Sunday, July 24, 2011

4-The Family

4

The Family

As Sidney walked into the bar she instantly filed the experience in her own head as one of the top ten, least fun moments of her life.

Sidney was no stranger to drinking in bars, pubs and taverns.  However, when she did, she preferred them to be clean, or at least not smell like dry urine.  The place was a small bar behind a pizza joint in the small town of Streetsboro.  It was ill lit and crowded with very unattractive people.  Two worn down, dirty pool tables sat to one side.  To the other, a dance floor where one women danced alone.

Sid had to stare at the dancing woman for a second.  Her belly had a pouch and Sid had to stop and wonder if the woman was with child.

Sidney shook her head and saw Tobias at the bar.  He saw her and waved her over.  She scowled, storming over.  “How did you find this place?”

Tobias frowned at her tone as he ordered her a drink.  “It’s not that bad.”

Sidney maintained her frown.  “Seriously, did you look up ‘shitholes’ in the yellow pages?  It’s like this place is actually trying to be the worst bar ever.”

Tobias shook his head.  “Does your arrogance have no limits?”

Sidney took a deep breath then pointed to the dancing girl.  “Is that woman pregnant?”

Tobias turned and watched the very drunk thirty-something blonde sway back and forth out of sync with the juke box music.  Her hair was matted with sweat, or water or beer. Tobias wasn’t sure which.  She wore a tube top and cut off jeans that seemed to be eternally trying to crawl into her vagina.  The belly was confusing.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Tobias finally answered.

Sidney nodded.  “And that’s my point.  I never want to have an ‘is she pregnant’ conversation at a bar.”

Tobias sighed in defeat.  “Okay, okay, you made your point, but I didn’t want us to meet at any of our usual joints because I don’t want people to see us together.  Just in case, our little scam goes wrong.”

“True, but what I don’t understand,” Sidney began as her drink came, “is why must we meet in a bar?”

Tobias smiled.  “You’ll see, so we are early.  Why don’t you let me in on the grift?”

Sid smiled.  “I do love it when you use old movie jargon like ‘grift’.”

“You should talk.  Who says ‘jargon’, anymore?”  Tobias punched back.

Sidney began to take Tobias through her plan, step by step.  She could see his nervousness as she explained.  It was a complicated and slightly convoluted set up, and those kinds of cons had a low success rate.  Sidney however, was confident that it was their best course of action given the situation of Bob’s finances.

“That’s pretty… complicated,” Tobias finally said as after Sidney finished.  “It’s also got some holes,”

“No plan is perfect, Bias,” Sidney responded.  “And as far as holes go, we can just fill in the blanks as we go along.”

Bias drew in a breath in order to respond when he noticed his guest entering the front door.  Tobias waved to the man and Sidney turned.  The man standing in the doo way was six-one, maybe six-two and large.  He was wearing a small shirt which showed off his broad shoulders and big arms.  Unfortunately, the shirt also showed off his gut.

The mystery man was not an ‘abs’ sort of guy.

He wore a non-descript, faded t-shirt and jeans.  On his head was a camouflage ball cap that said in bright green colors “John Deer”.  “That’s your boy?”

Tobias picked up on the sarcasm as he waved over the newcomer.  “Give him a chance.”

“His hat is an oxymoron.”  Sidney said un-happily.

“You’re an oxymoron.” Tobias fired back juvenilely.

The man also had a small disposable paper Pepsi cup in his left hand and as he approached he spat chewed tobacco into it.

He was carrying a cup of his own tobacco spit.

“Hello,” he said and extended his free hand to Sidney, who stared at it.

“This is Hank Tomec,” Tobias jumped in.  “Hank, this is Sidney.”

Sidney finally shook his hand.  “Interesting to meet you.”

Hank nodded quietly.  “Yeah, same to you.”

The three of them found a back table to continue their conversation.  They all sat down.  Sidney decided to wait and hear what Hank had to say.  She liked to give new people the floor in order to see what they were all about; give them a chance to impress her.

Hank sat there.  He sat there, awkwardly.

Sidney slowly looked at Tobias, who avoided her gaze then she turned back to Hank. “So… Hank.  Did Tobias tell you what we need.”

Hank nodded.  “You need muscle, for a con job.”

Sidney was shocked at Hank’s lack of tact in the sensitive criminal situation.  “You know what we are doing is against the law, right?”

Hank thought about it then nodded.  “I don’t sweat cops.”

Sidney blinked, unsure whether the man was dense or antisocial or both.  “What makes you think you can help us.”

Hank shrugged.  “I can fight.”

Sidney stood.  “Tobias, can I talk to you?”

Tobias stood and followed her out of ear range from the table.  “What the fuck is this?!”

Tobias looked hurt.  “It’s the muscle!”

“This guy?”  Sidney took a deep breath.  “Where did you find him?  He seems half retarded and completely devoid of any real speaking ability.  Also, he spits in a cup!”

“He’s my future brother in-law.”  Tobias said, knowing Sid wasn’t going to like this.

“Really?” Sidney began to flush red.  “Well, let’s makes this a family business!  Anyone in your brand new family that doesn’t know about me being a criminal?”

“It’s not like that.”  Tobias became defensive.  “He’s the only one who knows.  And let me point out, we need someone with no connection to Leroy Simpson, which is hard to come by, this close to Akron.”

Sidney thought about that for a second.  He was right, on that particular point.

Tobias gave her an irritated look.  “Look, he doesn’t have to be smart or able to speak for that matter.  Just muscle.”

Sidney grinned.  “Oh yes, I forgot his one usable skill.  ‘I can fight’.”  She mocked Hank’s southern Ohio twang voice when she quoted him.

Tobias smiled, then walked to the bar.  Sidney watched as he purchased three double shots of Jack Daniels.  He then walked back to the table and got Hank to down them one after another in the course of a minute or so.

Alcohol, when chugged or done as a shot, does not take that long to effect the drinker.

Tobias then stood to get another drink and held up his index finger in Sidney’s direction, signaling for her to wait a minute.  She mouthed the words ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ but he ignored her.

Instead, he picked up the drink and sat back down at the table.  He gave the drink to Tomec, then directed his attention to two big hillbillies playing pool while saying something Sidney couldn’t make out.  Tobias then pointed at Sydney and said something.  Sidney watched Hank’s face curl into a scowl.  His face was flushed from the shots.

He stood and stormed over toward the pool table, while Tobias returned to Sidney’s side.

“What did you tell him?” She asked.

Tobias smiled, “I got Hank drunk, then I told him those guys at the table said you looked like a whore, good enough to rape.”

Sidney looked at him with a raised eyebrow.  Tobias turned, smiling.  “Hank didn’t seem to like that very much.”

Sidney hated the look on Tobias’s face.  The shit-eating grin usually meant he was about to be right.

“RAPE THIS!” Hank suddenly screamed and Sidney turned back toward the pool table as Tomec drove his large meaty hand into one of the pool guys faces.

Hank struck with such force the man’s nose seemed to explode.  Blood literally spewed out and down his face.  The man’s back arched backward over the table before the dead weight of his lower half dragged him to the floor in a crumpled heap.

The man’s pool buddy came around the table, his pool cue held high like a club.  He took a swing but Hank caught the long piece of wood out of the air and ripped it out of his hand before tossing it behind him like garbage.  The man looked stunned by the complete destruction of his strategy.  Hank took this opportunity and stepped in with a cannon-like uppercut to the man’s centered mid-section.  The air was hurled out of the man’s lungs as he keeled over.  Hank raised his right hand above his head.  He then dropped the fist with a huge downward cross, driving it through the pool guy’s face and sending him to the floor with a broken jaw and possibly some missing teeth.

“God damn pussies!” Hank yelled as he stood upright and pulled his tin of chew out of his back pocket.

The two men wearing staff uniforms were in motion now.  They were older, but covered in muscle and tattoos.  They probably had some history with the owner, along the lines of prison mates, and that’s how they got the jobs.  They looked tough and they weren’t surprised or flat-footed.

The bigger of the two was bald and stood a foot above Hank.  He stepped up and pointed a finger at Tomec.  “You’re outta here, pal!”

Hank scuffed as he pulled some chew out of his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth, between the lower lip and teeth, “The fuck I am, chief!”

The bald man wound up and took a big swing at Hank.  Hank ducked the wild haymaker and came up with a giant left hand uppercut to the man’s inner arm pit.  The blow caused shockwaves of pain through his upper body.  Hank then came up fluidly grabbing the back of the man’s head and driving it into the pool table with a loud bang. This gave the second bouncer, a slower and fatter man, the chance to land a vicious right cross on Hank’s right cheek.

The blow sent hank staggering and stumbling to one knee.  Sidney yelped, “We need to help him-”

Tobias put up a hand and stopped her.

The fatter bouncer advanced on Hank, who reached onto the pool table to grab a ball before pitching it at close range into fatty’s eye.  The bouncer yelled and screamed in pain as the ball made a cracking noise upon collision.

The whole bar’s attention now on the fight, collectively said ‘OOOO’

The man’s hands went to his face and he bent over, howling in pain.  Hank grabbed the back of his head and lifted his knee, driving it into his face.  Fat man dropped.

The bald man, now bleeding from the cut over his eye where his face had struck the table at high velocity, charged, grabbing Hank around the waist from behind and with a roar lifting him off his feet.  The man charged Hank into the bar, then grabbed the back of his head pinning him to the bar.

“We have got to help him out of this,” Sidney said, starting to get concerned.

Tobias shook his head still smiling.

Hank drove his elbow backward into the man’s sternum.  The blow made the bald man loosen his grip.  Hank spun around, whirling into a huge powerful right hook to the injured eye.  The bald man staggered from the blow and Hank bent down grabbing him around his waist.  With a roar, hank lifted the bald man and back body-dropped him backward over the counter of the bar sending him crashing to the floor behind.

Hank stood there, victorious.  Sidney shook her head in disbelief, while Tobias chuckled.  Hank turned and spit tobacco over the bar and onto the bald man who lay in a heap behind.

“I leave when I want, mother fucker!” Hank yelled.

He whirled around and realized he had the bar’s attention.  “Anyone else want to rape that hotty over there?!”  He questioned the bar and they all shook their heads in unison.

Hank then walked to the bar and pulled out a twenty, throwing it at the bar tender.  “I want another shot.”  The tender dropped a glass on the bar and poured the shot.

Hank took it to the head then slammed the glass back to the counter.  “Keep what’s left, it’s not a tip.  Buy new bouncers.  This place is HORSE SHIT!”

Hank then slid the glass off the counter at the tender.

Tobias looked at Sidney.  “So?”

Sidney grinned.  “I want one.”

End episode 4


Friday, July 8, 2011

3-The Mark

3

The Mark

Sidney’s eyes fluttered as the sound of her cell phone ringing attempted to call her back from the great beyond.  Slowly, she opened her eyes and her brain began the process of becoming self-aware again.

She was in her room, in her house, in Ravenna.  It was a nice house, for which she had worked very hard to acquire and paid quite a good deal of cash.  It was also rather expensive to keep the house afloat and her part time bartending job didn’t quite cover it.

Her right hand lashed out as the phone rang again, eager to silence the infernally noisy construct.  She drew it to her fuzzy field of vision and noticed it was Tobias calling.  It was also 7:00 in the evening, only two hours after she had decided to quit casing the mark.

“You are aware that I was up all night, thanks to you and the all important job you have asked me to do for you?” She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster this close to having woken up.

She could muster quite a bit.

Tobias was skilled at ignoring such tones and did just that.  “What did you find out?  Did you see an angle?”

Sidney sighed and took the phone away from her ear before pulling herself up to sit on the edge of the bed.  She could see herself in the mirror.  She had passed out, sprawled over the top of the bed covers, still in the jogging outfit.  Her hair was down and gnarled around her shoulders.

She could hear Tobias’s eager voice asking if she was still there, and she groaned before putting the phone back to her ear.  “Yes, I’m still here.  Would you please take it down seven notches?  You sound like a cracked out four-year-old.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Tobias responded.  “So, do we have a play or not?”

Sidney smiled for the first time since her rude awakening.  “Oh we have an angle alright. Hell, we have a cliff.”

****

Before…

Sidney sat in her car waiting for something else to happen with the house.  While she waited, she went through Robert (Bob) Stanoski’s mail.

It was a train wreck.

One bill after another.  The man had to have at least five or six maxed out credit cards.  Sidney had never actually seen someone in this kind of debt.  He had to be at least $50,000.00 in the hole, with just the bills she had in front of her.  This was something.

She couldn’t really use the credit card debt itself, it was too regulated, but she could use the desperation.  A man with this much debt had problems, problems he would probably being willing to compromise himself to get rid of.

She needed a vice.

A weakness to exploit and use.

It was at this point when she watched an old Cadillac pull up to the corner and two men get out.  The first from the passenger side, was a large, oval-shaped, white man with a bald head.  He adjusted the large pair of glasses on his nose and his face had a tight, trim goatee that gave him a menacing look.  Sidney was reminded of every serial killer she had seen, and could totally picture this man showing up on the news after eating a whole mess of babies, or something equally heinous.

The other man was black and large.  He had a broad chest and big arms and looked like he pumped iron constantly, a fact he was obviously proud of given his wife beater tee shirt, which must have been purposely bought two sizes too small.

As they approached the house, Sidney smiled.

Ask and ye shall receive.

****

The Muscle.

“I thought it sucked,” Burt said as he stepped out of the car and adjusted his glasses.

Ernie had never been a fan or Burt’s low and mostly emotionless voice, but he had gotten used to it in the three years he had worked with the strange man.  “How can you not like it?  It was perfect comic book Thor.”

Ernie argued his point as Burt walked around the car.  His walk also bothered Ernie.  It was like Burt never moved his arms and just quickly dragged his upper body with his legs.  It gave Ernie the feeling he was walking around with a horror movie freak.

“It was boring,” Burt presented his arguments on the subject.  “And how could you possibly think that the movie was comic book Thor?  They were all aliens.”

Ernie scowled and looked surprised at the same time.  “The hell they was, how do you figure it?”

Burt scowled and pushed the glasses up his nose as the two began to walk to the door, “How did you miss that?  The stupid little girl actually says it.”

Their debate about the enjoyment of the movie Thor had begun this morning and had been non-stop ever since.

“I don’t think that’s what they meant.” Ernie responded trying to think back to the movie.

“It was boring,” Burt said quietly.

“No you’re just being childish,” Ernie said as they stepped up to the front door.

Ernie knocked loudly three times, “Alright, game face.”

Burt nodded and they heard Bob inside, shuffling toward the door.

“The destroyer armor was awesome.”  Ernie decided to make a final point.

Burt did one quick nod, “Agreed.”

The door opened.

Burt’s hand went to Bob’s throat.  Bob dropped the carton of milk that he was drinking. Burt shoved him backwards into the house as the milk fell to the floor.  Bob sputtered and choked on the milk in his mouth as Burt slammed him against the wall, putting pressure on his wind pipe.

Ernie walked in behind him and gave Bob a hard eye.  “You late, dawg.”

Ernie’s speech patterns suddenly adopted that of a gangster rapper.  This was intentional.  It had a tendency to make small white men pee themselves.

“I’m… Sorry… I’m working on it….” Bob sputtered through the lack of air.

“You sorry?  You sorry?!  Sorry don’t pay your dues, man!”  Ernie yelled and got in Bob’s flustered face.

“One… Month.”  Bob managed to speak through the choking.

Ernie raised an eyebrow and feigned surprise.  “Did this motha fucka just tell me when he’s going to pay?  Sounds like he was telling me my business?”

Burt’s hand applied pressure.

Bob gasped for air and his eyes started to roll back into his head before Ernie tapped Burt’s shoulder and Burt dropped the man.  Bob crumpled to the floor, gasping for air in the fetal position.

Ernie leaned down, getting really close and personal.  “You close the deal in two weeks. Mr. Simpson doesn’t wait any longer.  Got it?”

Bob nodded desperately, doing anything not to get choked again.

Burt and Ernie turned and walked out, shutting the door behind them.  As they walked to the car, Ernie asked Burt, “Who’s next?”

“Mrs. Kowalski,” Burt said.

Ernie frowned, “That old Polish lady?”

Burt smiled and nodded as he circled to the passenger side.  “We break a finger this time.”

Ernie stared at him and his smile.  He was disgusted by the enjoyment that Burt took from his job.  “Burt, you are one sick mother fucker.”

****

Now…

“…Long story short, I followed the two meat heads until they took me back to Akron and the Corner Pocket pool-hall.” Sidney said, finishing her big reveal.

Tobias instantly put two and two together.  “Leroy Simpson?  Bob Stanoski is in with Leroy Simpson?”

“It’s much worse than that, Tobias.”  Sidney continued as she walked into the bathroom and began to pee.  “Simpson funded Bob’s buyout of your restaurant.”

Tobias’ voice seemed stressed.  “I don’t know about this, Sid.  Simpson is bad news.”

Tobias seemed to trail off, then his voice turned to frustration.  “Are you peeing?!”

The jig was up.  He had heard the echo.  “You are the one that woke me up.  That’s what I do when I wake up.  It’s all natural.”

Tobias took a deep breath.  “That doesn’t mean you do it while I’m on the phone!”

“Our friendship is bigger than pee, Bias.”  She said sarcastically, secretly taking enjoyment from his unease.

Tobias sighed and pushed through.  “So, why would Simpson have anything to do with scum like Stanoski?”

Sidney smiled, “Stanoski is a gambler.  Poker is his game of choice.”

“Shit.”  Tobias said over the other end as he did the same math Sidney had done.

“You got it, Bias.”  Sidney began.  “Bob Stanoski lost big, and he lost big with Simpson. Knowing he can’t pay it off, he offered a way to launder some of Simpson’s dirtier money.  Simpson handed him enough drug money to buy the restaurant.  Stanoski bought the restaurant for cheaper than it’s worth with the blood money, then he’s going to sell it off for the same price or more, a couple of months later.  Bob will then hand all the clean money over to Leroy Simpson.  Then Leroy will cut him loose.”

“This is dangerous, Sid.  Maybe we should walk.  I didn’t realize it was so-” Tobias was cut off by Sidney.

“Fuck that,” Sidney said abruptly.  She was eager to try to pull a job with this kind of risk.  “Don’t puss out on me now, Bias.  I have an idea and I plan of pulling this off.”

Tobias took a long moment on the other end.  “Okay.   Okay, I’m in.”

“Alright, we are going to need one more on this.  He’s got to be trustworthy and no ties to Simpson.  He’s also got to be big and good with his fists.”  Sidney spoke, all business now.

Tobias took a second then responded confidently.  “I know just the guy.”
End Episode 3