Day 174 - Upside Down- Chapter 22 - (1577 words)

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UPSIDE DOWN, BACK TO FRONT

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 22

After

The money was at once larger and smaller that they thought. A million dollars, there certainly was a lot of it, notes everywhere in large denominations. Most of the smaller notes were gicen out in change, the larger ones snagged early on and deposited into the cash boxes. Mostly fiftys and twentys were here, so it was tagged and bound neatly in five thousand dollar clips, then into bundles of fifty thousand. That took a little less thah half the cash they had managed to take away. It must have been more than the days takings even with all the pre christmas sales that were on.
James had counted it all twice. So much more than they expected, more than they thought possible and yet here it was. Had they collated a few days into one, were they laundering money illegally through the sales? It didn’t make sense, there was so much of it here.
And yet it was not a room full of money, it all fit into a 3 large bags, stuffed to the edges but none the less fitting inside them. It didn’t seem real, this amount this endless repetition of pictures that individually excited but en masse seemed to lose their appeal. Psychologicaly of course this was a lot of money, but you had to get around the idea in your mind. This bundle was fifty thousand dollars, right here in James hand.
Fifty thousand.
What couldn’t you buy with fifty thousand dollars?
What could you buy with it? What could you buy with it and not be suspicious? Drugs, illegal goods, stolen stuff maybe? What kind of store would accept this kind of cash? You could easily spend fifty, a hundred even a couple of thousand at once, but anything kind of like maybe five, maybe less than that? The thought of the guilt it implied that people may look at them, see what they did and see the sanguine colour of it’s personality and history. They’d have to buy things worth four thousand dollars, two hundred and fifty times over. That would take a while and be equally suspicious.
They’d need a lawyer to help them hide the money, and then they would charge for that. Probably a lot as they would know it was illegally come by. Then Ivan would undoubtedly complain or object, maybe even block them from doing that. He’s going to insist he can launder it or something, he must know people right? James was panicing over possibile outcomes already, yet none were a certainty.
Property, property was the right thing to buy. Again the problem is converting the cash, once you need to buy a legititmate item like land or a house you can certainly find bargains, but you start to leave trails every where. If they bank it then at some point the interest is lodged with the Inland Revenue and then questions are asked. Where did the money come from? They could claim Lotto of course, like they would when Manisha asked – but she was easy to hide the truth from, she couldn’t check and would not think to do so. The Inland revenue though, they were a different kettle of fish.
It’s so tempting to just move it all somehow and get out of the country.
How do you move cash like this? They check one bag, one time and it’s all over. They could convert it to foreign cash, but then again they’d have the same problems, they’d have to use small amounts to convert at a time and then they’d still have an unexplained million dollar equivalent in foreign currency.
“You would not think it was so hard to be rich all of a sudden right?” James tossed a bundle of fifty’s in the air catching it each time. It represented so much and yet was completely alien and unavailable to them at the same time.
“Not if you didn’t earn it I guess.” Sam had been thinking the same thing. Their plans had been for much smaller amounts. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, split three ways, minus expenses it was not a big deal to hide or transfer. But three hundred and fifty thousand dollars each? That was all of a sudden insurmountable to them. Any excess cash would have had to been dealt with carefully, but now it seemed like a burden that could not be lifted.
“You know we’ll have to move this right? And soon yeah?” James was stuffing the bundles and clips back into the bags, looking at the foor the whole time.
“We could turn this in I suppose.” Sam rubbed his head as he said it he knew that would be a mistake.
“Then we are murderers. Not thieves or scammers or lovable rogues piulling off a Guy Ritchie–esque caper. Then we are actually seen as murderers. You know we are already, but then that’s all we’ll be and everyone will know we are. For the rest of our lives, murderers.”
“Yeah.” Sam knew they had to deal with the money anonymously. It could never go back to the owner, it could never be seen or discovered in it’s current form. That would put lie to the deceipt they had worked so hard to make truth.
“And Ivan is a murderer. Stone. Cold.” James didn’t look at him, but he meant every punched syllable to hit home as if it was stared down.
“You don’t know for sure, you can’t know.”
“Unless we ask him of course.”
“Oh yes that makes sense, hey Ivan? Silly question, you’ll laugh really you will, but were you trying to kill us instead that day? Really? Must have been a bit of a surprise to see us in a non crispy capacity later on yeah?”
Neither man followed on from the sarcasm.
They kept packing the bag in silence until all the money was away. Not a single clip, bundle or solitary note had been removed from the bag. The haul was intact as it should have been. No one dared to break the holy seal of communion with the crime. To cross that line was acceptance.
Acceptance of death and a violent, tortuous end.
Sam sat down on Jame’s couch with a soft thump of air and rubbed his head, it was fast becoming a natural state to deal with his stress and frustration this way. Rub his head till the the thoughts rushing about calmed down.
He looked at his friend, as scared as he was. “Where do we put it if we can’t leave it here?”
“I have a key to Ange’s storage locker. She gets me to check on it every couple of months or so. I have two keys, mine and a back up. The third is with her in London. She’s… well she’s probably never coming back, not to me at least.”
“That’s a shame, I liked her.”
“Well she was fun, but unpredictable and hard work, but fun. And … well you know what she would get up to. I certainly got the ride of my life. I wasn’t the only one. I stopped minding when I knew it was temporary. She was open about being a slut. I mean I would never call her one, she was just free spirited and adventurous and didn’t care what people thought. I, well you know how that went. You were there, you saw some of that. I can’t believe the things we did, the things I went along with. Fun. She was definitely fun.” James was lost in a reverie of his sexual past.
“Yes. I belived I already said I liked her.” Sam shook his head, James always over explained things. It didn’t matter too much to him, they knew each other so well. The repeated stories, the tales that grew with the telling. That sense that James was always on the look out for life’s big adventures, but Sam knew that he was simply waiting for things to happen to him. Sometimes they did, most times they did not.
“We should move this tonight. Now. I’ll give you the key.”
“You know, we could afford to do a bit of travel with this kind of money. When the heat dies down.”
“Yeah, how long will that be though?”
“Who knows, but not forever. Maybe I’ll go look her up in London.”
“Ange?”
“Yes, Ange. I’ve always fancied a go.” Sam kept a straight face, it was a gift from his parents early death.
“Oh?” James wore his heart on his sleeve and was easy to wind up.
“Yes, I’m sure by now the mandatory waiting period is over for the Bro Code.” He was saying this thoughtfully, as if seriously considering the waiting period. Like he really would walk in his friends footsteps.
“Um, it’s like 2 years or…” Then the realisation. “You creepy bastard.”
“Lighten up James. We’re rich.”
“Fat lot of good this will do us if we’re dead.”
“Why would you even think that?” Sam knew the answer, he said nothing but James knew that they both saw the reality of the threat. They had partnered with an unstable man. One who would gain an extra seven hundred thousand dollars from their demise.
Seven hundred reasons. One million reasons.

It did not bear further thought at all.