Just Say Who

Chapter 15

We were finishing breakfast at the Vegas Diner a little after five on Saturday morning, just like Eddie had laid out. The six of us cleaned up the last of the pancakes and omelets and washed them down with coffee. Everybody threw a few bucks on the table. Eddie counted it, left a five for the tip, and paid the rest up front.

Outside, the sky was still dark but clear. The stars were starting to fade. It was going to be a nice day once the sun came up.

We left our own cars near the club on Fifteenth—same place we'd be coming back to—and climbed into the black van Fat Sal had taken the night before. He took the Belt west toward the Verrazano, got off on Richmond Avenue, and pulled into the nearly empty mall lot. Only a few department-store stock guys were around that early.

We were all carrying. Nobody expected trouble, but nobody wanted to be the one caught short if things went sideways. Little Frankie had a set of plastic flex-cuffs for the lone bank employee who was supposed to move the night-deposit bin into the vault.

Eddie kept it simple in the van. "Everybody know their part? Jimmy and Richie break the glass. We climb in, grab the bin. Frankie handles the guy. We load up and we're gone. No speeches. No extra noise."

My pulse was already climbing. Random pictures kept cutting through—Mom at the kitchen table, Gerri and Lucy, Kitty standing in front of the mirror with nothing on but the pearls. I just wanted to move.

"All right," Eddie said. "Let's do it."

Five of us got out. Sal stayed behind the wheel. The bank was the first storefront on the right. Through the glass we could see the employee transferring the last of the night-drop bags into a big rolling bin. The thing was nearly overflowing. Frankie's information had been dead-on.

Richie and I hit the deposit window with the axe handles. The glass went on the second swing. Eddie, Tommy, and Frankie were through the opening before the last shards hit the floor. Frankie had the employee on the ground and cuffed in seconds. The rest of us muscled the bin to the broken window and started handing the bags out to Sal. Pantyhose over our heads, gloves on, no one saying more than they had to.

It felt like less than a minute. Then we were back in the van and Sal was rolling out of the lot like he had every right to be there. I could hear myself breathing too hard. Nobody spoke until we cleared the bridge and were back on the Brooklyn side.

Sal pulled up to the hydrant in front of the club. It took the better part of twenty minutes to get every bag inside. He dumped the van a few blocks away near the open-cut train tracks on Sixty-Fourth; Frankie picked him up and brought him back. By the time they walked in we were already deep into the count.

We finished a little before eleven. The total came in just under six hundred and fifty thousand. Each man's share landed a little over eighty thousand once everyone had set aside what they owed their own people. We packed the money into six canvas gym bags. Eddie poured shots of Absolut all around.

"We did it," he said, grinning. "We're rich."

Tommy raised his glass. "Sal, Eddie, and I are heading down to Florida for a month. You guys want in, just say the word."

Frankie had to be at work Monday. Richie and I had families. Florida wasn't happening for us.

We agreed, without much argument, not to start throwing money around right away. No new cars, no loud jewelry, nothing that would make the wrong people ask questions.

"You understand that, right?" I asked Richie.

"Of course I do. I'm not stupid."

Everybody laughed. We hugged it out and did one more round.

"We'll talk when we get back," Eddie said. "I don't even want to think about the next one until then."

Richie and I put our bags in the trunk of the Regal. I pulled away from the curb.

"Jimmy, we did it," he said. "We actually hit the jackpot."

"You ain't kidding. It'd take my father ten years to clear this on a sergeant's salary."

Richie was already thinking ahead. "When we give Biagio his cut I'm telling him I'm taking Kathy to Vegas for a week."

"Just don't blow the whole thing at the craps table."

We both laughed. When I dropped him off he grabbed his bag, kissed me on the cheek, and disappeared into his building. I warned him one last time not to do anything stupid. He waved me off without turning around.

Driving home, the weight of it finally settled in. A few months earlier I'd been hauling trash and sweating every bill. Now there was a gym bag in the trunk with more money than I'd ever seen in one place. Gerri and Lucy were going to wake up to a different life whether they knew it yet or not. A house on Ocean Parkway didn't feel like a fantasy anymore.

I parked the Regal, killed the engine, and sat there for a minute with both hands on the wheel. The new-car smell was still strong. Somewhere behind me the sun was fully up.

We were moving. And it felt better than I ever thought it would.