Good People

Tom felt his face go hot. “No, I-”

“I got a couple of white boys I use for situations like these. And I think even Lincoln Park can handle one black man wandering free,” he said, inclining his head toward Andre. “Now, like I said, my people will be there. But Jack’s got some savvy on him. So they going to have to be laying low. They won’t come out till you give the signal.”

“What’s that?”

Andre rattled off a string of digits. Tom stared at him blankly.

“Program that shit into your phone,” Andre said. “Once you got the dude distracted, you press Send.”

“What if he sees me do it?”

“Make sure he don’t.”

“Also,” Malachi said, “you need a bag.”

“A bag? What for?” A

“I have an idea what Jack is after,” Malachi said. “You get yourself a decent size bag. Carry it like it’s heavy.”

“What if Jack wants to look inside?”

Malachi shrugged. Tom’s stomachache grew worse.

“How are you going to grab him in the middle of a mall?” A

“Now, that’s a fine question. But I don’t see you needing the answer.”

“Here’s one we do need the answer to.” Tom looked the man in the eye. “After we do this, we’re square, right? We’re done with you?”

“You do this,” the man said, “you prove what I need proved.” He leaned back in his chair, shot his cuffs. “Long as everything goes the way you say, yeah, we square.”

“And what about Jack? What are you going to do to him?”

Malachi shook his wrist to straighten the loose Rolex, then glanced at it. “I’m going to give him a history lesson. Genghis Khan style.” He stood. “Now. You two best be on your way. You got a few details to attend before ten.”

“Wait a second,” Tom said. “Where are you going?”

The drug dealer laughed. “Son, I won’t be inside five miles of that mall. And I’ll have witnesses to back me. This thing, it’s on you two. It goes wrong, you screwed it up.” He raised his eyebrows. “We clear?”

“Clear that you’re leaving us dangling.” Tom was unable to stop himself from glaring, to keep the tone out of his voice.

Malachi just smiled again. “Pay to play, gangster. You got to pay to play.”

“WELL, THAT WENT GREAT.” A

Tom shook his head. Pressed his lips together hard.

“What if Jack wants to look in the bag first thing? Not like there’s a reason for us to chat. All he wants is the money. He’s probably pla

“Assuming he doesn’t plan to kill us anyway.”

“Assuming that.”

Tom sighed. “I don’t know. We can stall him, I think. He’ll feel safe. What scares me is that at the same time, we have to signal Andre. One thing we know about Jack, he’s smart. He’ll be watching for any sign something is wrong.”

“He doesn’t know about Malachi, does he?”

“No. He won’t be expecting this. If he’s expecting anything, it will probably be police. He’ll have his eyes tuned for cops.”

“That will work for us,” she said. “He won’t be looking for gangsters.”

“Gangsters. Jesus.” Tom shook his head. “What the hell are we doing?”

She looked over at him. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and his posture rigid. She could almost hear the whir and clank of his thoughts colliding. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Why did you ask what they were going to do to Jack?”

He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. I guess just to make it real.”

“Is it going to bother you?”

He shook his head. “I wanted to see if it would. Whether pla

“So we’re going ahead.”

“I don’t see any choice. You?”

She shook her head. They rode in silence, A

“Yes.” His voice was firm. “We’ve been careless. What if the car got stolen or towed? What if Jack happened on it? What we’re about to walk into, as exposed as we’re going to be, that money may be our lifeline. We need to protect it.”

“Things could go right too, you know.” She turned to look at him. “Don’t forget that. If we pull this off, it’s all over. Malachi will be done with us, and Jack will be gone. No one will know we have the money. We’ll be able to go back to our life. Only better.”

He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

They’d rented a space at the storage facility off Belmont years ago. In D.C. they’d kept separate apartments, so when they moved in together, they’d had twice as much furniture as space. Tom’s had been garage-sale crap, but he’d been sentimental about it – or hedging his bets, something A

He went inside to rent a unit while she walked to a Sun-Times machine. Dropped coins into the slot, then opened the front and pulled out the whole stack of papers, including the one in the display. By the time she’d returned to the car, he was waiting, the duffel bag in one hand, cell phone in the other. He shook his head, closed it. “Detective Halden again.”

“You check the message?”

“No. I’m nervous enough. Let’s get on with it.”

He’d gotten the smallest available unit, a five-foot cube on the third floor. The hallway was fluorescent and concrete, marked by roll doors. Their footsteps echoed. Tom bent to fit the key into the lock and haul the door clattering upward.

The space was clean and blank. The two of them stepped inside, then dragged the door closed behind. Tom unzipped the bag and upended it. Bundles of ragged hundreds tumbled out, and A

Tom shook the last straggling bundles from the bag, then set it on the floor and held it open. A

A

She looked up to find Tom staring at her, one side of his lips curled up in a smile. She could see a bead of sweat on his upper lip, and the weathered lines begi

“Luck,” he said. “And gratitude.”