Outsourced by Dave Zeltserman

by yelling rape. That little incident cost Eric his wife, family and job, not to mention his time in county lockup. He’s been out three years since then and still hasn’t bounced back. He needs this.”
    “Sorry, Joel, but we don’t need five people for this robbery.”
    “Says who?”
    “I already worked out the details—”
    “Yeah, you’re an expert all of a sudden in robbing banks? You’ve got Gordon and your Indian buddy along, huh? Fuck that. If I’m doing this, I’m doing this with someone I can trust. Someone I know who’ll back me up.”
    “Your friend, Eric, he’s been arrested. They’ve got his fingerprints on record.”
    “So? We’ll be wearing gloves, won’t we? And your plan has us in disguise, right?”
    Dan started massaging his forehead, trying to rub the numbness out. “I don’t like this,” he muttered.
    “Yeah, well, guess what, I don’t like having that loon Gordon involved, but I’m willing to trust you that you can control him for ten minutes. Besides, my guns can be traced, Eric’s can’t. We need him. This is non-negotiable. So what’s it going to be? Are we doing this or are we calling it quits right now?”
    Dan found himself asking why having untraceable guns mattered, even though it was obvious to him. In case a gun was left at the robbery, which could happen if one of them were shot. Or other ways too. Joel just stared at him as if he were an idiot.
    “Why do you think?” Joel finally said.
    Dan nodded. He didn’t bother asking why they couldn’t just file the serial numbers off the guns, since that answer was obvious also. In case Joel ever had to account for the guns that he had registered. “All right, fine,” he said. “Your friend Eric is in. Have you talked to him yet?”
    “Not yet, but he’ll want to do this.”
    “Hold off until I talk to Gordon.”
    “When’s that going to be?”
    “This afternoon.”
    “Okay, but don’t call me at home. And don’t call my cell phone. I’ll call you later from a payphone. Any communication – you, me, anyone else involved in this – will be through anonymous email accounts. I don’t want there being any phone records over the next week connecting us.”
    “Going a little overboard, aren’t we?”
    “No. Fuck no. This is a deal breaker too.”
    Dan shrugged. “Fine. Anyway, it makes sense. No reason not to be as careful as we can. I’ll set up an account later today. Try calling me tonight from a payphone and I’ll have an email address ready for you.”
    “What do you know?” Joel smiled and punched Dan in the shoulder. “We’re going to do this, huh?”
    “We’ll see what Gordon says.”
    Joel made a face. “I still don’t like you dragging that clown into this. Working with him for eleven years at Vixox was more than enough for me.” Joel took a deep breath, shrugging. “But I have to admit, you did put together a brilliant fucking plan. I spent all night last night trying to poke a hole in it, and couldn’t.”
    “Thanks.” Dan glanced at his dashboard clock and started feeling antsy. He had two hours before he was supposed to meet with Gordon and he still wanted to stop off at home so he could shower and clean up. “Are we done now?”
    “Yeah, for now. Assuming we’re still on, I want all of us to meet at my place tomorrow to go over the details. Plan on noon.”
    Dan nodded as the two of them shook hands.
    As Joel was getting out of the car, he looked back and showed a reflective smile. “You realize if we go ahead with this, that’s it as far as the two of us are concerned. Afterwards, no more ’gammon, no more meeting for beers. We’ll be dead to one another.”
    Dan started laughing. “No problem there, Joel. Whether we rob this bank or not, I don’t plan on seeing much of you in the future anyway.”
    Joel froze for a moment. Slowly a sneer twisted his lips. “Same here, pal,” he said.
    Detective Alex Resnick took the call that the owner of the Kiev Market had been