Popped Off (21 page)

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Authors: Jeffrey Allen

BOOK: Popped Off
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55
It took an hour to unload the U-Haul, and the girls formed an assembly line to take the trophies apart, remove the Viagra, and put the trophies back together. They worked efficiently and had them all back together inside of another hour and the truck was reloaded and we were ready to go.
Moises and Elliott climbed into the cab of the truck, and I walked around to Moises’s side.
“I’ll call you later,” I said. “Lay low. Maybe stay out with your cousin. I’m gonna try and work a few other things out.”
“Like what?”
“Like let me worry about it,” I said.
He started to say something, then caught himself and nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, then looked past him. “And so are you.”
“Thank you,” Elliott said unenthusiastically.
“You stay with him, too,” I said. “I’m working on you, too.”
Elliott shrugged and slumped in the seat.
I tapped the door. “I’ll be in touch.”
Moises nodded. I stepped down off the runner. He started the engine, and the truck pulled away slowly from the curb.
Victor was in the front yard, saying his good-byes to his new friends.
He’d mellowed a little bit.
“Ladies, thank you for your company,” he said. “I appreciate your hospitality.”
A surge of giggles rippled through the girls.
“I wish we could’ve met under different circumstances,” he continued. “But should you ever need my assistance, you have my card.”
They all nodded enthusiastically.
He adjusted his fedora and strutted past me to the car.
Amber joined me at the curb. “I’ll get you a check tomorrow.”
“That would be great. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’ll probably just stick it in your mailbox, if that’s cool.”
“You need my address?”
She grinned. “I know where you live.”
I started to ask how, then decided against it.
“Toodles!” she said and wandered back to the gaggle of girls still eyeing Victor.
I slid into the seat next to him.
“I oughta leave your big dumb butt here,” he said.
“You probably should,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, you’re gonna be sorry. Trust me on that.”
“Still. I’m sorry. But I wanted to get this done.”
“Well, thank God we are done with this crap,” he said, shaking his head.
“Well, we sorta aren’t.”
He turned the key in the ignition. “Excuse me?”
“I learned some things while Moe and I were gone.”
“So what? He’s free, they got their stuff, and you got the trophies. Done.”
“Not quite.”
He revved the engine. The girls oohed and aahed on the lawn.
“Well, this oughta be real interesting.”
“It is. And I need your help.”
He stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“I know, I know,” I said. “You owe me, and I deserve it. But I seriously need your help to finish this off. To do the right thing.”
“The right thing would be to punch you in the stomach.”
“After, when we’re done, you can punch me in the stomach.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Swear. Help me finish this, and you can have a free shot.”
He revved the engine again, and we shot away from the curb, his cackle drowning out the engine.
56
The next morning there was a check in my mailbox, as promised.
I tried not to be creeped out by the fact that Amber knew where I lived without me telling her. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand the dichotomy they all presented between being airheaded sorority girls and ruthless gambling moguls.
I showed the check to Julianne.
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Nice work, Detective.”
“I thought so.”
“Did you have to sell your soul to get it?”
“Nope. Not even a little.”
“Even more impressive.”
“I might’ve promised your services to someone, though.”
“Certainly you’re joking.”
I was exhausted when I had finally gotten home and had just given her the bare bones about what had transpired over the course of the day. I fell asleep before I even finished, so the entire conversation was foggy. But I knew I hadn’t mentioned the offer I’d made to Moe.
I quickly told her what I’d said to him about legal representation.
She didn’t roll her eyes at me, which was always a good sign.
“He has no intention of pretending he didn’t do it?” she asked when I was done.
“No, don’t think so. He really seems sorry that he did all of this.”
“That’ll help,” she said. “Okay. I’ll see what I can come up with for him. But if the soccer association doesn’t file against him, he should be okay. It was his cousin that stole the money from the casino.”
“I’m just guessing they’ll have to file against him. To cover themselves financially.”
“They can just remove him from the board,” Julianne said. “With the check, they’ve got money for their operating costs now. They should be functional. So they probably don’t have to unless they want to.”
I remember how upset Belinda was initially and how she’d called him a weasel. It was hard for me to envision her being talked out of pressing charges against Moe.
“There would be costs associated with charging him,” Julianne said, reading my mind. “Especially if they went after him in civil court. And they’ve made it clear they don’t have the money to do anything like that. They can’t even pay you.”
So maybe Moe’s future wasn’t so bleak, after all. Maybe he could survive all of this and get some help to curb his gambling.
I held up the check. “I need to take this to Belinda.”
Julianne set her coffee cup down and put her arms around my neck. “The child is still sleeping. I was hoping you might ravish me before she woke.”
My skin tingled. “Oh.”
Her lips brushed my neck. “We could be fast.”
“I could, uh, manage that.”
Her lips found my ear. “I missed you yesterday. And I still want a baby.”
“Then I probably owe you.”
“Yes. I’m certain you do. Particularly if you want me to help Moises.”
“So would this be like an advance on services?”
She bit my earlobe. “It would be like the first in an installment plan.”
“Do I need to sign something?”
She kept her arms around my neck and pulled me toward the stairs. “No. I know where you live. Collecting will be easy should you run behind on your payments.”
I swallowed. “I’d prefer to pay on time.”
Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth tightened into an evil grin. “Then your first payment is due right now.”
We went upstairs, and I paid up.
57
After the ravishing, I managed to get my Jell-O-like body out of the bed, into the shower, and into the car. My mind was clear, but it felt like I’d run two marathons back-to-back.
Making babies was hard work.
I’d called Belinda and asked her to meet me at the soccer offices. She’d sounded despondent on the phone, and I thought she assumed I was just coming by to tell her that I didn’t have good news and that we should go ahead and cancel the games.
When I handed her the check, she didn’t say anything for five minutes. She just stared at it, her brow furrowed, like it was written in a foreign language.
“This is from some Greek place,” she finally said. “I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand,” I said. “But trust me when I tell you that is your money. Every penny. It went on a ride, but that is the money that belongs to Rose Petal soccer.”
She stared at it some more. “Do I even wanna know?”
“No. Probably not. And it doesn’t matter. The money is back, so the season is on. And I’m pretty sure the trophies are back in place now, too.”
She looked at me like I was nuts. “I was over there yesterday morning. It was still empty.”
“Check again today,” I said. “Pretty sure they’ll be there.”
Moises had assured me that he and Elliott were taking them straight to the storage space at the fields. They were going to unload them, return the U-Haul, and head to Elliott’s place. And probably try to figure out what to do next. I’d told them to hold tight until they heard from me. If my plan worked the way I wanted it to, they’d have to wait only a couple of days.
“Wow,” Belinda said, pushing the stringy hair away from her face. “I . . . don’t know what to say.”
“Say the games are on.”
She smiled. “The games are on.”
I smiled back. “Good. Carly will be thrilled, and so will about a thousand other kids.”
“What about Moises?” she asked, the smile dimming.
“He’s okay.”
“Oh, I don’t care if he’s okay. If he’s got a rattlesnake in his pants and his hands are tied behind his back, I’m okay with that.”
“He does not have a rattlesnake in his pants.”
“Was he the one that stole the money?”
I hesitated. “Yes.”
“And the trophies?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “Incredible.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“You found my money. You can do whatever you’d like, Deuce.”
I nodded. “I don’t think you should press charges.”
“He stole, Deuce,” she said. “Money. And trophies. All told, it was like a hundred grand in cash and prizes.”
“I know. But you have it all back now.”
“So that makes it all right?” She shook her head. “No way. That weasel nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“But you have it all back, and you didn’t have a heart attack,” I said, trying to get her to come around. “Everything is okay. I’m not sure what good comes from punishing him.”
“How about the fact that he might not be able to steal again?” she said.
“I don’t think he will.”
“If he’s in jail, you won’t have to think. You’ll know.”
I sighed. “Belinda. Come on.”
“I’m not following you, Deuce. At all. I know you’re one heckuva nice guy, but I’m not understanding why you would let this turkey walk.”
“You’re pissed at him,” I said. “And justifiably so. But he’s genuinely sorry. Really. And we got everything back.” I paused. “I don’t wanna go into the details, but the guy’s had a rough go of it. Most of it his fault, but not all of it. I don’t excuse what he did. But I guess I’m asking you not to make it worse for him.”
She flipped the check over in her hands a couple of times, frowning at me. I understood her conflict.
If I was in her shoes, I’d probably have felt the same way. I was not sure why I was so sympathetic to Moe, but I thought it went back to feeling like the guy got bullied and no one wanted to help him. Or maybe didn’t know how to help him. I just didn’t see what good would come from locking him up. He wasn’t so much a criminal as a guy who’d made some really horrific decisions because he was afraid. More than anything, I thought he needed some friends and some support.
“He can’t be on the board anymore,” Belinda said, setting the check down on the desk.
“Of course. I know that, and so does he.”
“He know you’re here?”
“No. I’m doing this on my own.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay. He literally can’t be involved with the programs at all. Ever again. I won’t bend on that.”
“That’s fair.”
“And I want an apology from him,” she said. “To my face.”
“I can arrange that.”
She let out a sigh, still clearly torn. It was like she wanted to come up with something that I’d disagree with so she could go after him. Again, I didn’t begrudge her those feelings. They were fair and understandable.
“Fine,” she said. “If the trophies are back, I won’t press charges.”
“Thank you.”
“And I’ll figure out how to get you and your partner paid this next week.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “You’re not pressing charges. I know that’s not an easy thing. Consider us square.”
“I don’t wanna do that, Deuce,” she said. “You seriously saved the season. We owe you.”
“We’re good,” I told her. “Really. I appreciate you letting this go. That’s enough.”
She frowned at me.
“I’m not gonna take your money,” I said. “So don’t try.”
“What about your partner?”
I pictured an “already irritated with me” Victor when I told him we’d just done this whole thing for free.
“He’ll be fine,” I lied.

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