Chapter 16

 

 

The five-dollar bill burned hotly in the hand he thrust deeply into his pocket. He was good at palming things, and folded money was so simple, but he’d caught the stare of the man in white and wondered if he’d been spotted. He adopted a leisurely pace as he left the Temple of the Rising Moon—what kind of stupid name was that anyway?—and neither looked at nor avoided the man in white.

The goon stared at him the whole way but didn’t approach, even as he walked past the parked cars and down the street. He’d gotten away with it. Five dollars. No big deal. Not as good as the twenty he’d taken a couple nights ago, but it gave him the thrill of the successful conquest.

Still, he thought as he covered the six blocks to the supermarket parking lot where he’d left his car, it would be best if he stayed away from this neighborhood for a few weeks. The homeless shelter hadn’t netted much of value, other than the gold watch. The other few trinkets were just sparkles that caught his eye. The old biddy who ran the place was getting suspicious. He felt sure he wasn’t on their radar, but he’d attracted the attention of that burly guy tonight.

Yeah, better to work some other spots—he knew of plenty—and leave Apache Junction alone for awhile.

His car sat exactly where he’d left it, in the less-popular lot at the side of the building. This time of year, shoppers were out until all hours so the lot was never empty enough so anyone would notice a car that remained unmoved for hours at a stretch. He loved supermarkets for that reason. He retrieved the key fob from the small pouch he wore attached to his ankle, under his sock, and unlocked the door.

For the fun of it, he drove through the drive-up at the nearest McDonald’s and treated himself to a meal from the dollar menu. Five bucks went fairly far when spent that way. Gloating over the coup, he hit US 60 and headed westbound into central Phoenix.

Twenty minutes later he entered a middle-class neighborhood of homes with stucco in varying shades of tan and tile roofs that were increasingly being covered in solar panels. He thumbed the button built into the car’s overhead console, raising the garage door and driving straight inside.

The kitchen was neat and clean, he was happy to see. Once, he’d forgotten and left an unrinsed cereal bowl in the sink when he went to spend two nights at the shelter. When he got back the place was teeming with ants. He could put up with less-than-clean clothing but cringed at the sight of bugs taking over his house.

He emptied the pockets of the oversized jacket he wore for his day job. Leaving the contents on his dresser, he peeled off jeans, black T-shirt, and gray hoodie and draped them over a ladder-back chair in the bedroom corner. The battered running shoes and dingy once-white socks were set neatly on the floor.

The hot shower felt luxuriously good. He let the water course over his body, using a generous squirt of the Old Spice body wash someone had given him last Christmas. The scent contrasted pleasantly with the smells he’d been immersed in the last two days. He massaged shampoo into his scalp and thick sandy hair, then debated about shaving the half-inch of beard growth. Decided not. The holiday season was one of his most lucrative, and he needed to play up his assets.

The hot water began to grow tepid so he shut off the taps and reached for his towel.

Dressed in pressed khaki slacks and a polo shirt, his longish hair combed straight back from his forehead, he picked up each of the items he’d taken earlier from the pockets of the coat. First was a small locket, the kind a young girl would wear, with a pink stone set in an inexpensive gold heart-shaped casing. It opened to reveal tiny pictures of a man and a woman. He’d also picked up a Timex watch with buttons for setting alarms and digital numbers—he might actually wear that. And there was the first twenty-dollar bill he’d taken at the hippies’ fake religious service.

He reached under the bed and brought out the cookie box, opening it and lovingly setting each new item inside to join his previous acquisitions.