The following eveing, Johnny and I were walking towards the Russian mob building. It was time to rob them. It would be a lie if I said I wasn't nervous. My hands were kind of shaking and I had butterflies in my stomach. The bad butterflies, not the good ones.
Anyways, the sun was beginning to set when we finally got there. We stopped at the same newspaper stand I did a few days ago, and looked at the building. Russian mobsters were already filing out of the building and into some dark cars.
"Now those are some stereotypical mob cars." Johnny said, nudging me a little. I nodded and smiled. The butterflies were replaced with the familiar rush of knowing your about to break the law. It felt good.
After the last of the cars drove around the corner, Johnny and I started to cross the street. We circled around the building until we found our entry point. Johnny quickly picked the locked door and we were in.
The interior of the building actually surprised me. It wasn't like in the movies, all dark and dangerous. It actually looked like a normal office building. Johnny nudged me out of my thoughts, and we silently found the door leading to a stairwell. We got up to the third floor, and quietly exited. We walked down a hallway, trying to stay clear of possible cameras. We came to a turn, and Johnny held out his hand, indicating that I should stay back. He snuck a peek and looked back at me.
"There's two pretty beefy guards. Wait here." he whispered before disappearing around the corner. I heard a couple of surprised voices followed by some punches and a couple of thuds. Johnny appeared again with a smile on his face.
"Coast is clear." he said simply. I turned the corner and saw two pretty big guys lying unconscious on the floor. I looked at Johnny and shook my head.
"I never understood how you do that." I said as we got to the room we were looking for. It had a regular knob and three deadbolts. Johnny shook his head and quickly got through them.
"Go do your thing, hot stuff." Johnny said, opening the door. I smiled and disappeared inside.
I shut the door behind me, and switched on the light. The room had shelves full of various expensive looking items. I took a minute to look around, and spotted a very elegant looking necklace. I resisted the temptation to take it, and looked for the safe. As Johnny said, it was back against the far wall. I smiled, and slipped my bag off my shoulders as I headed over to it.
I took a drill out of the bag and got down on my knees. I drilled a hole next to the lock, wishing it were a little quieter. I returned the drill to my bag, and took out a small snake camera. I inserted the lighted lense into the hole and moved it until the tumblers came into view. I rotated the lock until they clicked into place. I smiled and brought the camera back out.
I took a breath and opened the safe. The fabergé egg was nestled amoung some red cushions. How appropriate. It looked even more splendid in person. I checked to see if it was attached to an alarm, which it wasn't. I took it out, cushions and all, and gentely placed it into my bag.
I was about to close the safe when I noticed a piece of paper. Curiousity got the best of me, and I picked it up. It was a list of names. Some of them were crossed off, and I remembered seeing those names in the paper the other day. They had been killed. This was a hitlist. Near the bottom of the list was a familiar name: Don Flack- detective. I was shocked and was about to read more when Johnny opened the door.
"Time to go. We've got some visitors and their loaded." he said quickly. I nodded, grabbed my bag, and grabbed the list before closing the safe.
When we got back out to the hallway, about five Russian guys were coming towards us, guns raised. Johnny and ran towards a window at the end of the hall as bullets ripped through the air. When we got to the window, we repelled down the wall with ropes Johnny had gotten ready while I had cracking the safe.
We were halfway down the building when the Russians got to the window. They began shooting, and we quickly reached the ground. Johnny and I ran down an alley next to the building, and turned on to a deserted street. Bullets began piercing the air again as a few mob members chased us. Johnny led us to our getaway car and we quickly got in. He ignited the engine and began driving away.
-
"Elizabeth, I don't see why you're freaking out about this." Johnny said as he looked at the egg.
"This is a hitlist, Johnny. It has Don Flack's name on it, I can't just do nothing!" I replied as I was pacing back and forth.
"Sure you can. He's just a cop. Who cares if he gets killed? Better for us." Jonny said, smiling at me. I gave him a look, and he back down. "Sorry. I forgot about your "no murder" policy."
"It's messy and unnecessary. Besides, he's not just a cop. There's something different about him." I told him, smiling a little. Johnny froze and looked at me.
"You better not have a crush on this guy. He's a cop. More importantly, a cop who's bent on arresting you." he said, frowning at me.
"It's not a crush." I said, a little too quickly. Johnny sighed, and looked at me.
"Elizabeth, stay away from this one. You can't get mixed up with a guy like him. It wouldn't work-"
"Okay, this is about stopping someone killed. I have to call him." I said, taking out my cell phone.
"Yeah, and say what? 'Hey, I found a hitlist while robbing the Russian mafia?' Yeah, that'll go over real well." Johnny said, putting the Fabergé egg into his own bag. "I'll be back tomorrow with your money. Liz, please don't do anything we'll both end up regretting."
After Johnny left, I sat at the kitchen table and sighed. I dialed a number, and listened to the rings.
"New York Police Department."
"Hi. I need to talk to Detective Donald Flack."
"May I ask who's calling?"
I shook my head and sighed. "Uhm, my name's Elizabeth Mason. Tell him it's important."
"I'll transfer your call." I waited a few seconds, contemplating on just hanging up.
"Flack." Too late.
"Uhm, Detective Flack? It's Elizabeth. Elizabeth Mason."
"What? Why are you calling me? Trying to taunt me through the phone?" I winced at his biting tone, and shook my head, even though he couldn't see me.
"No, actually. I need to talk to you privately. Can you meet me somewhere tonight?" I closed my eyes, wondering if I can back out of this now.
"May I ask what for?" I chuckled softly and looked at the list.
"You kind of have to see it. It's hard to explain."
"I don't know-"
"Detective, you're going to have to trust me." I said, standing up and stretching.
There was a pause, and I knew he was sitting there with that look he has whenever he's thinking. "Fine. I'll meet you. Where?"
"First you have to agree to something." I closed my eyes, wondering if I was doing the right thing.
There was a sigh on the other end. "Sure, what is it?"
"You can't ask me how I got it."
[*]
