In the Absence of a Good Life

(22) Stealing a Pound of Flesh

The next day passed with me sitting in anticipation, waiting for the moment that the tools would arrive, and waiting for the moment that I could finally start the first steps of my plan.

The day afterwards passed much in the same way, though, by this time, my body was wrought with an overwhelming sense of impetuosity. I became restless and fidgety. My attempts to hide this from Gus were reasonably successful, and if he had spotted my odd behaviour, I fobbed it off by letting him here conversations with my Dad about how excited I was that I was going to a sleepover with Mel. 

This was of course, a completely fictitious event.

On the third day, my post arrived. It included a large package that I immediately assumed contained my expected items; the tools that I would use to implement the first stages of my plan.

I opened up my package with reckless abandon, safely away from the eyes of Gus in my own bedroom. Then I began the long wait for my opportunity to search Gus' room. 

While I was waiting, I decided to test my new tools on my bathroom door. It took me a couple of tries, but I eventually managed to open the locked door. 

You may be wondering how I managed to lock the door on one side and escape to the other side of the door to unlock it? The answer is simple, it was a shared bathroom with the guest's bedroom. I made sure that Gus couldn't chance upon what I was doing, as I locked the door that led to the guest's room as a precaution.

After numerous tries, I had finally managed to open the locked door within a time limit. I was pleased with the progress that I'd made and I was confident in my ability to succeed in the first steps of my plan.

A couple of hours later saw the arrival of the opportune moment to break into Gus' room. I only had a few days left before Jimmy was murdered, and I could not afford to fail.

My brother had been called out on an errand to a friend. I had no idea how long he'd be gone, so I needed to act quickly. As soon as the backdoor slammed, I rushed up out of my position in my own room, and sprinted on my tip toes to Gus' room. I was as quiet as a ninja could be in a rickety old and creaking building.

I reached my target and knelt down to inspect the lock. I then pushed the tension wrench into the keyhole and shimmied it around to find out which way I would have to turn it to open the door. I thought back to what the Internet had said. 'Watch out for the difference between the direction that is hard and stiff, and the direction that has a little more 'give'.'

So it wasn't a direct quote, but it was what I had remembered. I was looking for the direction with a little more 'give'. If I got the direction wrong, I'd have to start all over again. I didn't have the time for that.

I then pushed the pick into the keyhole, just above the tension wrench. I wiggled it around until I could find the two pins that were pushed down to keep the lock locked. When I'd found them, I pushed the furthest one away from me, up a little, and twisted the tension wrench to keep the pin up. I then tried to do the same with the other pin, that was closest to me.

With each pin that I  pushed up and out of the lock, I heard a faint click to let me know that I'd succeeded in the unlocking of the door.

When I'd finished with the two pins, I twisted the tension wrench in the right direction and successfully opened the door.

'Yes!' I whispered, then walked forwards into Gus' room.

It was time for step two; find where Gus hid his filthy money.

I looked in the most obvious places first, under the mattress of his scruffy, unmade bed, behind pictures that hung on the walls in a secret safe and under a loose floorboard hidden under the old-fashioned rug. The money was no where to be seen, and I was running out of time.

I sped up the search, frantically looking under things and in things trying not to leave a trace of my presence. 

 I still could not find the money, though I was sure it was in there somewhere. 

I began to frantically search inside each of the hundreds of books on the bookshelf. With each one that the money wasn't in, a little twinge of doubt began to set out, before I completely gave up hope.

It wasn't there, it honestly wasn't there!

'Come on. come on! THINK! Where would hide it? Come on!' I whispered in frustration. I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind. I began to think of where I would've hid the money. After all, Gus and I were siblings, and we thought almost exactly alike, except, of course, he was on the dark side of the force, and wasn't.

I concluded that I'd try to hide it in plain sight, right under the nose of someone who'd be most likely to try and find it...

I'd hide it...

Just then, I heard a car pull up to the drive, I must have wasted more time than I'd thought. Gus was coming back home, it was only a matter of time before I was found out.

I didn't care anymore. I knew exactly where the money was hidden, and it wasn't in Gus' room. He wouldn't have put incriminating evidence of his criminal activities in his own room - he'd put it in mine!

I rushed out the door, picked up my pick and tension wrench and looked round the room to see if everything was in it's place. Satisfied, I closed the door and heard the click as it locked automatically. I then ran to my own room, again, as quiet as a ninja could be with cymbals attached to his feet.

Once I was in my own bedroom, I slammed the door behind me and tried to calm down my heavy breathing.

I then walked to my own neatly made bed and lifted up the mattress.

'Bingo.'