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Back Just Thieves Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. 1
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 2
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 3
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. 29
  37. 30
  38. 31
  39. 32
  40. 33
  41. 34
  42. ACCOMPLICES AND EASY MARKS

Frank’s a thinker, by nature and by choice. He can sit and think through about anything, taking it apart and putting it back together in his mind until he’s got it all figured out. It has helped us get at stuff no one thought we could. He could pull off one of those heists you see in the movies, complicated jobs that require all sorts of knowledge and planning and perfect timing and only work in the movies. I’m sure he could do it. He doesn’t want to. Leave it alone, he says. “If it’s that much effort, it’s too much trouble.” Frank could sit at home and steal stuff from all over the world if he wanted. He can figure out most hacks. I’ve seen him break into banks and corporations and government sites. He did it just to see how it was done, but it doesn’t interest us, not as an occupation. We like the small stuff, get into a house, an office, someplace you walk into and out of, not running your fingers over a bunch of keys. Where’s the fun in that? Frank would rather do the jobs we do, grab and go. He doesn’t want much, and he doesn’t need much. We get by all right and he never complains. I get the work and we do it and that’s all there is to it.

—

I loved him, I suppose. He drove me crazy enough. We’d been partners for a while, knew how to work together. That was the important thing. I didn’t have any secrets with him. Well, fewer than most.

2

THE HOTEL

WE LEFT THE DINER AND WENT BACK TO THE HOTEL. The horse was gone and people went along the street as if it had never been there, as if none of it had happened. We began to think it hadn’t.

“What happened to the horse?” I said to the woman behind the counter in the lobby.

She was the same woman who was working when we’d left, but she acted as if she’d never seen us before, and didn’t know what we were talking about. “Horse?”

“There was a horse outside in the street this morning.”

“A horse?”

The phone rang and she answered it. Frank and I went to the elevator. “She thinks we’re crazy and we think she’s crazy,” Frank said. “All from one word.”

“Horse?” I said, with a good imitation of her tone and uptalk at the end of the syllable. At least it got Frank to laugh for a moment, but then he went back to thinking. The way he does.