chapter 73
LEVI AND MOON Pie had spent all afternoon drinking Old Charter and trying to determine who had stolen the money. Each theory sounded more preposterous than the previous one. Only one scenario made sense to them, sober or drunk: the Tennessee Mexicans had stolen the money. They could not, however, agree on what could have been their motive. The Copenhagen lid was the deciding factor in settling on the Mexicans. They brilliantly determined that the gold M stood for Mexico.
At around noon, Tam had called Moon Pie, asking to borrow his FJ Cruiser for his trip home. Tam would leave his Mercedes, as collateral, behind the Gold Mine. Tam promised to either wire Moon Pie money for a new vehicle or have someone return it. Moon Pie agreed and told him how to quickly get into Alabama and then a southern route to avoid any roadblocks. Tam was highly agitated and concerned about Moon Pie’s money, but he was more anxious about maintaining his freedom. He promised to contact Moon Pie later.
On the ride home from the bomb plant, Moon Pie had carefully cut off the ankle monitor. When they stopped at a convenience store in Aberdeen, Mississippi, Moon Pie—being the sorry-ass white trash that he was—hid the monitor under the front seat of a bright-purple 1986 Cadillac Deville with gold twenty-twos. That was the only time he smiled all day.
By dark, Moon Pie began to sober up and take the imminent threat and his options seriously. He stumbled through his trailer and found seven thousand dollars in cash that he had hidden, while Levi texted his latest girlfriend.
“How much cash you got?” Moon Pie asked Levi.
“I dunno—couple grand, easy.”
“We need to talk about making a run for it.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Dude, these Mexican sumbitches ain’t gonna play. That was a lot of money.”
“What are you thinkin’?”
“I’m thinking about running up into either northern Missouri or Iowa. I can make some money killing big deer this time of year. You wanna go?”
“You know I hate cold weather,” Levi said.
“How can you be my brother?”
“Half brother, and the half my momma gave me don’t enjoy freezing my nuts off. Could I stay here and run the Mine?”
“They’re gonna want blood—especially after I skip town. That’ll be the first place they come lookin’. I’ll give you some money if you wanna go south for six months and find you somethin’ to do. You can take the houseboat.”
Levi nodded at the thought of floating down the river and docking near Mobile.
“We gotta do something. I expect they knew the minute that ankle monitor got cut. Those things got sensors.”
“You could tell the cops that we were robbed. You ain’t gotta tell them how much they took. They might catch somebody that we could toss to the Mexicans.”
“I can’t. Not everything at the Gold Mine is legit. Look, I’m gonna load up my stuff, clean out the store, and I’ll be gone before it gets dark tomorrow. I don’t mind running. I made a small fortune last time on that gun-range scheme. We’ll stay in touch on Facebook; just don’t say where you’re at. We also got these prepaid cells.”
Levi looked around the trailer. He really didn’t want to leave.
Moon Pie looked closely at Levi. “Look, bro, it’s all rented, this trailer and the store, so we aren’t really attached to anything. That’s a good lesson for you to remember.”
“All right. I’m goin’ south. You think there’s still any oil-spill work left down there?”
“I doubt it, but you can always claim that you’re a sea turtle researcher or some shit like that, make up a fat résumé, and you’ll probably get rich.”
“I like those big old live-oak trees that grow near the coast.”
“Listen to me, tree nerd, we have a couple of days to get organized and then we gotta get lost. You understand?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Look, here’s two grand. That gives you four and the houseboat to get started. I got five. After things cool down, we’ll hook back up.”
They hadn’t been honest with each other. They both had more cash hidden.