With this, I mainly wanted to make sure those guys heard that there wouldn’t be anything more to get from this family. But I also wanted to point out the real amount of Logan’s debt. Yes, it was petty. So what!? If, in an hour or so, I found myself moribund, I wanted the rest of the family to at least know that the numbers Logan had given us didn’t add up in any way. Even after everyone was doing everything to help him!
“
“Alright. Thanks, Mom, I’ll deal with it.” I told her in a resigned tone. “Give Granny a kiss from me. Love you. Goodbye.”
After I had hung up the phone, I looked at the two guys. Throughout the call they had exchanged glances and gestures, showing me they were indeed able to hear both sides of the conversation, and they didn’t seem happy about what they had heard. Maybe that was the reason I had ended the call the way I did, despite not intending to.
“Alright. I don’t have that much cash in the house. I don’t wanna pry ... but ... I suspect wiring you the money isn’t an option?” The prospect of receiving that money, even though Claire had claimed not to have it, caused them to relax somewhat. They grinned and shook their heads, so I nodded. “I have enough cash in my office. Wanna come along and get your money right away?”
I was still hoping I could discourage them from trying anything reckless if they learned I was working in a big security firm.
“You gonna steal money from your workplace to pay for Logan’s debt?” The smaller one of the two spoke for the first time.
“Hell, No! That’s my money.” I answered, while getting my keys and leaving the house to get to my Jeep. “Not that it’s any of your concern, but I stashed it there so dipshit won’t get his hands on it again.”
That seemed to amuse them. Bill had encouraged me to paint Logan as unreliable as possible if I got the chance, so they’d know there was nothing to get from him after I paid them off, and so they would be reluctant to do any business with him again.
“No offense ... but you drive around in that thing while having ten grand in cash lying around?” The smaller one pointed at my Jeep.
He was annoyingly perceptive. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of that and taking at least some of the money home. I just held on to my original notion of not making them think we were lucrative targets, completely forgetting about other scenarios.
“What’d you think that money was for?” I grumbled, not liking him dissing my beloved car.
After we arrived at the office building, he continued asking questions.
“Security? What do you do here? I thought you were some kind of computer whiz?” he smiled.
So they had already heard about the story Logan told when they had him in the bar, meaning they also knew about Logan telling them that I was the one who collected the evidence. However, in the same situation, Logan also told them that he had used my money to pay for his debt, which at least somewhat confirmed my acting so far. I prayed for them to buy it and brush Logan’s story off as just some guy claiming whatever to get away.
“Computer whiz ... for someone like Logan maybe.” I chuckled, trying to downplay my knowledge. “I do IT-support. I’m the one replacing all the keyboards that were drenched in slipped drinks, and ordering ink for the printers. And, every once in a while, when the internet fails, I pull the power cord from the router and act like I did something amazing after I plug it back in.”
“Huh. But you also do programming, right?”
Shit. That was all I could think of. Logan had only phrased it as “computer stuff”, so either this guy was fishing, or they had looked into me.
“I design websites and can make Apps. But that was mainly before I found this job. Why, you need one?”
“No ... just asking.”
As I led them to my office, I could see them tense up. Normally I enjoyed the cooler air down there, but knowing what I claimed not to know, I understood why they would be uncomfortable being brought into a basement. As I opened my office door, I silently thanked Bill for making me display all the garbage hardware that had accumulated in those shelves. The stack of keyboards and boxes full of cables supported my claim of doing merely IT-support.
I asked them to wait in front of the door, so I could open the safe without them seeing how much money was actually inside, and grabbed ten-thousand dollars in fifty and hundred dollar bills. I also stuffed another five-thousand dollars into my own pocket, just in case. When the safe was closed again, I called them in, placed the money on my desk, and encouraged them to count it before we made our way back to the parking lot.
“Alright. Do yourself a favor and...”
