Raven's View

The Helpful Partner

"Hon, I never should have let you drive." The handcuffs rattled as he stretched his hand toward her.

"No touching," said the guard.  

Steve loved her dearly, but Shirley never had been great under pressure. And apparently, especially when driving a get-away car. 

"Sweetie, I'm so, so sorry," she said. "I told you, it was those new shoes. Gucci’s, the guy said, and they are beautiful. But my feet were killing me as we waited outside the bank. So I slipped the shoes off and one got caught under the brake pedal."

And she’d panicked and smashed right into the side of the cop car. Trashed it good, even setting off its air bags. Now, here he was, locked up.

"You just got flustered, hon. It's okay. It was an easy bust for them, though. And at least it shook up that fat cop long enough for us to switch seats."

"That was really sweet of you," she said. "I would have been a sessory to the robbery, and my insurance would have gone up again too."

"Accessory," he said. "Whatever. But we didn't even get inside."

"Exactly," she said. "So why are you in jail?"

"I think they were initially trying for attempted robbery. Which would mean, with my record, quite a few years."

"Maybe you can do some deal," she said. "Just say we were waiting for a friend."

"Well, they seized your phone and claim there were some text messages between you and your ex Tony. About us waiting outside until he showed up, then going in together. The cops are assuming it wasn't just to open a savings account."

"Hey, those are private," she said. "Can they do that?"

"They can and they did. That's why Tony gave you that encrypted phone to use instead."

"That ugly thing? No way. Anyway, I used lots of code words, said we were meeting to take out a big loan together."

Steve sighed. "No matter. I talked to my lawyer, and he thinks they are probably going to reduce the charges."

Shirley beamed. "That's great. I’ve some good news too, besides my new nails. Like them?" She held up a hand. "Anyway, I've got a room here in town now, so I can visit you a lot. Maybe even do some of those concubal visits. I asked Tony to help pay but at first he wouldn't even  return my calls."

"Well, Shirl, he’s just hoping to stay out of this. I can't blame him, as with his record he could go back in for quite a while."

"No problemo, I fixed it. I finally got him to pay attention to me."

"Two more minutes," said the guard.

Shirley glanced over at him, then leaned forward, lowering her voice. "He changed his tune when I reminded him he owed us."

Steve sat up.  "Just what did you say?"

"Well, I caught up with him and the guys down at Frankie’s, that new burger place. I told him we knew things, but he was going have to keep us happy to keep us quiet."

Steve yelled, "You--" He glanced at the guard and lowered his voice. "You threatened Tony? In front of the guys?"

"Not really a threat," she said. "But he sure paid attention. No matter, you said it sounded like they might even reduce the charges, so it’s one of those win-win things."

Steve slumped back. What had she done? "But now if they do reduce the charges, Tony will think we squealed on him, so we could cut some kind of deal."

"Well, I’ll just tell him we didn’t. No worries. It’s a piece of pie."

Steve wondered if his lawyer could persuade the DA to not drop the charges. It certainly seemed like he was now in a lose-lose, not a win-win.

"Time," said the guard.

Shirley pouted, then stood up.

"Don’t worry sweetie, I’ve got our back on this. Tony even said he knew some guy in here, a friend of his. He was going to ask him to make sure you were happy."

"Friend?"

"Yeah, he said you might know him, Enrico."

Enrico the Enforcer. Yes, he knew him.

Shirley blew him a kiss. "Gotta run sweetie. Tony's taking me for lunch somewhere. Says it will be a surprise."