10-The Setup

10

The Setup

Patty watched the two stumble out of the front of the apartment complex and down the street.  She had not been present for everything that had happened inside, whatever that may have been.  She frowned as Creegan stumbled down the street with Maggie.  Patty could tell from here that he was hurt.  This meant that Rockwell and Stone had been here for them.

Elmo had double booked.

If Patty had been any earlier she would have been unwittingly involved in that gunfight inside.  She might be hurt or even dead.  She growled to herself alone in the dark, angry and surprised.  Patty had thought better of The Muppet.

The sirens in the distance heralded the arrival of the police.  She watched as Rockwell and Stone came out the front, Stone helping and limping badly.  Rockwell was screaming at the top of his lungs.  “TWICE!  THAT’S FUCKING TWICE!”

Patty ignored them and instead began to follow the two unlikely survivors down the street.  It would be easy now.  With Creegan wounded the way he was, she could take them when they stopped moving and-.

Her phone rang.

Patty ducked back into the shadows as Creegan turned suspiciously.  She grabbed the phone out of her pocket and answered it without looking at the caller.  “Yeah?”

“It’s off.  We need to meet.” It was Elmo on the line.

Patty debated telling him to shove-it, with some choice words; she debated telling him that she knew he had double booked this job. “Why?”

“This has gone too far.”  Elmo’s words were stressed and hurried.  “I need it to be over and I need that thumb drive back.  Now!”

 “You’re going to pay them?”  Even with Patty’s hard Irish accent, Elmo could tell she was shocked.

“I’ll double your fee to make the hand off.  No questions.”  Elmo pressed ahead, irritated.

Patty took a second to count the money in her head.  “Deal.”

****

The cleaning crew sat in a large industrial sized van outside the large residence of Elmo Kincaid, also known as ‘The Muppet’.  Eight men in the surrounded by guns, ammunition, and sophisticated listening equipment sat in the back.  The front cab was occupied by the driver, another large man and Barbie in the passenger seat.

They were all dressed like Secret Service Agents.

Barbie had propped her foot onto the dashboard of the van, her shoe off, and was painting her toe nails a bright hot pink.  The driver watched with utter fascination as she went about the mundane task.

“I must note,” Barbie began talking suddenly out of nowhere without actually looking away from the task at hand, “that you have been watching me for some time, Kenneth. This brings up questions as to why.”

Kenneth seemed to think about answering her question, then shook his head, “It’s nothing.”

Barbie finished with her big toe, dipped the miniature brush into the paint and began the next toe.  “Now Kenneth, don’t be ridiculous, this is our fourth job together and its time we establish a repertoire.  This can only be done by conversation and inquires about one another.  You have been staring for some time and I would like to know why.  How are we ever to trust each other if we can’t speak what’s on our mind?”

Kenneth rethought his position then decided to share.  “Well, back in the bathroom, with the mark, you told him your name was Barbie and that you liked to break stereotypes, which I get, because you’re a hot blonde but instead of being a moron you are a bad ass.”

“Thank you Kenneth those are sweet things to say.”  Barbie said with a genuine smile.

“No problem,” Kenneth began again.  “But what I don’t get is, since we have been sitting in this van you have been sitting there painting your toe nails.  And hot pink, no less.  Needless to say, I am confused because not only is the mere act of painting one’s nails girly but you have picked the daintiest of colors to use.”

“I see your dilemma, Kenneth,” Barbie said, after Kenneth finished.  “You are confused because to do such a thing is not only contradictory to my previous statements with our late friend Samuel, they are borderline hypocritical.”

Kenneth nodded, awaiting the expected explanation.

Barbie dipped the small brush into the bottle again and began to do her last toe.  The pinky.  She did it carefully then smiled at her work, putting the brush back into the bottle and screwing it closed.  The whole time she did this, Kenneth was staring, still waiting for an answer.

Finally, she leaned back and looked at Kenneth.  “Mind your own fucking business, Ken.”

Kenneth frowned and leaned back.  One of the men from the back poked his head up into the cab and looked at Barbie.  “We got something.  Elmo really has lost the flash drive.  He’s paying off the thief tomorrow to get it back.

Barbie smiled, “Splendid. We will follow him to the bag man, then follow the bag man to the exchange.  Then we will kill everyone and take the money and the flash drive.  The money, we keep, it will be a bonus.”

****

The hospital had been finished last week and they had begun to move beds and larger equipment in.  Creegan had no problem breaking in.  It was a perfect place for the two of them to hide until whatever was going to happen, happened.

“How did you know about this place?”  Maggie asked, as they moved through the halls of the large empty building.

Creegan turned a corner into the future emergency room and began to look for something to help him with his wound.  “I know a guy on the construction crew and he visits the bar I used to bounce for.”

Creegan was now tearing desperately through doors and shelves.  Maggie suddenly took his arm to calm him.  “Stop it, you’re making it worse.  Let me take a look at that.”

Creegan whipped away pulling his arm away from her, “I can’t make it any worse than YOU!”

Maggie scrunched up her face, “That doesn’t even make sense.”

Creegan took a deep breath.  “I have had enough of this, Maggie.  I have been shot, I have broken my right hand, lost a tooth to a psycho who loves salad and I don’t know why.”

Maggie frowned.  “Look, I’m paying you.  No questions asked.”

Creegan nodded clenching his jaw.  “You’re right, I quit.  Good luck with Rockwell and Stone and whoever the hell else is after you.”

Creegan began to walk out, but Maggie grabbed his arm.  “Wait!”

Creegan stopped and turned towards her, she finally gave in.  “Alright, I’ll tell you.  Just sit down and let me look at your arm.”

Creegan sat down on an examining table and took off his shirt.  Maggie took some rubbing alcohol to clean the wound.  Creegan grunted in pain.  Creegan had been lucky, the bullet had gone straight through and the wound was already closing.  Maggie began to do a bandage and began to spill the beans.

“I stole something.  Me and a friend of mine,” she began, choosing the word ‘friend’ carefully.

Creegan raised an eyebrow.  “A friend, like me?”

Maggie grinned, “Not like you, no one’s quite like you.”

Creegan ignored the compliment.  “What did you take?”

“A flash drive,” she said and Creegan frowned.

“This is all over a flash drive?” Creegan asked, confused.

Maggie smiled, “Not just any flash drive.  You know who Elmo Kincaid is?”

Creegan nodded, “Of course.  The Muppet controls all of northeastern Ohio.”

Maggie continued.  “Of course, but do you know how he controls it?”

Creegan shook his head and Maggie elaborated.  “Elmo used to work for the Rodriguez
Brothers.  You know you they are?”

Creegan shook his head again.  Maggie nodded and continued, “The Rodriguez Brothers run an international drug cartel and they supply to most of the eastern seaboard.  Cleveland is as far west as they go.  Most of the drugs coming into this end of The States comes from them.  Elmo used to work for them, he was a top Bag Man, did it all; smuggling, murder, extortion, anything the Brothers needed.  He was their man but he wasn’t stupid…”

Maggie finished with the bandage using a piece of tape from a drawer to hold it together.  “Elmo knew the business, and knew that every hired gun outlives their usefulness, and then gets themselves killed.  Kincaid set himself up with a retirement fund.  He recorded every major criminal activity the Brothers had him do.  He has pictures, audio, video tape, documents, about 1 GB of damnable evidence on the Brothers.  He then tells them about it and demands they give him Northeastern Ohio.  He also tells them they have to give him bottom line prices on the drugs they move in.”

Jim shook his head.  “Why didn’t they just kill him?”

Maggie nodded, “Oh they tried, they sent a couple of cleaner teams after Elmo, but the Muppet sent them all back in a box.  It became cheaper for the Brothers to just take the hit on the drugs then keep sending people in to die.”

Creegan’s overtired brain caught up with Maggie.  “So you have that  flash drive?!”

Maggie nodded.

“How?” Creegan asked his eyes narrowing on his crafty ex.

Maggie took a deep breath.  “My… friend… was a bank executive where Kincaid kept the flash drive in a safe deposit box.  I convinced him to grab it.”

Creegan closed his eyes and ran his hand over his head in frustration.  “So, what was the plan after that?”

“Well, that’s when things got a little… complicated.”  Maggie began slowly, this was the part she didn’t want to tell.  “We tried to sell the flash drive to the Rodriguez Brothers, but they had no respect for us and decided it would be cheaper to have us killed…”

“… and that’s Mr. Salad?”  Creegan picked up on the story.

Maggie nodded.  “I’m pretty sure.”

Creegan thought about the information again, then he realized he was missing a part of the story.  “So what happened to your ‘friend’?”  Creegan made quotation signs with his fingers when he said the word.

Maggie gritted her teeth and made a face and Creegan knew.  “You ditched him, didn’t you?”

She rolled her eyes and got defensive.  “Well, what was I supposed to do?

Creegan laughed angrily and shook his head as Maggie continued.  “Look, when things didn’t go well with the Brothers, I knew I needed someone else.  Someone who could protect me…”

Maggie moved toward him at the last part and sensually put her hand on Creegan’s chest.  He stood fast, grabbing her wrist tightly.  “Have you ever met someone you didn’t fuck over?”

His voice was low and dark and full of intent she just stared then laughed at him.  “I guess not.”

Creegan took a deep breath and calmed himself down releasing her hand.  “So, how much is Elmo paying you?”

Maggie feigned innocence.  “What are you talking about?”

Creegan cracked his neck and gave her a look of pain.  “You think I don’t know how you work after all these years?  It’s not like you gave up on the whole deal, you still had the flash drive.  The big fish didn’t take you seriously, maybe the smaller fish would.  So you called Elmo.  I’m guessing that’s who you called in my bathroom because you and I both know you haven’t talked to your mom in four years.”

Maggie’s lip curled into a grin.  “Well I guess you got me.  Tomorrow at noon, Elmo is sending someone with the money and we are going to make the trade right here in the hospital.”

Creegan nodded, “How much are you getting?”

Maggie frowned, “Half a million.”

Creegan whistled, “Big time, huh?”

Maggie smiled again.  “It’s only the beginning, baby.  I’m guessing you want a bigger cut now?”

“No.”  Creegan’s answer was instant and stern and it shocked Maggie.

“What?  You’re kidding?”  Maggie scuffed.

Creegan shook his head, “The agreement was twenty and that’s what I’ll take.  We aren’t all in it only for the money.”

The last sentence seemed to hurt Maggie and she looked away.

“Watch the window.”  Creegan said, as he lay down on the bed.  “I’m going to get a couple of hours.  Wake me at midnight and we’ll switch.”

“Creegan… I just want you to-” Maggie stared, but Creegan cut her off.

“It’s in the past.”  He said, accepting his fate.  “Can’t do anything about it now.  One way or another, this ends tomorrow.”