…as told by Dr. John H. Watson and Sarah Jane Smith
The Doclopedia #3,172
A California Kid & Spider Story: The Hot Job
The Party
The party took place 2 days later at a rented community hall in a small town in eastern Maryland. Food and drink of all sorts was available, music was playing, and everyone had gotten their cut of the 3.5 million dollars they had gotten for the art.
For about an hour, they sat around talking about the job, what they’d do with the money, and how they would miss each other. After that, they began leaving, with Queen Bee going first.
“Well, it was a pleasure working with you boys again”, she said to Spider and The Kid. “I’m officially retired now, so you’ll have to get by without me…unless you really need me, that is.”
They each kissed her on the cheek, and she left.
The next to go were Moon and Nell. He was heading of to his parent’s home in New Mexico for a few weeks before the new semester began. Nell was going home to Long Beach, California to rest up, buy a house, and look into maybe taking acting classes.
“Gentlemen, it’s been an interesting year. Thanks for helping a starving student out.”
Moon shook each of their hands, then said, “If you ever need an Anthropologist, give me a call.”
Spider nodded. “And if you ever need a couple of ne’er do wells, call us.”
Nell hugged them both. “I’ll miss you two scoundrels. Keep a girl in mind if you need my talents.”
The Kid bent down and gave her a kiss.
“I’ll do just that.”
Lucy was the next to go. She had her cut, plus the 75K The Kid had found in her dad’s safe. She had every intention of giving that money to a children hospital. She also had some photos and papers her dad would really not want released to the public. She would give those to her mother, the better to renegotiate their divorce setttlement.
Walking over to Smooth Paul, she took his hands and gave him a long kiss.
“I know I may never see you again, but if you do feeel like it, look me up.”
Smooth nodded and said, “Yeah, um, you never know. I might just do that.” Then he walked her out to her car.
When he came back in 5 minutes later, he saw his twe old friends sitting with their feet propped and a glass of the good scotch in their hands.
Spider motioned him to set down and join them.
“Lucy seems like a very nice young lady, don’t you think, Kid?”
“Oh, yes indeed. Smart, funny, untainted by her father’s life in politics. And quite pretty, too.”
Smooth sat down and took an offered glass.
“Look, you two, do not start.”
They both adopted look of shock.
“Us? Start something? NEVER!”, The Kid said in mock horror.
Spider put his hand on Smooth’s shoulder.
“We just felt maybe a bit of the old attraction between the two of you, that’s all.” Then he and Kid laughed.
Smooth look at them and shook his head before saying, “Well, if there were any attraction, I certainly wouldn’t come to you two for romantic advice.”
They both clutched at their hearts.
“Wounded, I am!”, cried Spider.
“A hit, a very palpable hit.”, The Kid proclaimed.
After a round of laughter, Smooth spoke up. “So, Kid, give us the recap.”
Taking another drink, The California Kid smiled and leaned back in his chair.
“Well, the entire job cost us very little in the way of advance spending. You and Lucy provided excellent intel, everyone played their part perfectly, and really, I couldn’t have asked for a better situation during which to pull off a hot job.
Beyond that, getting 50 points on the dollar for the product was great. But then, Kurt has made a lot of money off of us in the past, so he was feeling generous. On the subject of Chief Richards, he’ll be very busy trying to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison thanks to that anonymous information drop to the state A.G., so we get to keep the money we would have paid him.
Senator Jervison is, arguably, in a much worse position than Chief Richards. He’s in huge trouble with his wife after she found the photos and audio tapes of his affairs with three women in just two weeks. Of course, he’s also publicly $75,000.00 poorer, plus the missing dirt he had gathered on his various collegues in both the Senate and House, all of whom got said dirt back and are now not very supportive of him in any way. I predict that he may not get elected
And then there’s the fact that he can’t tell anyone about the estimated 7 million dollars in missing art that he got illegally. That must be extremely hurtful.”
There was very little sympathy for Senator Jervison as The Kid paused to sip his drink before continuing.
“I’ll also note that he has yet to ask anyone where his daughter and her boyfriend have gone off to. Bad fathering, that.
Regarding the law enforcement investigation of the burglary, my contact in the FBI has assured me that Agent King has turned the place inside out at least twice. They were not sure if his team had found the personal note to him that I left in the study under the small bust of Sam Houston on his desk, but I suspect he has.
So, friends, as my sisters would say, we have violated many laws, done a bit of good, and sowed chaos, all in one fell swoop.”
After another drink, things turned to the future.
“Smooth, what fine part of this country will you be scouting out next?”, The Kid asked.
“We’ll be out in the Golden State next. California is laid out end to end with opportunity. Of course, that’s after a short stay in Las Vegas to unwind.”
Both The Kid and Spider allowed as how this was true, and the weather was not too bad, either.
Spider spoke next. “I’m taking three weeks down in Key West where I plan on fishing, drinking beer, and not doing a whole hell of a lot else. After that I’ll head West with a few stops at some friends of ours to gather up information about our endgame.”
The Kid dunked a chocolate chip cookie in his scotch, then took a big bite. “Very good. I’ll be flying down to Mexico to meet with our friend Mazatlan, then on to New York for some groundwork and a sandwich at Katz Deli. So, I’ll be seeing you both wherever Smooth chooses for us to set up shop. Now let’s clean all this up before we leave.”
45 minutes later, the three of them drove off in different directions, each on thinking about what lay ahead in the next year.
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