Chapter Twenty-seven
Rick was pacing the floor. He was desperate for the $5,000 he had asked for. It was the only way he could find her. Pay someone. He called his friend Christian again. “Hey, man. How’s it goin’?” He was trying to sound relaxed.
“Hey, Rick. Everything’s good here. What’s happening with you?” Christian knew full well that something was going on, but was not sure what it was exactly.
“Were you able to talk Kara into letting you lend me the money?”
“First of all, it’s not about Kara ‘letting’ me. It’s about what’s best for the both of us. Kara and I are partners. You know, as in life partners?” Christian knew that Rick had no idea what a real partnership was like.
“Yeah, man. I get it.” Rick was still pacing.
“I need more information, Rick.” Christian was stern. “I, we, can’t write out a check without knowing where the money is going and why.”
“That’s why I wanted you to send it via PayPal.”
“I don’t think you’re hearing me. Check or cash. Either way, I need to know what the money is for.”
“I said it was for a start-up, but I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement.” Rick was very close to whining.
“If it’s such a good investment, why don’t you ask your family for the money?” That was more of a rhetorical question. He knew why.
“Oh, man, you know I can’t ask any of them.”
“Well, what about some of your other friends?” Christian knew full well that Rick didn’t have any other friends.
“Look, I need to know if you’re going to help me out or not.” Now Rick was getting testy.
“I’m not going to send it to PayPal. That’s out of the question. It has to be a check, so I can have a record of it in case you don’t pay me back. And I need an IOU from you, indicating receipt of the loan and the terms under which you will repay it.”
“Of course I’ll pay you back. I’ll even throw in interest. What do you want, ten percent?”
“If it’s such a good investment, then how about giving me a cut?” Christian was testing to see how far Rick would go.
“Plus interest?” Rick asked.
“Why not? You’ll be making lots of money, right?”
Rick was getting caught up in his own lie. He wasn’t going to be investing in any sort of start-up. He needed the money to find her, but he wasn’t about to tell Christian that. “Yeah. Yeah. OK. I’ll tell you what. I’ll go talk to the other investors and see if we can swing it.” In truth, Rick had no idea how he would ever repay any money he got. Nor did he intend to. What he was talking about was, all things considered, stealing money from Christian and Kara.
“Let me talk to Kara again. But like I said, it has to be a check. So if she agrees, I’ll send it to you by FedEx. Give me your info.”
There was dead silence on the line. “Yo, Rick? You still with me?”
“Yeah. The thing is, I’m traveling a lot, and I don’t know where I’m going to be over the next few weeks. That’s why I wanted the PayPal thing.”
“No can do, Rick. You think about it and call me back.”
Rick hesitated. “Let me check my schedule. I’ll figure out where I’ll be at the end of the week and call you back.”
“Sounds good. Later.” Christian ended the call.
Kara was standing near him. “No?”
“Not exactly. He’s desperate. He’s going to try to figure out something. The thing is, even if he got a check from me, how would he cash it?”
“If he’s in Vegas, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure some of the casinos would be happy to see him again,” Kara offered.
“True. They’ll think he’s going to gamble with it.”
Kara gave Christian a funny look. “We sound like criminals.”
“No. If anyone is the criminal here, it’s Rick. I’m sure that he has no intention of repaying the loan, even if he had the means to do so. If you want to outsmart a criminal, you have to think like them.”
Christian made a good point.
“So what’s next?” Kara asked.
“My guess is that he’ll think of something similar to what you suggested. Depending on where he is, there are check-cashing places all over. I have no idea what the limits are, but Rick is pretty cunning.”
“That’s for sure,” Kara agreed.
* * *
Rick wasn’t happy with the way the conversation had gone. He couldn’t give Christian an address because he truly didn’t know where he was going to be from one day to the next. He had worn out his welcome with some of his prior gambling buddies, and he was no longer on good terms with several of the casinos. He also knew that the person he wanted to hire would not take credit or a check. It had to be cash. Up front. Otherwise, it was no deal.
He snapped his fingers, remembering something. There was one more person he could try to woo into handing him some cash. Sheena, the previous girlfriend, before her. He knew she lived in LA and had had some bit parts in movies. Maybe she could spare a few bucks for an old flame. The relationship hadn’t ended badly. They simply grew apart, so there were no hard feelings. At least not to his knowledge. It had been almost four years. He wondered how she would react. Would the start-up story work on her? Then it hit him. He would tell her that he knew she was working her way to stardom, and that if she had a little extra cash, it might be a good idea to invest in something. He’d give her the routine: “If you’d invested $1000 in Amazon, you’d have $23,000 now, and if you’d invested $1000 in Apple, you’d have $24,000.” He’d continue with, “The company will go public in three years. Your investment will be worth over a hundred grand. You know show business is a rocky road. This way you’ll have a cushion.” Oh yeah. That was a great story. Maybe Sheena was still the little lamebrain she was when they had dated.
He puffed up his chest and scrolled through his contacts list. He never deleted anyone’s number, just in case of situations like this one. He dialed her number. It went to voice mail. “Hi ya. You’ve reached Sheena.” Giggles. “Well, not really.” More giggles. “Hit me with your best shot. Bye for now.” Rick gave the phone a disgusted look. Some people never change, but that could easily work in his favor.
“Hey, Sheena. It’s your old pal, Ricky Barnes.” He cringed at referring to himself as Ricky, but that’s what she had called him. “I heard you’re doing well out in La La Land. Thought I’d give a check-in and see how things are with you. I’ll call back again. Ciao.” Rick didn’t want to leave a number, and his caller ID said OUT OF AREA. And he was. He had bought a burner phone with cash. That was the only kind of financial transaction he had made for the past two years. Cash. Ever since he had bolted. Some people thought he was backpacking in Guatemala; others thought he was doing a walkabout in Australia. Obviously, neither was true. But there was one thing he was certain of. Nobody really cared.
Even his own mother had thrown him under the bus after she wired him $10,000. She had forgiven him for bolting out of town without giving her any notice, but then months went by after she sent him the first $10,000. And he never contacted her, not until he needed more. She was livid at the audacity he showed to call and ask her to wire him cash again.
Initially, she was worried. Why had he left so abruptly? Why was he at an airport in Chicago? The second call was the last straw. She had babied him all his life. It had practically ruined her marriage after she insisted that her husband give him a job. When that went south, she pushed his father to find him another means of support. Richard Senior was done having his ungrateful, lazy son embarrass him. He was furious when he discovered she had wired him $10,000 without discussing it with him. But that was the point. She knew that if she had brought it up, he would have uttered a resounding “over my dead body.” She loved Richard and knew he was right. Enough was enough. Tough love. Rick needed to figure it out on his own, and that would never happen if people kept bailing him out.
Rick scrolled through his contacts list again. There had to be somebody who was still speaking to him. Someone who had some spare cash. He thought about Christian’s offer to send a check via FedEx. The question was where to have it sent without making it easy for anyone to find him. The airport routine had worked for his mother. People just assumed he was traveling. He could be going anywhere. But that meant he would have to pick it up at a FedEx location at an airport. He had to think. And think fast. The opportunity to get someone to find her was not going to last forever.
He thought about the casinos in Atlantic City. He could still probably get comped for a hotel there, but sending money to the Atlantic City airport would be too obvious. There is nothing else to do there but gamble. No, it had to be an airport that was in a large hub but was also close to a casino.
He pulled out his phone and hit the app for casinos. There were several in Black Hawk, about forty minutes from Denver. Perfect. If his luck held, he could probably get a free room at the Ameristar. He had walked away from their tables with almost twelve grand. They might want him back to see if they could recoup. It was worth a try. If he got the room, he’d give Christian the address of the FedEx at the Denver airport.
Rick was feeling pretty positive about his chances of completing his search and locating her. Several things had to happen. First, he had to get himself to Denver. Second, he needed to get the cash. Third, he had to get the money to the person who would do the job. Fourth, he needed to secure a hotel room. He thought about it. A lot of “ifs,” to be sure, but he had gotten himself out of bad situations several times before when he thought there was no way out. Yet he always landed on his feet. The last two years had been challenging, but he had managed. He had been casino-hopping all over the country. He didn’t make a killing at any of them. Just enough for them to want him back, but not enough to call too much attention to himself. In spite of his winnings, he still didn’t have an extra $5,000 for the job he needed done.
He checked the time. Should he call Christian or Sheena? Still too early. He decided to go to the bar and kill some time.
Rick walked through the lobby of the small hotel and headed down the street to a local bar. He slapped a twenty on the counter. “Milagro Silver.” It was a moderately priced tequila. He’d save up for the good stuff once he accomplished his plan. He just didn’t know when or how long it would take.