chapter 67
AFTER ABOUT FOUR hours of being counted and recounted on Sunday morning, all of the money was stacked neatly on Lucille’s kitchen table. They had chosen her place because no matter how small the risk, they didn’t want to be at Walter’s if the police happened to drop by to question him about Kroger, and the policeman last night had seen only three old guys. Lucille was totally off the radar.
There had been exactly $900,000 in the large black bag, and the boot boxes held a total of $332,876. With bleary eyes from little to no sleep the night before and the tedium of counting tens of thousands of bills multiple times, Walter and crew stared at the stacks of cash. It was more than any of them had ever seen or imagined they would ever see. Bailey, in her own world, quietly sat on her grandmother’s couch, intently listening and watching.
Walter announced with satisfaction, “Okay, kids, it’s official: one million, two hundred thirty-two thousand, eight hundred and seventy-six dollars!”
“I never thought I’d ever see a million dollars,” Bernard said in amazement.
“Everybody wash your hands. That money’s nasty,” Lucille said, prompting everyone to look at their hands.
Bernard’s hands looked like he had just changed a flat tire. “Now I know what they’re talking about on TV when they saylaunderin’ money.”
Walter shook his head and looked at Bernard. “What?”
“The reason for laundering money. I know why now. ’Cause it’s dirty.”
Walter couldn’t stand it. “Bernard, they’re referring to unaccounted money, like drug money, and the need to run it through a legitimate business, thereby making it clean so it can be deposited into a bank and used for whatever they want after that. Since the dirty money is now clean, it’s considered to have been laundered.”
“That’s what I mean; they’re cleaning it.”
“Bernard, it’s a turn of phrase. It’s not literal.” Walter shook his head and then threw his hands up. Frustrated, he looked at Sebastian and Lucille for help.
“I wonder if they put it in a washing machine,” he said as he washed his hands.
“Probably,” Sebastian said sarcastically.
After all had washed their hands and gotten something to drink, they stared like zombies at the stacks of money, as if it were magical. Just a few days ago none of them had had any extra cash, and they had slept like babies. Now they had serious cash, and not one of them had slept last night. They were so nervous they doubted they ever would again.
“Wadda we do now?” Lucille asked.
“Maybe we need to hire a security guard.”
“We can’t keep this in our litter boxes,” Sebastian reminded them.
“Where do you suggest we keep it?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking maybe a climate-controlled storage unit,” Walter said.
“Who’ll keep the key?” Lucille asked quickly.
Walter looked at everyone slowly and noticed their eyes flashing with distrust for each other. He realized that he too was having the same feelings toward them. Overnight this amount of money had changed the dynamics of their group.
“Okay, let’s all calm down and talk this through. What do you guys think we should do?” he asked.
“We should put it in the bank, in a safety-deposit box,” Sebastian said.
“Again, who gets the key?” Lucille quickly asked. “And I think it’s too much to put in a safety-deposit box. They say you can’t put cash in ’em, although I don’t know how they would know.”
“We could divide it four ways, and each person guards a fourth,” Bernard added.
Bailey had a calculator on her phone and quickly did the math. “That’s $308,219 each.”
“Is that what you guys want to do?” Walter asked, but nobody responded. “What’s happened to us? We’re acting like we don’t even trust each other anymore.” He continued, “Sebastian, do you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you.”
“It’s me he doesn’t trust,” Lucille said.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Okay, stop it.” Walter sighed and stared at the cash. “We started off wanting to do good. Help people. Start something positive. We can’t let a windfall like this turn us against each other.”
“Walter, the good we can actually do is only a drop in a bucket compared to the needs. We can’t help that many people. There are just too many in need.” Lucille sighed and then hung her head.
“So what are you saying?”
“Maybe we should split it…pay back Kroger so you don’t get in trouble and just split the rest. Each of us could do our own thing.”
“Yeah, we definitely don’t want to get you in trouble,” Bernard added quickly.
They alternated between looking at each other, their hands, and the money. They had known each other for only a few years, but during that time, they had learned each one’s true self. They knew each other’s fears, weaknesses, strengths, and talents. They knew each other’s idiosyncrasies. They knew each other’s values. They knew about sons and daughters who didn’t visit. They knew who couldn’t afford to eat at restaurants. But most importantly, they knew that each of their hearts was filled with compassion and a desire to help others. That was the principal reason they had chosen each other as friends. Prior to this million-dollar acquisition, these were people who made the right decisions and cared about doing the right things. After a long while, they each began to come to terms with their departure from their core value system, and the resulting shame.
Sebastian broke the silence. “Look, I really don’t care anymore. I just want Bailey to get away from that monster.”
Lucille’s eyes began to tear. Bailey smiled at him. “Thank you, Sebastian. And I want you to go to the best oncologist there is, wherever you need to go to get the best treatment.”
Bernard tossed his hand towel into the sink. “I’ll do whatever y’all wanna do. All I ever wanted outta this deal was to fund a scholarship in my daddy’s name at my high school.”
This was the first time that Bernard had spoken about his desires, so everyone listened intently. When he noticed, he continued, “I was the youngest of five brothers and sisters, and my momma died givin’ birth to me. My daddy, he never remarried. He’d only made it through the eighth grade. He worked two jobs so we all could go to college if we wanted. We all did. He put all five of us through college. The only time he ever saw a college was when he came to watch us graduate. He never took a vacation or a day off. He worked at the lumber mill and a dry cleaners, and he took care of us at home. The man worked seven days a week. Christmas Day was the only day he ever got off work, and that was because both the mill and the cleaners were closed at the same time.”
“You must really be proud of your dad,” Walter said.
Bernard covered his face. A tear fell to the floor through his fingers. The group looked at each other, confused. They had never seen him like this. Walter and Sebastian both put their hands on his shoulders in an effort to comfort him.
“What’s wrong, big guy? Tell us.”
“By the time I graduated from college, my daddy was all broken down from working so much. He was just pretty much worn down and give out. After graduation, there was this big shindig. All my class had their families there, and everybody was dressed up. It was all real fancy and everything. At that stage of my life, money, or the appearance of money, was way too important. I was ashamed of my dad, and I didn’t invite him to the party. I’ve always regretted that. I can’t believe I did that. He died a few days later…it was almost like he worked to get us all educated and out into the world better off than he was, and once he accomplished that, he was finished. He just collapsed.”
Bernard took a deep breath. The guys nodded, heads down. Lucille blotted her eyes with a napkin. Bailey cried too.
After a long moment of silence, Lucille said, “It sounds to me like your dad really accomplished a great deal. He must have been a really fine man.”
“He was. He really was, and all he cared about was us kids gettin’ an education. That’s why I…I’ve always wanted to do a scholarship at my high school for a student that otherwise might not be able to afford to go to college and name it the Willie Washington Jefferson Memorial Scholarship.”
Walter looked at everyone and saw the nods of agreement. “Bernard, consider it done. Only let’s do two. We’ll do two annually—one in your daddy’s name and one in your name.”
Bernard looked around at the nodding heads and said, “Are y’all serious?”
“Absolutely!” exclaimed Sebastian.
“We’ll get Samantha on it tomorrow. She’ll know how to set it up. Where did you go to high school?”
“Macon, Mississippi.”
“Well, two young ’uns in Macon, Mississippi, don’t know it yet, but their road to a higher education just got a lot easier.”
Bernard smiled, and the members of the group felt better about themselves.
“Thank y’all so much. This means the world to me.”
Sebastian poured himself another cup of coffee and then looked at Walter. “What about you, Walter? Besides wantin’ to keep the Prairie Home Companion radio show on the air, wadda you wanna do? I haven’t ever heard you say specifically.”
Walter swallowed hard as he held up his cup, indicating that he needed more coffee. He thought about what to say. He knew he hadn’t been perfectly honest with them, and his true motivation had been buried—completely hidden. “My wife and I had a daughter. She was our life. We adored her. She married this guy right out of college, and looking back now, we weren’t crazy about him, but she loved him and her happiness was all that really mattered. They lived nearby and came over a coupla times a week, and we were close. She taught kindergarten. He was computer nerd and worked for a software company that designed games, and he didn’t make squat but got stock options. After about two years of us havin’ to feed ’em twice a week and slipping her money to help make ends meet, the company he worked for went public, and shit, suddenly he’s rich.”
The group was hanging on Walter’s every word.
“That’s when things started gettin’ weird. They bought a big house on the other side of town and started havin’ lots of excuses why they couldn’t come and see us. She wanted to have a kid and he didn’t, and that got ugly. Then he didn’t want her comin’ to see us. She wanted to start a family, put down roots, and he was suddenly interested in nothing but being around other people that had lots of money. He was designin’ these really violent video games, and I think it started having an effect on him.
“Anyway, the company’s stock went sky-high, and he was selling it every chance he got. He quit working and started day trading and I think probably doin’ drugs too. He also made my daughter quit working, but he got so that he wouldn’t let her outta the house. She became like a slave to him. When we tried to go over, he’d just lock us out. He cut us out of their lives. We could tell she was miserable. She’d slip away and call us, but we really couldn’t do anything. I talked to the police, and there just wasn’t anything we could do. They even advised that we stay out of it. Their house had a huge fence and was gated, so we couldn’t just show up and see her. It was killing us. We knew something was wrong.
“After a while, when we’d see her, she wouldn’t take off her sunglasses. We didn’t know how bad things actually were. Then one night, my wife got a call from a friend of hers that’s a nurse, saying that our daughter was in the ER. She’d been beaten up bad—I mean really bad—and was in a coma. She stayed that way for about four weeks, and the bastard never once came to see her. His parents came to the hospital, and when he found out, he threatened them. They were scared to death of him. My little girl died from that beating. My wife and I were both there when she passed. You should never have to watch your kid die. That’s as tough as it gets.”
“Oh my God! That’s so sad,” Lucille said as she rubbed her arms and looked at Bailey, who was crying.
“Is he still alive?” Sebastian asked.
“Hang on, Sebastian, let me finish. So I went to his house with a baseball bat and climbed the gate, and I busted out a door with windows, but before I could find him, the police arrived and I got into all kinds of trouble. Restraining orders and you name it, court-ordered counseling. I couldn’t get within five hundred feet of him or I’d go to jail. Hell, I had a wife to take care of, and believe me, she was a mess by now.”
“What about him? Was he arrested?” Bernard asked.
“Yes, the police were all over him, and he confessed to the beating. He said she refused to have sex with him and she got what she deserved. But at the trial, because of some damn legal technicality, he got off scot-free. It was a nightmare. The judge knew he was guilty, but they couldn’t violate his civil rights. Both the judge and the prosecutor resigned. They said they couldn’t continue to enforce laws after such a travesty. So, he’s free as you and me today.
“The police begged me not to do anything. They were worried that I’d do something crazy, and believe me, I wanted to. Irene had a nervous breakdown, so I had to take care of her. I had to focus all of my hate and desire for revenge into love and compassion for my wife. We went through all of our savings pretty quick, and our quality of life tanked. That son of a bitch now lives down in Tampa, Florida. I keep up with him as best I can, and I’ve been biding my time. One day, soon, I’m gonna kill him. That’s the real reason why I wanted the money. I wanted to make sure I could kill him, have a solid alibi, and get away with it.”
Silence once again filled the room. Coffees had gone cold. Everyone was wide-eyed. Walter bared the palms of his hands as if to say, “That’s my story.”
“I’ll help you do it,” Sebastian said with complete sincerity. “It would be my absolute pleasure.”
“That’s how come you know so much about spousal abuse,” Lucille stated with an understanding nod. “Is that where you were headin’ when your wife died?”
“Not exactly, but we were getting closer. It’s a long way from Minnesota to Florida. But Fairhope, Alabama, is within a day’s drive of the Tampa suburb where he lives.”
Lucille studied Walter’s face. “You’ve been holding a lot of hurt in your heart.”
“Yes, I suppose. I guess I have, and a lot of anger too.”
“I like your plan. I like how you’ve been patient and lulled him into feelin’ like he got away with it,” Sebastian said.
“It ain’t been easy. You don’t know how many times I wanted to just go down there and just shoot him between the eyes. I’ve talked to several preachers and I’ve read all about revenge in the Bible, and I get it. God will deal with him. But I just feel like I need my pound of flesh. An eye for an eye. My blood revenge. I’d also like to help others in similar situations. It happens—these technicalities get these freaks off, and there they go, back into society. They move off, start fresh, and reinvent themselves, and they are almost always worse the next time around. They don’t stop. I’ve studied it.”
Lucille said, “Look, we got each other. We gotta trust each other. We’ve committed crimes here—crimes that could put us all in prison. I don’t think we really did it to benefit ourselves as much as to somehow help others. I guess I’m tryin’ to justify it, and there really ain’t any justifyin’. What we done is wrong, plain wrong, and we gotta deal with that in our own way. Let’s take a few days and get our thoughts together, get some rest, and we’ll decide what we’re gonna do.”
Everyone nodded agreement. They all seemed closer to one another now as bonds formed through fire.
“I suggest we go get some luggage with wheels and pack it all full of money, and we’ll just store it here in Lucille’s apartment. She has the biggest one. The Kroger tapes have us three guys on them, and they could wanna talk to us and look around. I think it’s the safest thing to leave it all here,” Walter suggested.
“That makes sense. I can live with that.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Lucille said.
Bailey sat on the bed with tears in her eyes. She had more love and admiration for these men than ever before. She wished she had known her dad and that he had loved her like Walter loved his daughter. Her heart ached when she thought of the pain he was enduring.
The old guys stood and stretched. They had much good to do and so many reasons to look forward to tomorrow.
“Let’s take a nap and then go eat lunch at the Ritz,” Walter suggested, and everybody cheered.
“Hey, Walter. How ’bout we invite everybody from the Henry Clay? Surprise ’em!” Bernard said excitedly.
Walter looked at him and shook his head. He knew that the new money was already burning a hole in his pocket.