“Somethin’ doesn’t feel right. I’m getting nervous.”
“Shut up, Tubs, I know what I’m doing.”
Eyes wide, the jumpy Tubs scanned the quiet street looking for approaching headlights. “What if the cops happen by? Our ass is grass if the cops come by.”
“There’s no law against parking along side the road, is there?”
Tubs shook his head, beads of perspiration glistened on his forehead. It was a warm winter night in Leesburg, Florida. “Oh hell no! Nothing suspicious about two men sitting in a car on a lonely street at 2:00 in the morning with one of them packing a .38 and they both have criminal records. Not a damn thing suspicious about that, is there, Willie?”
“You’re right, Tubs. I guess it would look a little suspicious.” A wide grin broke out on the face of William “Willie” Harris, the driver of the vehicle and the architect of this endeavor. A coke head, he desperately needed cash to fuel his addiction. He had planned this late night robbery and had somehow convinced a reluctant friend, Tubs, to join him. Unstable and with violent tendencies, Willie did a short stint in prison for assault with a deadly weapon during a botched robbery attempt on a Seven/Eleven four years ago. His cohort in crime, Tubs, was a recreational user of coke who had served a couple of short sentences in the county jail for simple possession charges. He agreed to join Harris with this risky endeavor because he needed the cash to fund a ravishing gambling problem and catch up on back support payments to his ex-wife.
“You’re damn right, I’m….:” Tubs stopped mid-sentence as two headlights appeared on the road ahead. Both men quickly slid down in the front seat of the faded ‘01 green Honda Civic. Tubs heard a thud over by Willie.
“Shit! Willie barked. “I hit my head on the steering wheel.” He rubbed his forehead vigorously.
“Get your hands down, Willie. This could be the cops!”
The cluttered interior of the old Civic started to fill with light as the headlights got closer. Both men scooted a little further down and held their collective breaths. Tubs could hear his heart pounding. He glanced over at a stoic Willie, staring blankly at the dashboard. Soon Tubs could hear the sound of gravel crunching under the tires of the vehicle as it drove slowly past. It seemed like an eternity before the light passed through the interior of the car. Tubs jerked his head over the back of the seat to watch the red tail lights fade into the distance. He sat up in his seat and scanned the area around the nearby American Legion Post. There was nothing moving--it was quiet again. “Damn! That was close!” he exclaimed.
Willie was once again rubbing his head. He pulled his hand away and turned toward Tubs. “Look at this bump on my head. I hit the steering wheel really hard.”
“Shit Willie, we’ve got more important things to worry about than some little bump on your head.”
Willie frowned and quickly rubbed his forehead one last time.
Suddenly Tubs’ eyes shot through the windshield toward the back door on the beige cinderblock building. “Someone’s coming out the side door, Willie! Is that him?”
Willie zeroed in on the man coming out of the door. “Yea, it’s him. He’s carrying a black money bag and according to Scottie, it’s stuffed full of cash--maybe three or four thousand dollars.”
“What the hell does this Scottie know about it?”
“He’s a member here. He told me he used to be the guy who took the money to night drop on Saturday night. He told me about what time he left the building and everything.”
“Why would he tell YOU something like that?”
“He’s my mother’s cousin; he doesn’t know I’m a druggie.”
Tubs laughed nervously, “Hell, I thought everybody knew you were a druggie.”
During his bantering with Tubs, Willie was keeping a close eye on the man with the money. “He just locked the door. Now he’s going to walk to his car at the rear of the building. He’s outside and open game now.”
Tubs’ face turned white, “He’s kind of old, Willie, he looks like someone’s grandpa or something, maybe we shouldn’t…..”
Willie interrupted his cohort and his eyes went wide. They had a wild look in them, like an animal on the prowl. “He’s away from the door, let’s move in!” he commanded.
“Oh, shit! I can’t believe I’m doing this!” Tubs growled.
Willie turned the key, the engine groaned to a start. He grabbed the gear shift and crammed it frantically into gear. The small engine roared into action, the Civic lurched forward with its bald tires spinning on the loose dirt on the street. It shot across the street and bounced over the shallow curb, loose change and water bottles bounced out of the center console. The speeding car raced toward the solitary figure walking casually toward the back of the building.
Tubs’ head bounced off the ceiling. He held tightly to his .38, his eyes were wide-eyed with fear. “He’s a big son-of-a-bitch, Willie! He’s not going down easy!”
The man with the money heard the car approaching and spun around. The headlights on the Civic revealed stark terror on the man’s face. He started to run awkwardly toward the back of the building to the safety of his car.
“Does he have a gun?” Tubs shouted.
“No. Scottie says they don’t need a gun in Leesburg. They’ve never been robbed.”
Tubs’ eyes went wide as saucers. “Hell, slow down, Willie, so I can jump out and rob him!”
Willie punched the accelerator to the floor, he had a blank look on his face.
“Back off, Willie! You’re gonna run over him!”
The man running for his life stumbled and fell. Face down on the ground, he turned toward the car, shielding his eyes from the bright headlights. His face was full of terror.
“No, Willie!”
The car’s tires banged into the fallen man and there was a sickening thud. The speeding car bounced over his thick body, flew into the air and crashed to the ground. Willie slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop on the matted grass near the back of the building. Willie grabbed the gun out of Tubs’ hand and knocked the car door open with his shoulder and jumped out. He raced toward the fallen man, gun in hand. The man was groaning, his face was covered in blood. Willie lifted his gun and jammed it against the fallen man’s forehead preparing to fire. Suddenly Willie felt something very hard crash into the back of his head, he fell to the ground with the unfired gun still in his hand.
An angry Tubs stood over Willie with clenched fists. “I didn’t bargain for this, you bastard.” He grabbed his gun out of Willie’s hand and pointed it at him. “Let’s get the money and get the hell out of here before I blow you to bits!”
Not wanting to challenge his angry friend, Willie scrambled over on his hands and knees and grabbed the black money bag from the hand of the fallen man.
“Let’s go!” Willie shouted as he climbed to his feet. The two men hurriedly jumped back in the car with its engine still running. Tubs looked all around the area to make sure no one had seen them, “I don’t see a soul. We might be okay if you didn’t kill the son-of-a-bitch.” The car bounced over the curb at the street in front of the building and sped away. Soon they were blending into the traffic on Highway 441 and heading back to Orlando.
Tubs, his face distorted in anger, took a deep breath. “It’s important for us to look normal as hell right now so I have to control myself. If it wasn’t for that, I would be pounding the living shit out of you right now, you stupid bastard!”
A stoic Willie replied, “Lighten up man, it was just some old man.”
Tubs eyes glazed over with fury. “Just an old man you say! That old man is somebody’s father, somebody’s grandpa, you sick, demented prick!”
Sensing Tubs’ anger, Willie backed off, “Okay, okay, so I went a little overboard. I’m sure he’s okay, he was still breathing when we left. Besides, this bag is chock full of cash.” He lifted the bag off the floor in front of him and waved it toward Tubs.
“Get that out of my face!” Tubs knocked the bag away from him. “For a few thousand bucks we may have killed a man--for a few thousand bucks! I feel sick!” Tubs groaned almost inaudibly.
* * *
Willie drove carefully the rest of the way back to Orlando. He was confident they had gotten away with the robbery, even if the old man didn’t make it. There were probably hundreds of green Honda Civics in North Central Florida and when they got back home, he would change out the fake license plate on the back of the car and replace it with the actual plate. Willie had been taken aback by Tubs’ angry outburst and had stayed quiet during the remaining drive, wanting to give Tubs a chance to cool down on the way home. They were almost back to Orlando. He thought this might be a good time to say something to Tubs before they reached his place and didn’t have time to talk.
“You workin’ tomorrow?”
Still upset, Tubs had been staring out the passenger side window the entire way back to Orlando, about a forty-five minute drive from Leesburg. Without looking at Willie, he replied softly, “I work every day.”
“Still second trick?”
Still holding his gun in his right hand, Tubs fell back against the seat and glared straight ahead. “Cut the small talk, Willie, I’m in no mood for it.”
Willie flipped on the turn signal and turned onto Fourth Street. They were only a couple of miles from his place. He spoke calmly to his friend, “I think were gonna be okay. Leesburg doesn’t have much of a police force and there are green Honda Civics all over the place.”
Still unhappy, much of Tubs’ anger had subsided. He tuned and stared at Willie. “Aren’t you worried about that guy? He might be dead.”
Willie chuckled uneasily, “Oh hell, this little car ain’t gonna kill nobody. Anyway, he was still breathing and he moved his arm before we left. He’ll be okay.”
“Listen to me, you heartless jerk, I never bargained for this. You told me we were going to rob a guy and make a little easy money. I got my faults, but I’m no murderer. After seeing what you did tonight, I know that you are! You’re a mean sick person, Willie, and I don’t want anything to do with you ever again.” He laid back and stared out the windshield again. “I hope and pray that old man is okay, he didn’t look so good to me.”
Willie was annoyed by Tubs, feeling that he was overreacting. He didn’t particularly like killing people, but he felt he had no choice. Left alive, the man might have been able to identify them. He felt no remorse for what he had done; he felt it was necessary. Willie liked Tubs and wanted to try and patch things up before the night was over. He just had a few minutes. “Hell, I wasn’t trying to kill him, Tubs. I just wanted to knock him out so he couldn’t identify us later. That’s all.”
Tubs grimaced at the comments and continued to stare straight ahead.
Willie’s place was just ahead; he turned down the narrow alleyway and headed for his tiny mobile home. He pulled to a stop next to Tubs’ pickup and quickly punched off the lights. He leaned down and snatched the black bag off the floor on the driver’s side. “I don’t see anybody around. It’s pitch black back in here. I’ll just count it out now and give you your half. Nobody will see us.” Willie opened the bag and began counting the stacks of bills. “Looks like they had a good night at the ole Legion tonight.”
“My ex is about to be thrown out of her apartment for not paying her rent. I don’t want my boy to be out on the street. I need this money so she can pay the rent. If I didn’t need it so bad, I wouldn’t take a dime of this money.” A few minutes later, Willie was done counting the cash from the bag. “There’s $5,760 with what looks like about $20 in loose change. Let’s see, that would be about $2,900 a piece if my math is correct.”
“Give me $2,800. You drove.” Tubs said curtly.
Willie counted out twenty-eight hundred dollars and handed it to Tubs.
Without saying a word, Tubs stuck his gun in his pants pocket, snatched the money from Willie’s outstretched hand, and quickly exited the car. A short time later, a somewhat contrite Willie listened as Tubs started his old truck and drove away.
Willie watched Tubs’ taillights disappear around the corner at the end of the road. He smirked and grabbed the stack of mostly twenties, “Oh shit, I made a mistake, there was a little over $6,900 here. Oh well, it’s too late now!” He laughed and stuffed the cash back in the black bag. He pulled a rag out from under the front seat and slid out of the Civic with the bag in hand. He strolled casually to the front of the car and aggressively rubbed the traces of blood off the front fender of the Civic. “Time to do a line or two,” he whispered while disappearing into the tiny mobile home.