The Replacements by David Putnam

Author:David Putnam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2015-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY

In the joint, I had lived with lots of guys like Drago and had learned to get along with them, even got to like some of them. I needed to keep in mind that Drago had killed an armored car guard for the money we were now trying to obtain. Tainted money. Blood money. Drago fit the worst category of animal I used to chase while on the Violent Crimes Team. And yet here, I had begun to trust him, just a little. A bad move on my part? Even so, three hundred thousand dollars put in with cut-up paper might be enough to flash to Jonas Mabry. That much flash, presented properly, might give us just enough time. After all, Mabry’s main objective was to get me to commit robbery and violent crimes, to further tarnish my moral compass, to get me put away in prison forever. His goal was now semi-accomplished by me kidnapping and shooting Karl Drago.

“Three hundred thousand is not nearly enough,” Marie said.

“Why tomorrow?” I asked. “Tell me why this caper has to be tomorrow.”

Drago nodded. “Like I said, I stashed it in the clubhouse, and tomorrow there’s a local ride, the June ride for Toys for Tots. All the clubs in SoCal gather toys for the halfway point in the year. They do it again in December for the publicity, for all the TV cameras. Along with the toys from the June ride, they double up and look like stars, real pillars in the community. Bunch of bullshit.”

“So the Sons of Satan clubhouse will be empty tomorrow?”

“Sort of, I guess.”

Marie, with her clenched fists down at her side, took a step toward him. “Sort of? Sort of? It is or it isn’t, mister. Which is it?”

“Ooh, girl, you need to take a chill pill.” He smiled, trying to get her to smile back. When she didn’t, he said, “They’re never gonna leave the clubhouse unmanned. Never. There’ll be a couple or three prospects and a couple old heads to supervise.”

“Four or five then?” I asked.

“Yeah, four or five is all that’s going to be there on Saturday.”

“Saturday?” Marie screamed. “Are you kidding me?”

“What’s wrong now?” Drago said.

“No, numbnuts, it’s Thursday,” Marie said. “Today’s Thursday.” She turned to me. “This isn’t going to work. Nothing about this idea’s going to work.”

“It’s all we got, it has to work,” I said.

The Black Sabbath t-shirt wrapped tight around Drago’s leg had turned darker, and blood ran in a little rivulet down his leg. He didn’t show any sign of pain, nor did he seem to care any longer that he’d been shot.

“Are you a member of the SS?” I asked Drago.

“Hell no, man. Are you kidding? Those old boys are some crazy, violent assholes. So what if today is Thursday, what difference does it make?”

I didn’t answer and asked, “If you’re not a member, then how did you get into the clubhouse twenty-five years ago to stash the money? And how do you know it’s still

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.