Shell Game – Chapter 39 – The Patsy

Evan stepped further into the room, his arm still around Claire’s shoulder. “Well, come in. Don’t mind me,” he said, his eyes bouncing off his three unexpected guests. “Take a load off. Mi casa es tu casa.”

“I can tell that this serves as an adequate dwelling, Mr. Gold,” Eye Patch purred, “but home is not the word I would choose.” Again, he motioned for Evan to take a seat. Evan released his hold on Claire and walked toward a chair.

Margo stood in his way and made a clumsy attempt to frisk Evan for a weapon. That decision brought Evan’s elbow up under her chin, clacking her teeth together and causing her to stumble back two steps. She dropped her gun in the process. Margo felt her jaw to make sure everything still worked before locking her eyes on Evan, “Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this.”

Evan noted that Margo looked like a rabid animal, but he remained relaxed. “What is wrong with you? I’m stronger and faster than you. Give it up.”

Margo charged at Evan, but he sidestepped her attack and hooked his foot around her ankle, dropping her to the floor. He addressed Eye Patch while not taking his eyes off Margo, “Are you going to reign in your attack dog?”

Eye Patch viewed Margo’s frame as she gathered herself back up. “Drop it, Margo. Your time will come. Word on the street is Mr. Gold never carries a weapon anyway.” He turned to Evan, “Isn’t that right, Mr. Gold?”

“I carry when it seems appropriate,” he said and sat down. Evan eyed Claire, who acted shocked at the whole interchange. Harold Huber sat across from Evan and placed his gun on the side table between himself and Eye Patch. “I assume it’s you I have to thank for the bit of entertainment you provided earlier,” Evan said with wariness. He was still unsure what the play was now. He’d expected the police, not the criminals, to be hunting him down.

The space between Eye Patch’s eyebrows knitted together. “Entertainment?”

“Yes, I agree entertainment makes it sound fun, which it wasn’t.” He looked around the room again. “You didn’t put Miss Porter here up to calling me, faking distress, so that I might get picked up by the police at her apartment for something that certainly looked scandalous? You had me thinking she might be in real danger.”

“What convinced you she wasn’t?” the man dressed in black asked.

“For one, Miss Porter’s cat-like skill of landing on her feet. Another was the convenient timing of the police dragnet.”
Eye Patch hummed to himself, “Yes, well, I’m sure you can understand why a person might want to use some methods of distraction.” The faintest smile appeared on his face.

“I’m not sure what that means,” Evan said.

“The ‘entertainment,’ as you call it, served its purpose quite nicely, quite nicely indeed.”

Evan looked around the room a third time, still not getting a good read of anything, but decided to force himself into looking relaxed. He sat back in his chair and said, “It’s good that you found me when you did.”

“Why is that, exactly?”

“I had lost track of the lot of you, and I wanted to meet with you as soon as I had located the pearl,” Evan said and watched for their reactions. There was a slight increase in the air’s tension. Evan pressed further. “How I came across it is an interesting story. A dying train conductor delivered it.” All eyes went to Eye Patch, whose face did not seem to register a reaction to this news. “But you already know about him. You know, we should stop with all the murders. Athens is a quiet town. Peaceful. It’s in all the real estate brochures. I mean, three murders in one week. Let’s pace ourselves, huh?”

“I didn’t know you had located it?” Claire said and tried her best to smile while her eyes sought a means of escape. Eye Patch reached into his coat and produced a hand-made envelope. “What’s that?” Evan asked him.

The man in black opened the envelope and pulled out a stack of one-hundred-dollar bills. He then counted them out one at a time and laid them in a tidy row on the coffee table between Evan and himself. “That’s one thousand dollars.” He gathered up all the bills and tucked them back into the envelope, and handed it to Evan, “and every one of them is yours.”

Evan looked inside the envelope before tossing it back on the table. “I was told it would be a lot more than this.”
“That’s what I can get my hands on at the moment. One thousand dollars. And that’s true currency. No counterfeits. Take it or leave it.” The man in black picked up the envelope and waved it in front of Evan for him to take. “From my checking around, this should settle all of your debts quite easily. There’s only so much ready money one can carry easily. There’s no need to get greedy.”

Evan laughed one sarcastic explosion, “That’s cute. That’s real cute. The only problem is I have the pearl, and you don’t.”

“True enough, Mr. Gold, but please don’t miss the very significant point that I have you.”

“Yes, but you want to get out of this town like a ghost, right?” Evan smirked. “You don’t want to leave with guns blazing. If you want the pearl, you’re going to need to negotiate with me because I can keep the police off your back.”

The man in black smiled, “I can take care of the police.”

“You certainly have done a bang-up job so far.” Evan looked down at the envelope on the table and then back up to the stranger. “I don’t know about you, but having this money out in the open makes me a bit nervous.”

“Why don’t you put it in your pocket?” The man in black asked. “After all, the money is yours.”

“I’m not so sure,” Evan said. He picked up the envelope and handed it to Claire. “Here. You keep track of it.”

Claire took the envelope like a timid child, “Me take it?”

“Yes. You’re the closest thing we have to a neutral party in this whole mess.” Evan said. Claire tucked the envelope in the pocket of her jacket, and Evan folded his hands across his middle. “Now,” Evan leaned back in his chair, “the way I see it, you can have the pearl back and have the police forget you ever existed for the low price of one patsy.”

“One what?”

“Patsy. Some helpless fool to hang all the murders on. Someone to take the rap for all of your misdeeds.”

Eye Patch purred briefly before saying, “I don’t think I like this patsy idea. It sounds complicated. I think you’re clever enough to handle the police without all of that.”

“I think you overestimate me,” Evan grinned.

“I don’t know,” Eye Patch replied, “you’ve been able to get yourself out of several tight situations so far.”

“The police are just biding their time. This goes on long enough, someone’s going make a mistake, and then they strike.

Three murders in one week? Things are greeting sloppy and hard to contain. They’re going to get very aggressive very soon. We control it and offer up someone to them, they’ll be off our backs, and you can be on your merry way. Plus, in case you hadn’t factored this into your plans, the person the police are eager to pin all this on is yours truly, so my word to them ain’t worth a plug nickel. Which means for you, if I get sent to Leavenworth, you can kiss your precious pearl goodbye.”

Eye Patch dismissed this argument with a wave of his gloved hand. “I have every confidence in your verbal skills, Mr. Gold. You, too, tend to land on your feet.”

“Fine. In that case, listen to me. Your time of fun and games is at an end. They’re closing in. Give them someone reasonable, and they’ll vanish.”

“Won’t they just see this patsy, as you call him, as another clue instead of a conclusion?”

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing,” Evan leaned forward. “The police are not dumb. They’re very good at their jobs. They know a phony from the real deal. That stunt you pulled at Claire’s apartment today is going to drive them into a frenzy. You need a patsy. It can’t be me for reasons I’ve already told you.”

The inky stranger rubbed his chin and exhaled. “Do you have a suggestion for this patsy?”

Evan looked around the room and noticed that everyone’s courage had weakened. It meant he had a chance to get out of this in one piece. After several moments of quiet thought, Evan pointed at Margo. “She could work nicely.”

Margo stepped forward and said, “Look me in the eye and say that.”

Eye Patch held up a hand to stay Margo and laughed, “I’m afraid that’s unacceptable, Mr. Gold.”

“She’s our best bet.”

“Fine, but what keeps her from telling the police everything she knows, and then we’re in the same situation?”

“I know some folks in the Big House could silence her before she had a chance to squawk,” Evan said as if it was a minor issue, “but it shouldn’t have to come to that.”

At this, Eye Patch let out a grunt, “There is coldness lurking in you, Mr. Gold.” He sifted his weight, “How would this work exactly?”

The whites of Margo’s eyes grew more visible, and the color started to drain from her face as she turned to her boss.
“I don’t have time to spell out the play-by-play,” Evan said, “Too many variables.”

“Still,” Eye Patch said, “she is under my command for the moment. Humor me.”

Evan sighed. “When push comes to shove, the DA would rather have an imperfect case tossed out than have a conviction reversed in the future. The way to play this is to offer up one patsy instead of five. What does that mean? It means we can shore up one story and make it as plausible as it can be. We do that for all of us, something’s going to crack, and then a real investigation starts up. I know everyone here has things they want to keep from the police investigators. If you think I can thread this needle, then take my advice. I can help the DA reach the conclusion he wants, and you get to go free.”

“But I don’t see how all of the murders can rest on Margo’s shoulders.”

“Don’t worry about that. The DA already has a theory that one of Jimmy Carrollo’s men killed Charles. What the DA wants is the big one, the one who killed Gabe Silver. He’s the local guy, the guy with the wife and kids we’re all going to see at the grocery store. We pin that one on your girl here, and the police won’t worry so much about the rest of it.”
The man with the silver eye patch started to hum to himself again. He took several long moments to consider Evan’s argument. “I see what you mean, Mr. Gold. I’m not in favor of it, but I’m starting to see the possibilities your plan would afford us.”

Margo stood next to Evan. He could feel the rage building in her. “Stand up like a man, and let’s see who survives.”
Evan laughed, “Seriously, you need to calm down. For once, start thinking with your head instead of your gun. You kill me, and where’s your precious pearl, huh? Where’s your payday?”

“Let’s all calm down for a moment,” Eye Patch said. “We’re only discussing theories at this point. An intellectual game of sorts.” He turned his attention back to Evan, “I think it best if we drop the patsy idea and move on to something else.”

Evan raised his eyebrows, “Okay, I’m sorry, I thought I was negotiating with the man in charge. Is that true, or should I start negotiating with Margo here?”

“No, no, no,” Eye Patch waved his hands in front of him, “I’m the one you need to address. It’s just going to take me a moment to get used to the idea.”

“Fine. You and Margo have a special relationship. I get it.” Evan swung around to point at Harold, “We could offer him up.”

At this, Harold straightened up, and his hand went for his pistol on the table. The black-gloved hand of his boss kept Harold from pointing the gun at Evan.

“Interesting,” Eye Patch said. “How would that work?”

“I’ll tell you, it’s not as pretty as Margo here, but it has its merits.”

“Why not offer you up,” Harold whined, “or her?” he hooked a thumb at Claire.

“Because I hold the pearl,” Gold said slowly. “No me, no pearl. Is this a hard concept for you to grasp? So, one of you needs to play the patsy. That’s part of the price of this deal. As for Claire,” he paused a moment, “I’m willing to discuss it. That is, if you think it will work.”

Now it was Claire’s turn for wide eyes and drained skin.

“I think this is getting a bit out of hand,” Eye Patch said. “Let’s all try to remain civil about this.”

“You can’t kill me because I, and only I, know where the pearl is. So, killing me is worthless, do you see?” Evan asked the room. “We can take that right off the table.”

“I’m sure there are more means of persuasion than just killing,” Eye Patch said.

“Yes,” Evan agreed, “but without the possibility of death, they probably don’t have teeth. Do you see my point?”

“Yes. I’m afraid I do,” Eye Patch mumbled.

“I think you might say I hold all the cards in this negotiation. If we don’t do this my way, I walk.”

Eye Patch cleared his throat and stood up. “This is all very interesting, Mr. Gold. If you don’t mind, I would like to talk about this privately with Mr. Huber and Miss Porter. Margo, keep an eye on our guest.”

Evan watched as the three of them huddled by the street-side window. Evan turned to Margo, who looked trapped in her thoughts, “You realize, don’t you, sweetheart, that they’re working out how to throw you over?”

Margo looked at Evan with disbelief, then the thoughts connected, and she grabbed up her gun off the table. She leveled it at Eye Patch’s back. Evan sprung to his feet, broke the weapon from her hand, and twisted her arm behind her back. She yelped in pain, which caught the attention of the other three. Margo writhed under Evan’s hold and voiced all sorts of threats against him. Harold darted over to help pin her down. They got her settled on the sofa near the window, and Evan placed a solid punch to her jaw to send her to dreamland. Margo’s fight left her, and she breathed easy.

Harold seized the opportunity to lay a punch on Evan, but it was blocked. Evan came back around with a fist to Harold’s middle, followed by a second to his jaw. Harold folded like a bedsheet and backed away from Evan.
Evan immediately began to search Margo’s clothes for other hidden weapons. When her arsenal was on the table, he looked at the room of thieves, pointed at Margo, and said, “Well, can we agree, she’s our patsy?”

Eye Patch’s shoulders drooped. “She’s been such a good soldier for me. It would be a shame for her to meet her end in such an inglorious fashion.”

“Oh, don’t let your heart get the better of you. That is, assuming you have a heart,” Evan said.

“No, no, you’re right,” Eye Patch said, “she’s our patsy.” He looked up to Evan and asked him, “What’s next?”