Hush Money by Susan Bischoff Page A

now. Look cool, but
ignore us and just give us a heads up if someone gets too
close.”
    Jeff nodded, pleased. He liked knowing things
first. He actually liked it when Marco told him to do stuff,
singled him out. I’d been friends with Jeff almost as long as I’d
been friends with Marco, but sometimes I had to wonder about
him.
    “So what’s the deal?” Eric asked.
    “We’re goin’ beer shopping.”
    “Beer?”
    “ Lots of beer. We’re gonna hit
FoodsMart.”
    “A supermarket?” Not good. Not good. Lots of security, and way too much temptation for these guys once
we were inside. And no way was I doing this. “You can’t just boost
a few cases from a mini mart anymore?”
    “No, I said a lot of beer. Kegs,
cases, whatever. Party.”
    “But—”
    “I’ve already got a couple buyers lined up.
We’re committed to this. And it’s not rocket science. Dylan. You
and Rob are going in the store while it’s still open. You’re going
to cover Rob and sneak into the storeroom. Find a place to hang
tight until closing. Jeff and I have been watching. On weeknights
they close up at eleven and everyone is gone before midnight. So
you guys are going to wait until midnight. Then you work your way
out of the storeroom, back to the front of the store. You’ll be
doing your thing and staying between Rob and cameras. There’s an
Employees Only door near the bathrooms, across from the checkouts.
The lock’s electronic and shouldn’t be any problem for Rob, here.”
He slung his arm around Rob’s shoulders, a move that looked more
like imprisonment than friendship. Rob continued to watch his own
feet.
    “Behind the door are the steps that go up to
the office. I know someone who used to work there, and she says
there are no cameras beyond the door and all the locks are
electronic.”
    “Damn, Marco, how many people know about
this?”
    “Don’t worry about it. Once you’re upstairs,
you just shut down the cameras and alarms. Get the keys to unlock
the back door, the one where the employees hang out and smoke. Come
back and let us in.
    “Eric, I’m gonna need you to boost us a
delivery truck. Nothing too flashy, something that would be out at
night, but not something anyone’s gonna miss either. You’ll need to
start looking around for that.”
    “Right.”
    “Once we’ve got what we came for, Eric, Jeff,
and I are leaving in the truck. But you guys need to get back to
the office. I’ll take care of breaking the camera over the back
door while we’re in there. You guys turn all the cameras and alarms
back on—except you’ve gotta disable the sensor on that back door.
If you can’t do it, you’re gonna have to sleep there and leave in
the morning.”
    “I can do it,” Rob mumbled.
    “Right. So Dylan, you cover Rob, just like
before, on the way out. You can leave the keys in the door like
someone forgot them, or you can pitch ’em in a Dumpster somewhere.
Whatever. Meet us back at the shack when you’re done.”
    “I don’t know, Marco…” I started, getting
ready to argue.
    “You don’t have to know. That’s my job.”
    “It’s one thing to cover Rob hiding out in
the store room in case anybody sees us. Standing still, that’s no
big deal. But moving around like that? Multiple cameras? I just
don’t know.”
    “But you’re gonna find out. You’re gonna need
to spend some time in the store, getting the lay of the land.
You’re gonna get back into the storeroom and watch what people go
for, and where they don’t go. Find the best place for you and Rob
to chill out until closing. And you’re probably gonna do a dry run
of the offices, during business hours, before we do this
thing.”
    “What the fuck, Marco? I’m not breaking into
any office during business hours. Have you lost your mind?”
    Marco gave me a hard glare. “You guys are
gonna want to get into that office before we do this so Rob can
access the cameras and get downloads from all the feeds. So you’ll
be able to find the