gave her that feeling of power and she was hooked on it. Even better was when Maggie told Kaye the truth and Amanda had to think on her feet, using the blackmail to control the two of them. Then she was manipulating two people, giving her an abundance of power, and overriding her sense of better judgment. Amanda chose to stay, even though she knew it was a danger to her freedom, so she could bask in her favorite feeling. That was where she made her mistake. That was her Stupid

Move. No, that was one of the two. The other one was Kaye. Maggie didn't want to give up Mr. Pookie, but Kaye ordered her girlfriend to give it up. It wasn't just what she said, but the way she said it. Impatient, like she wanted Amanda to take it, to get her out of there.

Kaye. Amanda was so obsessed with getting Maggie, and only saw Kaye as an obstacle. Not as a threat. Pay attention to all the pieces on the board.

Now she just had resolve, a certainty she had never felt before. To do something the Romans considered a choice of honor. She'd used a shoe to smash the mirror in the bathroom, and sitting in the tub with the warm water up to her neck, Amanda watched the color change from clear to red. She brought up her hand so her fingers and the glass shard broke the surface of the water without her wrist coming up and spurting blood all over.

Reflected in the glass, Amanda looked at her face one last time. She thought there would be tears, but she couldn't feel sorry for herself. No, that would be weak. There was pride in that face, because this was her choice, her decision, and that meant she had power. Power meant she wasn't weak. For one last time, Amanda had the power. Daddy would've been proud.

24.

Within four hours we were gone.

The movers were short stocky guys who only spoke Spanish, but they were the fastest, toughest, hardest working people I've ever seen. Kaye and I felt like we were moving in slow motion next to them. In four hours they helped us pack and tape and load the truck. Informing the building super we were leaving was fun. He said something about breaking the lease by not giving notice and that he was going to have to keep the security deposit. We laughed in his face.

"After I quit I tried calling you at work," Kaye explained while we were still packing. "I was going to tell you to leave work and meet me outside the building. Then I was going to explain the plan so we could go upstairs and send Amanda running." Kaye stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. "When they told me you'd quit yesterday, I...honestly, I went out of my fucking mind. I had no idea what was going on and the whole drive home I was scared that I'd get there and both of you would be gone." Kaye started choking up and her voice cracked. "Or that I'd find you..."

She started crying. I went over and hugged her. "I wish you'd have told me this plan last night."

"I just came up with it last night," Kaye said between sniffles. "I wasn't sure it could come together until I talked to Alex this morning, and the moving company...I didn't want you to get your hopes up. And just why didn't you tell me about your plan, missy?"

Because I didn't want to involve you in a murder, I thought. Because I didn't want you to talk me out of it. Because I didn't trust your better judgment. "Because I'm an idiot," I said.

Once the truck was loaded and gone we just had a few things left to put in our car. As we drove out Route 80 towards Pennsylvania, I held Mr. Pookie in my hands. The real Mr. Pookie.

"How?" I asked.

Kaye smiled. "Planning. You're so attached to this little guy, and a few months ago I got worried that if one day he was lost or stolen you'd go to pieces. So I went on the Internet and found the company that sold him. They'd changed the design a little bit, but I was able to alter it enough and then wash and age the shit out of him to make a duplicate."

I smiled. "So you were going to trick me for my own good, if you needed to."

Kaye sighed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Sometimes lying isn't all bad if it's done for the right purpose. Moral of the story, blow it out your ass."

I laughed. In my other hand was the plastic container we dug out of Mr. Pookie. There were four small coins inside, none of which looked like they were worth a chunk of two million dollars. I held it up. "And when exactly did you figure out about this?"

Kaye smiled. "I figured out Mr. Pookie last night, but I'd been suspicious since Sunday. I kept wondering, just why did she come back? If it wasn't for you, it had to be for something awfully important to risk getting caught. The only thing I could figure was the money. So I started thinking a bank account, or maybe it was buried somewhere. But then why stay with us? That had to be the biggest risk of all."

I nodded. "Unless it was with us. With me."

"At first I thought of the Rembrandt print. I pulled off the back, but it looked like cheap paper. Then it hit me. There was no way Amanda could count on you to keep something she gave you, especially after how it all ended. And that's when something Amanda said came back to me, something that hit me wrong when she said it. When she saw Mr. Pookie she said, "I can't believe you still have him." I've only been with you a fraction of the time she was, and I damned well know that when you die you'll want Mr. Pookie buried with you. Of course she believed you'd still have him. She counted on it."

I smiled. Kaye looked at me. "What?" she asked.

"You read way too many private detective novels."

Kaye laughed.

I said, "While you've got your Sherlock cap on, there's something I really don't get. Amanda was only there for the money, and it was right there in her reach the whole time. The longer she stayed, the riskier it was for her. So why'd she stay so long?"

Kaye looked at me, and her face had that soft, serene look it got when she was about to tell me she loved me. She reached over and stroked the side of my face with her finger. "She stayed," Kaye said, "for the same reason I did."

I looked into her eyes and knew that I'd succeeded. I'd gotten back what I'd lost when I was fifteen. Hell, I had more than that. "There's a...something else," I said. "One last secret I've been keeping from you that I think you should know about."

Kaye looked skeptical, and a little worried. "Is this going to make me mad?"

Reaching down into my bag, I pulled out the small box with the rings. "I really hope not."

The End.