SCARAB

       I was shaving at my desk when Helen stuck her head in the door.  ‘Miss Early’s here to see you.’

           ‘Who?’

           ‘Stella Early.’

           ‘Give me a minute.’  I put all my shaving accoutrements in my desk drawer and wiped my face with a washcloth.

 

            She walks in and lights up a cigarette.

 

            ‘Spill it, baby doll.’

            ‘I didn’t tell you at first that I was Bruno’s girl because I was afraid you wouldn’t take the job.  I remembered that there’s a charity ball at the governor’s mansion tonight, see, and we’re going.  The thing is, the Prego brothers will be at the warehouse.’

            ‘Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.  I’ll handle it.’

            ‘I was hoping you’d take me out for a drink sometime,’ she said, walking to the desk to put the cigarette out on the ashtray.  She brushed up against me and never took her eyes off me.  I can’t say that I wasn’t turned on by this. Then she planted one right on my lips.

            ‘Sure, baby, we could go out for a drink sometime.’ I replied.

 

 

            I had Helen rig up a couple of explosives.  Nothing big.  Just enough to scare them off.  Then me and Helen could go in.  We snuck up at the back of the building.  She threw one on the side of the warehouse to cause a distraction. The Pregos ran over to see what happened.  Then we came around on the other side of the building and let ourselves in.  The door to Bragiole’s office was locked.  Helen took out her lock picking tools and opened it in less than ten seconds.  She went straight to the safe and worked her magic.  In a few minutes, the safe opened, and there it was.  The ruby scarab.  I had it in my hand when the lights came on.  It was Louie pointing a gun at us.  ‘Just hand it over, nice and easy, or I swear I will shoot you both.’

 

            ‘There’s no need to get excited, Louie.  Why don’t you put the gun down so we could talk about this.’  I said.

            ‘That brooch was stolen and there’s a fifty thousand dollar reward for it.  It belongs to some billionaire sultan.  That broad ain’t taking fifty grand out of my pocket.’

            Louie cocked the gun and had his finger on the trigger, ready to fire.  Then there was a loud shot and he crumpled to the floor.  It was Stella, standing over the body, holding a .22.

 

            ‘Come on,’ she said as she led us out the back door.  The goons saw us running and started chasing us and shooting at us.  Helen threw an explosive that landed right in front of them.  We all jumped in my car and headed back to my office.

 

            ‘Is that true what he said?  Is that thing stolen?’

            ‘All I know is that one of the Sultan of Brunei’s wives had stolen the brooch and smuggled it into the country by way of ship.  It’s worth two million dollars.  The rubies were dug up on an excavation in Ethiopia.  She is staying with some relatives in Brooklyn.  One of the relatives took it from her and it ended up in the hands of Bruno in a poker game.  The reason I know about this is because I heard two ladies talking about it at The Cotton Club.  The one lady is the girl’s aunt.  It was the girl who put out the reward for fifty grand around Brooklyn.  I don’t know how Louie found out.  I don’t think Bruno knows anything about it.  He just thinks it’s worth a couple grand.  But for that, he would kill me, if he finds out I took it.’

 

            ‘Bragiole will immediately know it’s you.  Where are you going to go?’

            ‘I was planning on going to Maine and I was hoping you’d take me there.’ she said.  ‘I’ll share the reward with you.  We just have to return the brooch and collect the money tonight.  I responded to the reward notice and they want us to meet them at the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade at midnight.  Then we can run away together.  Maybe we could go to Mexico instead.’

 

            I had to digest what she was saying.  I knew when I first saw her she was trouble.  Anybody who crossed Bragiole ended up floating on the East River.  Stella had just killed one of his men.  We would have to get out of here tonight.  Luckily, he didn’t know about the brooch’s origins.  He might not even notice it was missing because we locked the safe.  He’ll just know that Louie’s dead and that we were involved because the goons got a good look at us.  We agreed that Helen would go back to Wilkes-Barre where her mother lived.  And I decided to run away with Stella.  Fifty grand would go a long way in Mexico.  There is something about this dame that drives me crazy.  How could I say no to her?