Featured image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
“That museum you wanted after we find a nice place to eat. Not a fine place with a dress code mind you, but a nice place. Nothing too trendy in case management has managed to track us to this city.”
“How could they?” asked Giant again. Definitely not the sharpest tool.
“I always assume they’ve managed to track me” I responded. “It will be slightly out of character for me to eat in a place considered up-scale to the blue collar world and totally out of character for you to eat there, so help Slim find one or have Stretch go ask the front desk.”
“Asking at the front desk will leave a trail” Stretch said softly.
“Not a bad trail. The staff in places like this are all too eager to share such knowledge. The fact we asked will make them feel better about us. So good, they will feel compelled to volunteer information about anyone asking questions without us having to raise their suspicions by asking if anyone was looking for us” I answered.
“I’m with Old Timer on this one” Giant stunned us by saying. “Many of the really nice hotels recruit staff from places like this because they’ve already been well trained on going the extra mile. Some of them even have hospitality degrees. I never search for a place to eat on-line when I can ask at the front desk.”
“Sounds like something you could do while switching loads, perhaps while asking for change” I responded.
Just then Giant noticed the printout Stretch still held. “Okay! So I fucked up last night! It won’t happen again!” and he stormed out.
“Would you mind keeping an eye on him from a distance to make certain he is not in that same state talking to the front desk?” I asked Stretch.
“Was thinking the same thing” he responded as he turned to leave.
“We all need to be happy and smiling when we come back tonight” I continued.
“The museum should cheer him up” answered Stretch. “The rest of us might not enjoy it.”
“Oh come on. The weather is warm, the dresses will be short and the ladies will all be wearing heels, what’s not to like?”
“Pretty much everything you just said” Slim laughed.
“Oh yeah. Well, I will have a good time without ever looking at the art!”
***
Slim checked his voice mail while we were outside of the museum. Pretty Little Thing had left a message stating she had relayed our transportation delay to our destination. The others didn’t think anything of it and I let it slide as I called and left a “just checking in” message saying I had gotten her update. Her message bothered me though.
We really did look like tourists the following day. Coming back with hats and t-shirts from the places we had been. Late in the afternoon Pepboys called saying the car was done.
“How well do you know this place to unload the rest of the gold, Stretch?” I asked.
“Haven’t done business with them in a while, but, I knew the owner’s son before I got into the life” he responded. “Why?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to risk calling them and arranging a meet or if you thought it safer to just drop in?”
Stretch thought for a moment before responding. “I’m torn” he finally responded. That got everyone’s attention. Eventually he caught onto our need for more information and continued “They could be a good source for the second vehicle you talked about, but, I don’t know about conducting that much business in one spot.”
“Good” I stated. “You’re learning. Even if that place is clean, all of the new regulations on cash transactions, especially those for cars, will trip a flag somewhere. The staged car needs to be clean and fairly new. We can’t waste much more time here.”
“You’ve got a plan?” queried Slim.
“I need to check a few bank accounts on-line before I say for sure” I responded. “I know Amtrak has a stop in Carbondale, IL. Given it’s a college town there will be quite a few storage places. I would prefer something with actual plates, but any new leased vehicle would have GPS. A temp tag is easy to stop, especially once out of state. I do have a couple of shell companies in IL. Need to see if there has been any activity on their checking accounts recently.”
“Where are you going with this?” asked Giant.
“I’m thinking about buying or leasing for 3-6 months a vehicle via one of those companies. I could title it in the company name, write a check and sign all of the paperwork. Use the cover story that I’m down working in software for a new medical device and brought the train in. The down side is it is a college town so the bulk of the vehicles available will be tiny cars college kids like. Most will be loaded with tech.”
“That would make them easy to track” said Giant. “You seem pretty set on having a second vehicle prepped and ready to go in IL, but that’s a long ride back and we still have to go to Mississippi.”
“Your point being?” I asked.
“It’s a long way out of the way is all” he responded. “We do have to eventually get to New Orleans. The longer it takes the more we could be facing.”
“Or they could get tired and leave” volunteered Slim.
“I know a guy in Burmingham” announced Stretch. If you can write a check from a company account, we can buy a car from his lot with actual plates. Will be an older Mercedes or Lexus, but, for the right price he will have it gone through like we did the Avalon and store it for us.”
“For someone who isn’t a car guy you seem to know quite a few dealers with questionable business practices” I stated.
“Yeah, well, I lived a little before entering this life” responded Stretch. “He can leave a temp tag on it until he gets the plates from Illinois. We will stop there on the way down. Don’t worry, we go back.”
“Fine. Do you need to take any of us with you to gold and diamond unloading or will they load the money on anonymous pre-paid cards?” I asked.
“I just need your cards” responded Stretch. “You should all come. I’ll drop you off at some place to eat near there and we can head for Birmingham. Best to just unload the gold there though. I have a feeling your diamonds will be outside of their ability to pay. We can check out as soon as you are packed and I get back with the car.”
This time I left a wad of singles for housekeeping.
***
The eatery we found to wait at while Stretch unloaded the rest of my gold served a really good breakfast. It wasn’t high end and it wasn’t low. We did have to eat rather slowly and read the paper while waiting for Stretch to return then eat. We all got various amounts added to are cards. For some reason I only got $5K and Giant got $13K. Okay, they were just trying to appease the greedy little fucker. The amounts would only matter if we had to use plastic.
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