“Well, here’s the deal. I deliver to that place every day, and I got friendly with that old bald dude, Jack, who hauls the stuff around for the two old farts who own the place. He says they do a lot, I mean a lot, of business in cash, and that they take it home to their house in Chagrin Falls, and have it stashed there in a safe.”

Tony started to get interested. “Okay, that sounds good, but how are we going to actually get it out of the safe, if we don’t know the combination?”

Bags was ready with the answer he knew would impress the guys. “That’s the best part. This guy Jack says he knows the combination, and he’ll give it to us if we cut him in. He won’t help do the break-in, but he’ll give us the combination. Better yet, he says they’re going down to Florida for a few months in January, and if we give him a thousand bucks up-front, he’ll make a copy of the key and tell us the code to the alarm system!” Bags had really done his homework, covering all the bases.

Tony and Danny couldn’t believe their good fortune. This was going to be like taking candy from a baby. It felt just like the good old days, when the Turner brothers would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and score a touchdown in the final seconds of the game, striding off the field like the gladiators they were meant to be.

Danny, Tony, and Bags managed to scrape together the thousand bucks, and met with Jack the day after Christmas behind the bandstand with the cupola at the park in the center of town. Snow was falling, which was something the folks in Chesterland took for granted this time of year. “Lake effect,” they’d say knowingly to one another.

Jack handed over the key as well as the combinations to the safe and the alarm system. He told them the safe was bolted to the floor in the upstairs bedroom. He also made it clear that he knew for a fact there was at least $50,000 in it, so he expected his take would be a minimum of $12,500 and not a penny less. Of course Tony and his buddies had intended to beat Jack out of his share.

Tony stared right into Jack’s eyes, giving him his most sincere look. “You don’t think we’d cheat ya, do you?”