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Den and Caroline arrived at Bret’s house for the third day of work, having decided that this was going to be the last day whether or not Bret left them alone for enough time for them to have a look in the safe.
“Hello there”– Bret greeted them as he opened the door. “I’m going fishing for a few hours this morning.”
“Oh okay”– Caroline did well to hide her excitement.
“The lake is only just a couple of miles down the road, so if you need me for anything just call, I’ve left my cell phone number on the pad in the kitchen.”
“I’m sure we won’t need to do that but it is good to have it just in case”– Den said. “Actually we’re a little ahead of schedule so we probably will be done by lunch time today.”
“Oh excellent, I’ll be back before noon anyway.”
Bret went out as soon as he had let Den and Caroline in. He’d loaded up his car with his fishing equipment before they had got there, so he just jumped in his car and drove off. Caroline waited for him to get to the end of his drive then called Ryan.
“Hey Ryan, finally got the break we wanted.”
“He’s leaving you alone for a while?”
“Yeah, going fishing for the morning.”
“Excellent.”
“He said the lake was only a couple of miles down the road and he turned right out of his drive so he must be heading your way. Could you guys keep an eye on him, just in case he heads back early we could do with knowing about it.”
“Yeah no worries, I’ll get the gang together. I’m not sure they’ll all be awake but I think they’ll want to be involved.”
Caroline set about breaking into the safe with Den, whilst Ryan went to get the gang together. The safe turned out to be a complex one and took Den and Caroline a little longer to open than they expected. Still it was open in less than ten minutes. And the wait was more than worthwhile. Upon opening the safe and looking inside both of them stood completely still, didn’t make a sound and with their mouths wide open for over a minute.
“Just to clarify, are you seeing a huge pile of cash?” Den checked without taking his eyes of the pile.
“Oh yes.”
“Good, just making sure I’m not seeing things.”
“I’ve got to call Ryan.”
Ryan had parked his van at the far end of the lake from Bret, so that the could see him well enough to know if he was getting back in the car but more than far away enough so Bret wouldn’t be able to make out who is was in the van. Just as he switched of the engine Ryan got the call from Caroline.
“Hey, you broken it already?”
“Yes we have and we’ve got one heck of a result here.”
“Go on”– Ryan said sensing the genuine excitement in Caroline's voice.
“There’s a huge pile of cash in here.”
“How huge a pile of cash?” Ryan’s question got the full attention of the other four in the van.
“It’s hard to be exact but it’s certainly in the millions. I’d say about five millions!”
“Oh is that all”– Ryan managed to somehow contain his excitement and put up a pretence to dampen the enthusiasm of the other four. “I mean how much can you really do with five million these days? If it was English pounds then maybe it would be worth getting excited about.”
The other four in the van reactions were similar to those of Den and Caroline when they opened the safe.
“Well if you don’t want it then we can just keep it for ourselves”– Caroline said.
“Go on then. I suppose we’ll be in on it”– Ryan said.
“Just get around here quick, we can put the cash in your van. Then as soon as he gets back us two can get out of here. One of you stays there though, to keep and eye on him.”
“Okay, be there in a couple of minutes, bye.”
“Don’t suppose you guys want a share of about five million dollars?” Ryan asked after hanging up.
“Okay is this one of your passing the time games you’ve invented or are you for real?” Shannon asked. “Because you are being way too cool about this!”
“I am. Aren’t I?” Ryan laughed. “Seriously though we need to get there. So we can put the money into this van. One of us better stay here to keep and eye on Jensen.”
“Guess I should do that”– Lee volunteered.
“I suppose that makes sense”– Ryan said. “You got your phone with you?”
“Yeah.”
“If he heads to his car at all just give me a call straight away.”
“Will do”– Lee said then got out of the back of the van.
“Okay ladies, lets pick up some cash!” Ryan enthused as he started up the engine.
“Are we really going to steal?” Lori said.
“Ordinarily I would agree with your morals”– Ryan replied. “But remember who we’re stealing from.”
“Yeah come on Lori”– Shannon added. “This is a guy we’re planning to kill, so we can’t really draw the line at theft.”
“I know, I know”– Lori said. “I guess I’m just not taking well to a life of crime.”
“I’m just going to look at it as compensation”– Rachel said.
“Good idea, I can handle that”– Lori said.
“If it is compensation then he’s still stealing from us if you ask me”– Shannon said.
“Can’t argue with that”– Ryan said as he drove past Bret.
“You’re getting robbed in a minute pal”– he said knowing well there was no way Bret could hear him.
Ryan drove all the way down the drive and parked so the back of his van was close to the front door of the house. Waiting for them by the door with bags of cash by their feet, Den and Caroline couldn’t keep the smiles of their faces.
“Not a bad days work!” Ryan said as he high fived Den and Caroline.
“Probably our last days work!” Den enthused.
“There’s still plenty more upstairs, everybody come up and help carry it down”– Caroline said. “The less time you guys are here the better.”
“You make sure you guys get out of here as quick as you can before he gets back”– Ryan said.
“Trust us we will do”– Caroline said.
After performing the surreal task of loading up the van with millions of dollars, Ryan drove back to the lake. Lee jumped back into the back of the van and sat there looking at the money with the rest of them.
“Even if we never get to kill him, this is a great form of pay back”– Lee said.
“We are still planning to kill him though aren’t we?” Shannon checked.
“Oh hell yeah”– Lee said.
“Any unusual activity while we were gone?” Ryan asked Lee.
“He was talking on his phone for a minute or two, that’s all.”
“Probably with his accountant, telling him not to keep millions of dollars in a safe”– Ryan said.
Bret fished by the lake for the best part of three hours then packed up his equipment and drove back home.
“All done”– Caroline said as soon as he walked through the front door.
“Oh excellent, well done. You’ll want paying then.”
“Yes please”– Caroline said with the merest hint of a smirk.
“Can you make the cheque out to Den Shepherd, its just that we took over this company from an old guy we used to work for. He’s retired now but he built up such a good reputation we kept the business name”– Den said.
“No problem, I understand”– Bret said and went to get his cheque book out of a draw in his living room.
Upon receiving payment Caroline very quickly went through the security system with Bret and how to use it, then as they promised they were out of there as quickly as possible. Driving straight round to the motel to catch up with the gang and the cash.
“Hey guys!” Ryan said as soon as the two of them stepped out of their van. “You get out of there without any problems?”
“Cleanest exit imaginable, after getting him to pay us of course!” Caroline replies.
“Well we couldn’t exactly say don’t bother paying us we’ve just emptied your safe”– Den added.
“Some news on the cash”– Ryan said. “I’m afraid your estimate was way off, there’s not five million in there.”
“How much?” Caroline asked.
“Seven million!” Ryan said.
“You guys have counted it?” Den checked.
“It would have been impossible to sit looking at that money and not count it”– Shannon said.
“That really is awesome”– Caroline said. “We were thinking and I hope you don’t mind, that we would take a million for ourselves?”
“Mind?” Ryan said. “Is that all you want?”
“Yeah come on guys”– Lori said. “It was your work and you did take all the risks.”
“No we’re not taking a penny more”– Den said. “If it wasn’t for you guys then we never would have got the job.”
“Plus with what you have been through you deserve it a lot more than we do”– Caroline added.
“Besides, one million is more than enough anything else would be excess!” Den said.
“Okay if you’re sure”– Ryan said.
Den and Caroline had a meal at the Diner down the road with the other five to say goodbye properly. Then they took their million and were on their way.
For the other five the evenings entertainment was provided by the ‘what I might do with the money’ game. After their long game of poker the previous night and relatively early start that morning, the four with rooms went back to them about nine o’clock on that evening. Ryan was happy doing the monitoring himself and promised to wake the others if anything significant happened. Now that Den and Caroline were finished Ryan had audio and visual in most parts of Bret’s house and all four of the phones were bugged.
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