Blacktop Wasteland(36)

Fuck it. Get this money. Blue suede shoes, motherfuckers, he thought.

Ronnie pushed through the door of the jewelry store with his shoulder. He had his gun in his right hand and his plastic bag in his left. The overhead recessed lights bathed the sales floor in a sepia tone. The display cases were laid out in an upside-down U shape. A long case at the rear of the store served as a sales desk. The cash register sat on the far left side. Two long cases ran the length of the store on both sides. A huge picture window took up most of the front of the store. Jenny was standing behind the desk with a stocky woman in a shaggy crew cut. They were talking to an older white woman in a rainbow-colored sundress. Her long white hair was plaited into two long pigtails. To his right a young black man was leaning over one of the display cases, obviously deep in thought.

“You know what time it is! Get on the floor and shut your goddamn mouths!” Ronnie screamed.

“Get on the ground or they gonna be cleaning your brains off the fucking ceiling tiles!” Quan screamed. At first no one moved. The young black guy didn’t even raise his head.

“NOW!” Ronnie screamed. The young man dropped to the floor so quickly he might have stepped through a trap door. The older white woman took longer but she too got down on the floor. Jenny and the heavyset lady, who had to be the manager, also got down on the floor. Ronnie rushed over to the desk. The two of them were on all fours about to lie flat on the floor.

“Come on, Red, you and me going in the back,” Ronnie said. The manager hopped up faster than her size would have suggested.

“Don’t you touch her!” she said. She put herself between Ronnie and Jenny. Ronnie nearly took a step back. The ferociousness in her voice was palatable. Her eyes were bugging from their sockets and a vein was pulsating in her forehead. As a rule, Ronnie didn’t believe in hitting women. He had enough Southern hospitality instilled in him as a kid that he found the idea distasteful. Under normal circumstances he would never put his hands on a lady. However, these were not normal circumstances. Not by a long shot.

Ronnie struck the manager just above her right eye with the butt of the .38. A divot the width of a popsicle stick appeared above her eye. Blood spewed from the wound like water from a broken faucet. The manager fell forward, grabbed at the counter, and fell to the floor. Ronnie grabbed Jenny by the arm and pulled her up to her feet.

“Keep an eye on them!” Ronnie barked.

Quan nodded his head vigorously. Ronnie dragged Jenny into the back room.

Once they were through the door that said EMPLOYEES ONLY, Ronnie pulled Jenny close.

“Did you deactivate the alarm?” he asked.

“I couldn’t. Lou Ellen was here when I got here. She was supposed to be off, but she traded with Lisa.”

“Fuck. Does the alarm run through the safe?” Ronnie asked.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” Jenny said.

Ronnie almost hit a woman for the second time in his life. “Just open the damn thing,” he said. Jenny wrenched her arm free and navigated her way through three wide metal worktables and past a large metal desk. She stopped at a large gunmetal gray safe nearly as tall as Ronnie. She punched a few buttons on a keypad on the front of the safe. A green light started flashing on an LED screen on the door. Jenny pulled on the handle.

Nothing happened.

“Try it again!” Ronnie hissed. Jenny punched in the combination again. The green light flashed. She pulled the handle.

Nothing.

“Get out the way,” Ronnie said. He pulled on the handle. At first it didn’t seem like it was moving. He pulled harder. The door started to open, painfully slow. It was heavy as hell. He put his gun in the pocket of his coveralls, dropped his plastic bag and used both hands to open the door. Inside the safe were six shelves lined in black fabric. On the first shelf were three bundles of cash. Ronnie picked up his bag and threw all three bundles into the former grocery sack. He didn’t know the money was going to be in the safe, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. On the next three shelves were ledgers, files and random papers. On the sixth shelf was a nondescript brown box the size of a pencil box. He grabbed it and ripped open the stiff cardboard lid. It flew up and Ronnie was greeted by the prettiest sight his eyes had ever had the pleasure of viewing. The box was full of uncut diamonds. Each one was as big as a good-sized raisin.

“Hello, ladies,” Ronnie said. He snapped the lid back down and shoved the box in his bag. “Come on, you gotta lay down beside Indigo Girl out there.” He grabbed Jenny by the arm and headed back out to the sales floor. His heart was a hornet in his chest. He tried to will it to calm down, but it was futile. That was alright, the job was almost done. He had done it. He had seen the opportunity and he had grabbed it. Like the King said, ambition was just a dream with a V8 engine. He was gonna ride that V8 all the way to a place with sand by the ton and water so clear you could see a mermaid coming up to give you a kiss.



* * *



Ronnie knew something was wrong as soon as he opened the door, but he didn’t know what it was until he saw the dyke’s reflection in the polarized glass in the door of the shop. She had a handheld howitzer pointed at Quan from the other side of the office door.

Ronnie reached into his right pocket and gripped his gun. He fired through his pocket into the door. Lou Ellen fired her gun as she lost her balance. As she fell she let out a jagged wail. While she was falling she continued to pull the trigger on her gun.