Recker put the gun on the table, though his hand was still on top of it. Arden looked down at the weapon, thinking that the man was willing to use it again at the drop of a hat.
“You done thinking yet?” Recker asked. “Already wasted too much time.”
Arden shrugged. “Uh, you know, I don’t know anything.”
“Wrong answer.”
Recker instantly picked his gun up and swung it towards Arden’s head, firing another round, which narrowly missed the man’s left ear. Startled, Arden nearly jumped out of his chair.
“Are you crazy?! That almost killed me!”
“But it didn’t,” Recker calmly said. “The next one might, though.”
“What do you want from me?!”
“I want answers.” Recker moved his gun slowly, now pointing it at the middle of the man’s chest. “And I want them now. Because the next time I fire this gun, it won’t miss.”
“Don’t be stupid, Arden,” Haley said.
Arden put his hands up. “All right. All right. I’ll tell you.”
Recker pointed to one of the photos of the man dressed in black by the office door. “That was you?”
“No.” Arden looked at Recker and could tell he didn’t believe him. “No, I swear. It wasn’t me. Yes. Yes, that’s my car, and I was driving, but that guy wasn’t me. I just sat in the car and waited for the guy. That’s it. I don’t even know what he was doing.”
“Who was he?”
Arden shrugged. “Couldn’t tell ya. Don’t know his name.”
“What’d I tell you about those answers?”
“I’m being honest. I really don’t know. I was hired by this guy. He asked if I wanted to make some easy money. All I had to do was drive. That’s it. Said somebody else would be doing the heavy lifting. They just needed someone behind the wheel. I wasn’t told what was going on. And that’s the truth.”
“Who was this guy that hired you?” Haley asked.
“Never gave a name, and I never asked.”
“Is that usually how you do business?”
“Depends. He gave me a thousand bucks, said don’t ask any questions, and keep your mouth shut. So that’s what I did.”
“How’d you meet him?”
“He met me. I got an email from him out of the blue. Never met him before or anything. Just got an email, asking if I wanted to make some easy money, and if I did, to meet him at this coffee shop.”
“What coffee shop?” Recker asked.
“Uh, I don’t know. It’s at the corner of, uh… what’s it called… oh… Coffee Beans. That’s it. You guys know it?”
“Yeah, I know it.”
“So what happened there?” Haley asked.
“Went there, talked about the job,” Arden answered. “Once I agreed to it, he told me the date and time, and said to park at a certain spot to pick up this other guy. Then we’d go over to that shopping center, and I was to wait at a certain spot, while this other guy did his thing.”
“And you weren’t told what that thing was?”
Arden shook his head. “Nope. And I didn’t ask.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was told not to.”
“What about this other guy you picked up?” Recker asked. “What do you know about him?”
“Nothing. Like I said, that was the terms of the deal. I wasn’t supposed to talk to this other guy, and we didn’t.”
“You drove him around and never said a word?”
“Hey, when someone offers you a thousand bucks just to drive around and not talk… that’s a pretty good gig, you know? Don’t be dumb and muck it up.”
“Where’d you drop the guy off at?” Recker asked.
“Same spot as I picked him up. Then he handed me an envelope with the cash, and off I went. That’s all there was to it.”
“So you can’t tell us anything else about these people?” Haley asked.
“I cannot.”
“And you don’t know what this other guy was doing?”
“I do not. Didn’t see him come back to the car with anything else either, unless he had something stashed in his pocket.”
“So you don’t know if he robbed a place or anything?”
“Nope. Don’t know.”
“What’d he look like?” Recker asked. “And don’t tell me he wore a mask the whole time.”
“Uh, white guy, short brown hair, I guess. I dunno… average looking.”
“Could you pick him out if you saw him again?”
“I don’t know, man. I mean, it was only for a few minutes.”
“He was sitting right next to you in the car.”
Arden pointed two of his fingers at his eyes, then out in front of him. “Eyes looking straight ahead, man. No conversation, remember?”
“What about phone calls?” Recker asked. “Talk on the phone or text either of these people?”
Arden shook his head. “I did not. Got the one email, met the guy in person, then that was it.”
Haley walked over to the kitchen counter, finding a torn off piece of paper and a pen. He went back to the table and placed it in front of Arden.
“Write down the address of where you picked this guy up at.”
Arden immediately complied with the request. Haley picked up the paper and the pen.
“What about the guy at the coffee shop?” Recker asked. “What’d he look like?”
Arden shrugged again. “Just a guy.” Recker sighed, with Arden quickly picking up on his unhappiness. “He looked like a guy who was trying not to be noticed. Had a hat on, oversized coat, sunglasses, scarf, the whole works. Looked like he was a spy or something.”
“Anything about the way he talked? Accent, scar, anything?”
“Normal, I suppose.”
Recker rolled his eyes, frustrated that they weren’t getting any further answers. “Just a nameless, faceless guy?”
“He was to me. The only thing I cared about was that stack of money.”
“You usually take jobs from people you’ve never met before or email you out of the blue?”
“Listen, jobs offering a thousand dollars don’t fall in your lap every week, you know?”
“So no questions asked? What if this guy was lying to you?”
“Hey, all I had to do was drive for a few minutes. If they lied and I was out, I was out. All I would’ve lost is a few minutes of time and a few dollars of gas. That’s it.”
Recker smirked at the sheer stupidity of the man. “And what if they were just leading you into a trap or something and making you the fall guy?”
Arden looked confused. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
Recker tried to break it down in more simple terms. “You know, like they were trying to rob a place, but they wanted someone else to get caught, while they got away with a bunch of money.”
Arden still looked confused. “Oh. I, uh, actually didn’t even think of that.”
Recker shook his head, then turned back to Haley, who also had a look of disbelief on his face. Arden obviously wasn’t the mastermind behind all this. Unless he played the stupid card really well, he didn’t seem like he’d be able to orchestrate everything.
“Well, that’s pretty much it, guys,” Arden said. “I mean, I don’t know what else I can tell you.”
“There’s something else we need from you,” Recker replied.
“What’s that?”
“Your computer.”
“My computer?”
Recker nodded. “That’s right.”
“You can’t just take my computer.”
“What kind do you have?”
Arden glanced at Haley for a moment before answering. “Uh, desktop.”
Recker looked back at his partner again. “Go find the laptop.”
“What? No, it’s not a laptop.”
Haley walked away, ready to search the place.
“We’ll see about that,” Recker said.
“What do you need my computer for?”
Recker grinned. “Just need to check some things.”
“Well that’s not right.”
Recker shrugged. He didn’t seem to care. “Who said it was?”
“Who are you guys, anyway?”
“We’re the neighborhood watch.”
“Dude, I know that ain’t right.”
“Just be thankful you’re not going to jail right about now. Or being carried out in a bag.”
Haley came back in about a minute later, holding a laptop. “Fancy desktop.”
Arden looked at Recker and shrugged. “What do you want from me?”
“That’s about it,” Recker replied.
“Am I gonna get that thing back or…?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”
“That thing cost a lot of money, you know. I don’t just have a few hundred bucks laying around to replace it.”
“Didn’t you just get a thousand?”
“That’s like my retirement money, man.”
“What, you have a savings plan?”
“You gotta be looking out for your future, you know. I mean, you can’t do this kind of stuff forever, can you?”
“Most guys like you don’t make it to retirement, to be honest,” Recker answered.
“Oh. Well I will.”
“Good for you. I’m rooting for you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
The man obviously didn’t get Recker’s sarcasm. Recker looked over at his partner.
“Anything else?”
“I can’t think of anything,” Haley replied.
“Let’s go analyze that.”
Recker and Haley left the residence, with Arden just sitting there, shaking his head as he watched them leave, wondering about what he’d gotten himself into. They both went to Recker’s vehicle first.
“You had me going there for a minute,” Haley said. “Thought you were really going to blast him there.”
Recker raised an eyebrow. “For a minute, I thought I might too. He was pushing my buttons, and we really don’t have time for games on this thing.”
“Luckily he wised up. But I don’t get the feeling he’s the guy.”
“No, he’s not. He’s just some knucklehead they used for this thing.”
“Kind of brings up a weird point, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Why use him at all?” Haley asked. “If he just drove, why would you need him? Other guy didn’t have a license?”
Recker put his hand on his face, pondering the question. And it was a good one. But he didn’t have a good answer. “You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t need him. For anything.”
“Well, they wanted him for a reason. Guess we just need to find out what that reason is.”
“Yeah,” Recker said. “If there is one.”