11-The Twist

11

The Twist

Hank pulled up to the upscale house around 7:00 pm.  The sun was at its decline and shadows played across the Ohio landscape.  Inside, Sidney would be waiting, disguised as Savannah, of course.  She would be ready to close the deal.

Hank was happy about that.  He wanted his pay day and a little rest, but most of all, he wanted to stop having to do this stupid country accent.

Bob sat in the passenger seat, clutching his disheveled suitcase to his chest as if it were a teddy bear.  They had done a number on him.  Bob looked ready to crack.

Hank got out and walked around the car to Bob’s side.  He opened Bob’s door and basically dragged the man out.  Hank got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.  He didn’t like seeing Bob this worked up.  A guy in Bob’s state of mind can become a wildcard.

Hank walked Bob into the lavish house where the mock poker game that had cost him everything, had gone down.  Sidney would be waiting at the table in the game room. Hank directed Bob in the right direction and they found Sidney, back in the blonde wig and high heels, the southern belle look having returned.  She was playing solitaire at the opposite end of the table.

Sidney looked up and smiled, speaking with the Savannah accent.  “Good evening, Mr. Stanoski.  So lovely to see you again.  Please have a seat.”

Stanoski didn’t move.  He was still clutching the suitcase.

Sidney frowned.  “Marshall, would you please make Mr. Stanoski comfortable?”

Hank ripped the case out of Bob’s hands and he made a small, child-like whimper.  Hank then put his hand on Bob’s shoulder and sat him in the chair opposite Sidney.  Bob was visibly shaken and covered in his own sweat.

Hank took a step back but never took his eyes off of Bob.

“I’m glad you could join me,” Sidney began, her eyes going to the suitcase then back to Bob.  “It seems you have somewhere to be?”

Bob stammered, trying to explain but Sidney silenced him with the raising of her hand.  “No worries, Mr. Stanoski.  After we settle our little debt, you can do whatever you want.”

Sidney nodded to Hank and that was his cue.  He moved up behind Bob and reached over his shoulder placing the deed on the table.  He then slapped a pen down.

“Sign the deed and our work here is done,” Sidney said.

Bob nodded and picked up the pen.  He took a quick glance over the document and seemed to notice something strange in the text.

Bob stopped and looked confused.  “Who’s Sidney Thompson?”

Sidney frowned.  “Do I need to explain myself, Mr. Stanoski?  I did just save you from that colored fellow, didn’t I?”

Bob nodded.  “Of course, I was just wondering is all.  I mean when I sign this, it says she gets the store, not you.”

“If you must know,” Sidney answered.  “It’s an alias I use in order to avoid taxes.”

Bob nodded again and then took a deep breath and signed the deed.

Hank exhaled.  It was done.  All he had to do now was-

“You fucking whore!”  Hank spun as Tobias stormed into the room.

Sidney’s face contorted into shock.  Bob jumped out of his chair.

“You just couldn’t resist, could you?!”  Tobias yelled as he walked around the table pointing his finger like a loaded gun.

Hank was completely lost as to what to do.  What was Tobias doing?

“What the hell are you doing here?!”  Bob yelled at Tobias.

Tobias spun his head towards Bob with fire burning in his eyes.  “Shut the fuck up, Bob!”

Tobias reeled back toward Sidney, who looked horrified as her entire plan and everything the three of them had worked for, began to fall around them like a house of cards.

Sidney tried to continue her Savannah impersonation.  “Why Tobias, what is the meaning of this outburst?”

Tobias scrunched up his face in angry disgust.  “Oh cut the fucking act, would you?”

Sidney lost her accent.  “What in the name of God are you doing, Tobias?”

Bob’s face began to twist into one of rage.  “What happened to your accent?  How do you know Tobias?”

Tobias ignored Bob, instead focusing on his partner in crime.  “You cut me out of the restaurant, didn’t you?”

Sidney was taken aback.  “What?”

Tobias noticed the deed on the table and gave Sidney a disapproving look.  “This is it, isn’t it?”

“Tobias, wait!” Sidney cried as Tobias picked it up and looked it over.

Reading it confirmed his suspicions and he turned and hurled the deed at her.  “You fucking bitch!”

Sidney finally looked guilty.  “How did you know?”

Tobias shook his head.  “I just know ‘cuase I know you.  After all we have been through, I should have been here for the final play.  When you told me to stay home, I knew it meant you were going to do something you didn’t want me to see.  God damn it, Sid.  After all these years I thought our friendship was the one rule you wouldn’t break.”

Sidney became angry.  “Oh fuck you, Bias!  I did hold that rule dear, above all else.  You were the one person I would never cheat.  That was, until you cheated me!”

Tobias now looked guilty and Sidney advanced.  “You vanished into thin air for a fucking year!  Then you come back because you need me?!  Well fuck you!  You are not vanishing again, because I just became your boss!”

Hank stared in awe of what he was witnessing in front of him.  How had it come to this.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Bob screamed so loud his voice cracked.

Both Tobias and Sidney turned and yelled back in eerie unison.  “Shut the fuck up, Bob!”

“NO!” Bob suddenly pulled out the gun from the back of his pants and the room went quiet as Bob nervously pointed the gun.  “What the fuck is going on?”

“Okay.”  Sidney’s voice got calm as she held her hands in a non-threatening, non-violent way.  “Calm down, okay?  I’ll explain.”

“Fuck you, bitch!”  Bob screamed.  “You have been trying to fuck me over this whole time.  You’re in bed with that fag shit over there, right?!  RIGHT?!”

As Bob screamed, he moved the gun constantly back and forth between the two of them.  He had seemed to forget about Hank who was trying to move up on Bob’s right, very slowly so as not to be noticed.

“You know what?” Tobias suddenly chimed in.  “Fuck you, Bob.”

Everybody’s eyes went to Tobias who was staring at Bob.  “That’s right.  Fuck you, Bob.”

“I, will fucking kill you!” Bob screamed.

Tobias shrugged that off.  “The hell you will.  You’re all talk and always have been, ain’t that right?”

“What are you doing?” Sidney whispered angrily.

Tobias ignored her, pulling out a smoke and lighting up.  “Shoot, then.”

Everyone in the room said ‘What?’ at the same time.

Tobias continued.  “I lost the one thing I was in this for.  I broke my promise to my fiancé more times than I can count, so fuck you Bob.  Shoot me!  But let’s face it, that ain’t going to happen.”

“Shut up!” Bob yelped.

Tobias continued.  “You see, Bob’s always about the easy way out, and killing a man is the hard way.  He doesn’t have the stomach for it.”

“I said, shut up!” Bob screamed again.

Tobias was un-relenting.  “He doesn’t have the balls.  That’s right, Bob.  That’s why your wife left you.”

Bob’s eye twitched.  “You fucking bastard…”

Tobias’s voice got low and serious.  “And deep down inside, Bob knows that is why his kid hates him too.”

“You bastard!”  Bob screamed.

Hank saw the crazed look in Bob’s eye and knew it was now or never.

Bob pulled the trigger.  The gun fired a single shot.

In the same second, Hank slapped the gun away and cracked Bob in the side of the face with a brutal right hand.  Bob spun and sprawled onto the floor.

Hank turned and felt his stomach drop.

Sidney fell backwards into Tobias, blood pouring from the gunshot wound in her chest.

Sidney had taken the bullet for Tobias.

“No.  No, Sid.  Come on.  NO!”  Tobias sputtered as he caught Sidney and fell backward with her.  He ended up sitting on the ground, Sidney’s head in his lap.

Bob shook off the punch, blood running down from his lip and he looked over, his face contorting to horror at what he had done.

“Stay with me, Kitty.  Come on Sid, you gotta’ stay with me!”  Tobias was panicking as he watched the blood pump out of her heart through the hole in her chest and onto the floor.

 Sidney looked up weakly.  “Sorry, Bias…”

Sidney closed her eyes.

“No, Sid,” Tobias said, trying not to weep.  “I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry.”

Hank took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair as he watched the scene.  How had it come to this?  How had this all gone so bad?  Sidney was dead.  No one had the store or any money.  Hank heard a desperate Bob muttering to himself, scramble to his suitcase and then out of the room and out of the house.

“Oh god, Tobias,” Hank whispered.  “I’m sorry man.”

Tobias looked up at him from Sidney’s dead body, taking a drag on his cigarette and blowing it into the air.  “No Hank, I’m sorry.”

“You fucking should be, that thing smells awful. ”Sidney suddenly said as her eyes popped back open.

Tobias suddenly grinned like a cat.

Hank’s face became one of confusion.  “What the fuck?”

Sidney coughed.  “Seriously, dick monger, get that thing out of my face!”

Sidney stood up and dusted herself off, the blood still seeming to pump from her chest.

Tobias stood and noticed the blood on his suit pants.  “Awe fuck, these are ruined now!”

Sidney frowned at him.  “Really?  We own a restaurant and you’re worried about your pants?”

“What the fuck is going on?”  Hank suddenly broke in, still confused, watching a zombie-like Sidney walk and make jokes.

Tobias turned and did a mock face of pain. “Jeez, Hank.  I’m sorry about this, but we needed your reaction to be sincere.”

Hank seemed to begin to understand what was happening.  “Oh, fuck you guys!”

Sidney laughed.

Tobias continued to explain.  “You see, we wanted Bob gone after this, and gone for good.  If he hangs around, there is a chance that Leroy or his boys eventually find out who did them in and we would be up shit creek.”

Hank shook his head.  “But he shot her?!”

“Movie magic.”  Tobias said and strutted over to Hank, pulling six .38 caliber bullets from his pocket and handing them to Hank.  “I’m a thief, remember?  What do you think I was doing while Bob was being interviewed by the cops?  I snuck into his house and found his gun.  I then replaced those bullets with blanks.”

Sidney decided to take over.  “I rigged a little corn syrup blood splatter and set it off when Bob fired.”

Hank shook his head.  “He was packed already.  He was already leaving.  Why go through the trouble?”

“He was leaving to lay low for a while,” Sidney said.  “We wanted him gone for good.  He thinks he killed me, he’ll be in Mexico before we get home.”

Hank shook his head in amazement.  “But how’d you know he had a gun?”

Tobias laughed.  “People in bed with Leroy Simpson have guns.”

Sidney tapped Hank on the cheek.  “Oh come on Hank, don’t be mad.  We just pulled it off!”

Hank nodded.  “Yeah, I guess we did.”

****

Sidney was sitting on the back porch of the house looking up at the clear night sky.  Her friend in real estate had loaned her the house for one more night.  Tobias walked out and took a seat in the chair next to her, while, at the same time, handing her a scotch.

Tobias had poured himself a beer.

“To the suckers.”  Sidney said as she extended her glass to toast.

The “to the suckers” toast, had been a tradition between her and Tobias, after each successful con.  It began after they had impersonated boat owners to get a $200 meal for free at a local yacht club.  Sidney had raised her glass and said, “To the suckers of the world, because without them, we’d be out of work.”

It had since been shortened.

Tobias smiled and met her glass with his own.  “To the suckers.”

They then drank in silence, which was rare for them but occasionally they just enjoyed the silence.  Finally, Tobias put his empty glass down.

“Alright I have to get home to my future wife.  Tomorrow we can transfer the deed to me,” Tobias said as he stood.

Sidney scoffed, “As if.  You thought I was kidding?”

Tobias turned and raised an eyebrow, “Don’t be a bitch.”

“Too late,” Sidney said with a smile.  “You’re not ditching me again.  I am officially your new boss.”

Tobias became frustrated.  “Come on Sid.  You can’t-”

Sidney cut him off.  “Plus, if I have a steady income, I might not have to be so bad anymore.”

Tobias took a deep breath and let it go.  “I have to ask, would you have really taken the bullet for me?”

“I want to meet your wife.”  Sidney said suddenly, avoiding the question.  “I want her to know about me.”

Tobias nodded.  “That can be arranged.”

Tobias turned and began to walk toward the front of the house.  Sidney stood.  “Bias?”

Tobias stopped and turned.

Sidney thought about what she wanted to say then smiled.  “We’re all good, Bias.  We’re just not all as okay with it as you are.”

Sidney winked at Tobias who just laughed and walked away.

END SEASON 1