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Heist

Benjamin Morrison

    “You’re late again. I said to be here at 9:30,” Bill glared at his watch.
    “I’m here, aren’t I?” Jack panted as he quickly opened the passenger side door and got in.
    “If you had taken any longer, he would have seen you.”
    “Why are you worrying so much? Are you scared?” Jack asked with a grin.
    “Are you kidding? The last time I was scared was when I did that job in ’88. It was crazy! I was —”
    “Yeah, yeah, shut up, old man. Your stories about the glory days are a waste of my time.”
    They sat side-by-side in Bill’s faded, black Porsche while Jack was still trying to catch his breath. It was another night in the city, which helped conceal their car in the darkness.
    “When are we going to start?” Jack asked.
    “As soon as he leaves,” Bill responded. “He leaves at around ten to go to one of his rich guy parties.” He looked out the car window at the large house to their left. “Man, I feel like this house goes on for miles.”
    “All the better so we don’t caught,”
    “Don’t you have any sense? There’s probably going to be more security since the place is huge,” Bill whispered.
    “Do I look like I care about the details?” Jack replied. “We just need to sneak in, grab them, and sneak out. It’ll be easy.”
    “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it’s never as easy as you think.”
    “Again with the glory days. Wait, shut up! He’s coming out now.”
    “Now do you see why it’s important to be early?”
    “I thought I said to shut up!” Jack whispered. Bill sheepishly sat back in his seat.
    A tall man dressed in a black suit emerged from the house, and slowly walked to the red Ferrari parked in the driveway. He quickly pulled out, sped down the street, and drove out of sight.
    “Okay, time to go,” Jack muttered. They both got out of the car and crossed the street to the front gate. “Open it,” he ordered.
    Bill looked around and began to observe the gate. He quickly inspected the lock and immediately took out his lock pick. “For a rich guy, his gate’s pretty old and rusty.” In less than a minute, Bill had already picked the lock on the gate. The gate screeched as Bill slowly opened it.
    “I told you this would be easy,” Jack grinned. “Ladies first?”
    “Come on, let’s get serious. Just because the gate was easy doesn’t mean the rest of the house will be.”
    “Calm down, I’m just trying to lighten the mood. You’re already the crankiest guy I know.”
    “And you’re making me crankier. I want to get out of here as fast as possible.”
    “Watch your blood pressure, old man. I don’t want to carry you out of here on a gurney.” They passed through the gate and entered an open courtyard that led to the double doors on the front of the house.
    “Turn on the flashlight. I can’t see a thing out here,” Bill ordered.
    “Okay. Do you know where we’re going?”
    “Of course. I’ve been scouting this place for the past week. I’ll check the front door. Take the flashlight and check to see if there is another way to get in.”
    “Why do I have to check if we’re going through the front door?”
    “Just in case I can’t get in through the front! Don’t you know anything?”
    “Calm down, old man. I’ll be right back.” Jack went around the courtyard and slipped through the small passage on the right side of the house. He called to Bill, “There are some closed windows over here, but nothing else!” He ran back to the front door with Bill.
    “Will you be quiet? How do you know he doesn’t have security hiding around here somewhere?” Jack yelled quietly.
    “Your blood pressure rising again, Bill?” Jack laughed obnoxiously.
    “I swear, you’re going to get us caught! Why did I even agree to do this with you?” Bill grumbled to himself.
    “Because you love me so much.”
    “You really are delusional, aren’t you? Can you just let me open this door?” Once again, Bill worked with his pick. He made quick work of the lock.
    “Your skills never cease to amaze me, old man.” Jack and Bill slowly walked through the doors. “Okay, I’ll check upstairs, you check down here,” Jack said.
    “No, I’ll check upstairs, you stay here.”
    “Don’t you trust me, Bill?”
    “No.”
    “Fair enough. I wouldn’t even trust myself.” Jack then decided to check the many doors on the first floor while Bill ran upstairs. “Nothing in here, nothing in there. Another empty room,” Jack whispered to himself. “Wait, what do we have here? Is that a safe I see?” His eyes grew wide as he stared at the stainless steel safe that sat in the corner of the room.
    Bill then came down and glanced over Jack’s shoulder. “Nothing upstairs. What are you looking at?”
    “I spy a safe in the corner over there.”
    “Well, let’s go and open it then.”
    “As I said before, ladies first,” Jack said as he smiled at Bill.
    “You’re really getting on my nerves,” Bill muttered as he took a small tool case out of his pocket.
    “Let’s hurry this up. You aren’t getting any younger.”
    “Will you be quiet for five seconds and let me focus?”
    “Considering how old you are, I want to make every moment we have special before you keel over.”
    “Whatever makes you happy.” Once again, Bill worked with his tools. “There, it’s open. Did you time that? That has to be a new personal record.” Inside the safe were an assortment of objects: An antique watch, two bars of gold, a few stacks of hundreds, and a small pile of papers.
    “Look, we found even more than we expected. Wow, this job is probably the easiest we’ve done so far. Someone should tell this guy to get some kind of alarm system or something like that,” Jack said.
    “Just makes it easier for us.”
    “Whatever you say, old man. Just grab them and we’ll be a few million richer.” Bill reached in and pulled out the papers, leaving the rest in the safe. “Are you okay, old man? Do you not see the extra stuff in there? Might as well make them worth our while.”
    “Suit yourself. When I sell his company’s shares on the black market, I’m going to have much more than all of those things combined,” Bill cracked a smile.
    “Yeah! There you go, old man, it feels good to smile, right?” Jack began to grab all of the items in the safe. “Wait. Don’t you mean, ‘When we sell the shares?’”
    “No.” Bill suddenly whistled at the top his lungs. The echo could be heard throughout the neighborhood.
    “What the hell are you doing, old man?” Jack chuckled nervously.
    The sound of barking slowly grew as Bill’s smile widened and turned in a laugh.
    “Ha ha! Oh, Jack are you really that stupid?”
    “Come on Bill, stop messing with me.”
    “You still have a lot to learn. Maybe one day you’ll be as good as me. It’s always good to scout out your location before you pull off a heist.” All of a sudden, three large pit bulls sprinted into the room, all of them barking viciously at Jack.
    “Turns out this place really does have security! Don’t worry, Jack. I’ve trained them not to kill, just to keep you where you are. So, I’ll just leave you four to get to know each other a little better while I alert the authorities.” Bill pulled out his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.
    “Bill, call your stupid dogs off! We were supposed to split the money! Come on, Bill!”
    “Yes, hello? I live on Walker Street and my neighbor’s dogs are very loud. It looks like both the gate and the front door are open, too. It might be a burglary!” Bill then hung up the phone. “They’ll be here soon.”
    “Old man, you better get me out of here! If not, I’ll just rat you out when the cops get here!”
    “I don’t think so. By the time they begin the investigation, I’ll be in Europe. I will have already sold the shares and there will be no evidence except for your word. Good luck, Jack.”
    With that, Bill took the papers and ran downstairs. “Bill! You’re going to pay for this! Mark my words! I’ll get you back one day!” Bill sprinted back through the courtyard and got in his car. He already started to hear the faint sound of sirens. He frantically turned the key and sped off down the street, where he was never seen again.

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