…we’re going to miss Jimmy
The Doclopedia #2,345
A California Kid & Spider Story: The Junkyard Job: Part 4
Smooth Paul was living in a very nice apartment situated between two universities and three high schools, in a city just shy of 200 miles from where everyone else in the crew lived. He had rented the place for three months, telling the landlord that he would only be there that long before going back to “the home office” in Chicago. Normally, the landlord would have not rented for that short of a period, but Smooth had paid the whole amount double in cash. That had smoothed out the landlords doubts.
Smooth’s job in the crew was to go into the city they planned to hit next, get friendly with whomever he needed to, then pump them for info. Be it moody teenage children, rebellious college kids, lonely wives, sometimes even with the mark him or herself, Smooth ingratiated himself and they just opened up to him about all sorts of things. Often, especially at teen or college parties where alcohol was present, he’d find out things that lead to potential jobs beyond the one in question.
Smooth Paul, whose middle name actually was Paul, was the only member of the crew who knew the real names of Kid and Spider, not that he would ever tell anyone. He had grown up in the same small town they had, and had met them the summer before he started high school, when they were getting ready to enter their senior year. The three were introduced by Smooth’s older sister, whom he was pretty sure had been selling information to them on a regular basis. The Kid had sized him up as someone who could be trusted and, with a bit of training, given a purpose in life beyond the blue/white collar American Dream. By the time the two thieves graduated in 1968, Smooth had been transformed into an information gathering machine. He had also developed an on again, off again relationship with one of the Kid’s younger sisters.
When Spider & Kid reluctantly went into the military in January of 1969, Smooth continued honing his skills. By the time he graduated in 1971, he had developed the skill of becoming everyone’s best friend, trusted confidant, drinking buddy, and when needed, sexual partner. This had gained him enough money and favors to prepare for the return of his mentors a few months later.
So now he was getting ready to go gather info on the biggest job ever, one that had been the driving force in the guy’s lives since just before leaving home for the service. He knew only a bit of the details, but the Kid had informed him that there was considerable danger involved if he chose to go to New York. He had told the kid that he’d go to Hell itself if he asked him to.
Which is why there would be a goodbye party for him a couple of days after the junkyard job, before he’d grab a few identities along with his travel bag and head off to the Big Apple.
Pieboy lived at the end of a long gravel road about 10 miles outside the crew’s base city. The house he lived in was the “old house”, built in 1920 by Mr. & Mrs. Robbins, who now lived in the new house they had built in 1958. Said new house was three miles down the main road to town, and was the house closest to his thanks to large amounts of grazing land and state forests.
This suited Pie just fine, since closer neighbors might wonder about late night comings & goings, various vehicles racing around on the three dirt tracks Pie had made, or his dozen very loud and light sleeping guard geese. The only thing the Robbins’ cared about was that he paid his $300.00 rent on time every month.
He had been living here for four years now. When not involved in being a getaway driver for a band of burglars, he earned money and good will by either repairing cars or turning them into hot rods and racers. Of course, there were also the times he went out to a few clubs to meet good looking gentlemen his age, but those happened less frequently when the thievery biz was hopping.
Like Spider, Pieboy was 5’10” and in very good physical shape. Unlike Spider, he was blonde, blue eyed and had a face that would have looked good on a leading man in the movies. This didn’t matter much to him, aside from making it easier to meet guys. What Pie cared about was driving, customizing, and repairing cars, in that order. That’s what happens when you come from a family of race car drivers and moonshine runners going back to around 1918.
Pie preferred to live alone for now, but once his contract with Spider & the Kid ran out, he would be set up with enough money to buy a nicer place in town and set up a hot rod shop with his brother. He’d take a couple of his racers with him and sell off everything else. And who knows, maybe he’d meet a nice guy and settle down.
Just now though, he needed to start work on fixing up the box truck he had out in the barn. By the time he’d finished it, they would have a first class dog kennel on wheels. And then, two days later, he’d have it completely back to normal and returned to his supplier of vehicles, along with a cool grand in cash.
Hot damn, he loved this line of work!
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