Money for Nothing by Aaron Palmer

Author:Aaron Palmer [Palmer, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Can’t Wait for Christmas

Beans sat at the club’s kitchen table, facing the doorway into the main room, but only half paying attention to the chatter of the other members. Thanksgiving had come and gone, and the club was abuzz with anticipation for the annual Christmas party.

On this Monday evening, even though most of the guys had money riding on the Bears-Lions game playing on the television, most of the conversation was about the upcoming festivities.

Johnny “the Goose” DiGussa was down on a knee, facing the half dozen or so other members seated in a semicircle around the TV set. “Okay, start over,” he said. “We got Cicero, Berwyn, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park. What else?”

“Addison,” one called out.

“Schaumburg,” came another.

They were running through the cliques of girls, if past performance was any indicator, who could be expected to attend the party.

Johnny pried up the tab of a can of Old Style beer. The familiar pop-and-pfft sound awakened Capo, who had been asleep under a nearby card table. He sprang to his feet, sauntered over to Johnny, and sat beside him, at attention. Johnny poured a small puddle of beer on the floor, and Capo lapped it up readily.

“Man, I can’t fuckin’ wait,” he said. “Broads from five different suburbs.”

Louie “the Gawk” stood and smacked Johnny in the head. “No. That’s seven, moron. And don’t let Beans catch you giving the dog that crap. It upsets his stomach.” He grabbed Capo by the collar, pulled him a few feet away, and knelt, emptying the last of his Heineken on the floor.

Capo lapped it up.

Beans changed seats at the table so that his back was now to the group.

He became oblivious to the chatter as he studied the swath of blue cellophane he held between his thumb and forefinger. The information-gathering process was coming along nicely. As requested, Step had deftly used the knife-ring to slice off a piece of the bundle wrapping without the guards noticing. He also discovered that the Federal Reserve always called the office of American Airlines at least three days prior to shipment to confirm. He noted that the money was routinely flown in on a 727, and, although American ran multiple flights a day from DC to O’Hare, only one, arriving at 11:05 a.m., was a 727.

The flight arrival time was ideal, in that Cosh and Izzy finished their daily deliveries by ten. At 10:40 each day, they arrived at the airport and hung by the gate, watching as the planes were unloaded. The last time the money was flown in, Izzy used three rolls of film, snapping pictures of the unloading procedure. They then followed the armored car downtown and into the alley behind the Federal Reserve bank, where the loading docks were located, and made note of the route.

Beans glanced up at the clock. Cosh and Izzy should have been back by now. He got up and slipped behind the bar, poured himself a glass of Fortissimo, then dropped a dollar in the box.

The

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