'That'll Be The Day' (Chapter 12)
Serialized Crime Fiction: A Power Pop Heist
CHAPTER 1 • CHAPTER 2 • CHAPTER 3 • CHAPTER 4 • CHAPTER 5 • CHAPTER 6 • CHAPTER 7 • CHAPTER 8 • CHAPTER 9 • CHAPTER 10 • CHAPTER 11 • CHAPTER 12 • CHAPTER 13 (THE END)
That’ll Be The Day: A Power Pop Heist
by S.W. Lauden
Chapter 12
The sun poked up over the horizon as they got back to Tulsa the next morning. A briefcase full of cash was on the floor between Jack’s feet. Jamie pulled off the highway and hung a right at the bottom of the ramp. Jack realized they were headed the wrong way. It was like Austin all over again.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“Need to drop something off.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“Should only take a couple of minutes.”
Jack thought about pulling his gun, but knew it was pointless. The band was back together whether he liked it or not. It was a small relief knowing it was too early for one of his brother’s surprise gigs.
Wherever they were headed, it made Jamie nervous. He tapped out a hurried rhythm on the steering wheel in time to Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me.” The pickup finally came to a stop outside an apartment building a few blocks from the University of Tulsa.
Jamie threw the truck into park as students ambled by on their way to morning classes. Others looked like they were on their way home from the previous night. He grabbed the briefcase of cash and went to pop the lid open.
Jack clutched his wrist. “What are you doing?”
“Taking my half of the cash.”
Jamie shook free, but Jack kept his hand on the briefcase.
“For what?”
“None of your business. Now let go.”
“No way you’re taking our cash out right here. People are all over the place.”
“Fine. I’ll take it all inside. You can stay here.”
Jamie grabbed the briefcase and opened his door with one fluid motion. He was moving down the street at a fast clip before Jack could react. Jack had no choice but to follow. He slammed his door shut to trot after his little brother.
“Wait up! Where are you going?”
Jamie kept walking without looking back. Jack caught up as his brother climbed the steps to the apartment lobby. They were moving too fast for Jack to check the names on the mailboxes. Lucky for him, Jamie stopped in front of the second door on the ground floor. Jack finally caught up right as Jamie started knocking.
“This better be good.”
“I told you to stay in the truck.”
“Not with you carrying my cash around. If you lose a single dollar, I swear to god I’ll snap your ne—”
The door creaked open a crack. Jack was shocked to see their little sister staring back at them. She saw Jamie first, greeting him with a big smile. Her expression hardened when she noticed Jack beside him.
“What’s he doing here?”
“We got your money. Let us in.”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“Come on, Jenna. No more secrets.”
She reluctantly opened the door to let them pass. Jamie walked in first, Jack right behind. Jenna shut the door, following them into the tiny living room. She wore loose-fitting pajama pants and an old Redd Kross tour T-shirt. Jack remembered taking her to see that show at an all-ages venue. He was worried the music might go over her twelve-year-old head, but she left that night with a new favorite band.
“I’d offer you coffee, but I ran out. I don’t get paid for another couple of days.”
“You won’t have to worry about buying coffee anymore.”
Jamie slammed the briefcase on the coffee table. Jack kept his distance, sizing Jenna up. He didn’t know what he expected exactly—a shaved head maybe?—but Jenna looked perfectly healthy. Her unruly mop of brown curls was the same as always, untamable as the woman beneath. It gave him a small glimmer of hope that she was in remission, or had beaten the cancer altogether.
Jamie popped the locks on the briefcase and the lid sprang open.
Jenna’s eyes almost shot out of her head. She looked Jack directly in the eyes for the first time. “What the hell did you two idiots do?”
He nodded to Jamie. “It’s his show.”
Jenna folded her arms tight. “Well? Where’d you get that cash from, Jamie? I don’t need the cops kicking down my door on top of everything else.”
“Take it easy, it’s all legit. We just signed a record deal.”
Jenna exploded. She might look like their mother, but she had their father’s temper. And she could throw a punch with the best of them.
“Do you think I’m stupid?! Get the hell out of here. Both of you.”
As Jack headed for the front door without a word, a man opened the bedroom door. He was way too old to be a roommate, and he definitely wasn’t a boyfriend, but he wore pajamas too. His bony shoulders poked up through his thermal shirt and his flannel pants sagged on his narrow hips. A stocking cap was pulled low on his gray head.
Jack’s knees turned to jelly as the reality dawned on him.
“What a nice surprise. All three of my children together again at last.”
Jenna put her arm around their father’s waist, gently guiding him back toward his bed.
Jamie took a step toward Jack. “I can explain.”
“You said Jenna had cancer!”
“No, I only said she had medical bills. Dad’s the one with cancer.”
“Dad?! Do you even hear yourself right now? We don’t have a dad.”
Jack gave his brother a hard shove. Jamie went backward over the coffee table, landing sideways on the couch. Jack was about to pounce when Jenna emerged from the bedroom. She stormed over, putting herself between them. Her round face was twisted with rage.
“Leave him alone!”
Jack’s chest heaved, but he managed to back down.
“Tell me what that scumbag’s doing here!”
“He lives here, Jack. If you don’t like that you can get the fuck out.”
Jack’s memory of his adoring kid sister clashed with the sneering woman before him. He might have stood up for himself if it was anybody else, or he might have simply walked away. Neither was an option here.
He turned back to Jamie instead. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew you’d freak out. I couldn’t risk it before we—”
Jamie stopped short, but it was already too late. Jenna was all over him.
“Before what? I know you two stole that money. Jesus Christ. Jack just got out of prison!”
“Not that you give a fuck.”
The words slipped out before Jack knew what he was saying. It was like they had been there on the tip of his tongue all along, just waiting to escape.
Jenna got right in his face.
“For your information, I didn’t come visit because I was terrified for you. I spent that whole first year pissed off at you and I didn’t want to come all the way out there just to scream and yell. I figured you had more important things to worry about.”
“Yeah? What about the other two years?”
That took some of the fight out of her. Jenna sighed, sitting down next Jamie.
“That’s when Dad showed up. I knew he was sick from the moment I saw him.”
“Why’s that your problem? Son of a bitch split when you were baby. Left all of us in the dust and didn’t look back. In case you forgot.”
“He had his reasons.”
“Like what? What kind of man leaves his family behind?”
“Ask him yourself.”
Jack took a deep breath before pushing the bedroom door open. It was dark inside, despite the small TV glowing from the nightstand. The old man lay sprawled out on the bed, his head resting on a crumpled pillow. He sat up when Jack walked in.
“Everything all right out there? Sounded like you three were fighting. Hope it’s not on my account.”
His father’s soft voice sounded to Jack like a needle scratching across a record. Every muscle in his body ached to kick the shit out of the old bastard. He stood frozen instead, caught somewhere between murder and making a run for it.
“Why’d you come back?”
The old man inched his way to the edge of the bed, but didn’t seem capable of standing up on his own.
“To make things right before I die.”
“You’ve been living here for two years. Why don’t you do us all a favor and just get it over with?”
“I think about it every day. Come over here and have a seat.”
“I think I’ll stand.”
His father lifted a chin to study his oldest son. There was still a little steel in his glassy eyes.
“I heard you were in prison.”
“No thanks to you.”
“To me? Lord knows I’m no saint, but I don’t see how that was my fault.”
Jack barked up a jagged laugh. Pulling the gun from his jacket pocket, he trained the sight on his father’s ghostly face.
“Everything I became was because you left.”
The old man only blinked in response. He looked up at Jack with pure pity.
Jack let his arm go limp, the gun dangling at his side.
“Well? Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
“I’m truly sorry, Jack. I never meant to hurt you, or your brother and sister. I had my reasons for leaving, but I’m not sure that’s what you want to hear from me. Just know that every single day for the last thirty years I regretted taking off.”
Jack’s eyes pooled, big drops rolling down his cheeks.
“Tell me why. I need to know.”
His father slowly pushed himself up from the bed. It took real effort, but he eventually managed to shuffle over. He didn’t stop until they were face-to-face.
“The reasons are pretty simple, but impossible to explain. Otherwise I would have told you a long time ago. Suffice to say, the world was different back then.”
Jack sized his father up. He was so frail that one punch is all it would take. One punch loaded with all of the anger, resentment and hatred Jack had carried around for the past three decades.
But something unexplainable held him back.
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“I fell in love with another man, son. I tried to deny it for a long time because I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but it was no use. Your mother found out about my affair and told me to leave. I figured that respecting her wishes was the least I could do.”
Jack backed up to the wall, sliding slowly down to the floor. His father stood over him, looking down.
“It was never about you kids or your mother. I had to leave so I could be the real me.”
Jack’s voice grew small. “We would have accepted you, whatever you were.”
“I know that now, but I hated myself too much to understand it back then.”
CHAPTER 1 • CHAPTER 2 • CHAPTER 3 • CHAPTER 4 • CHAPTER 5 • CHAPTER 6 • CHAPTER 7 • CHAPTER 8 • CHAPTER 9 • CHAPTER 10 • CHAPTER 11 • CHAPTER 12 • CHAPTER 13 (THE END)
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Both That’ll Be The Day: A Power Pop Heist and the sequel, Good Girls Don’t: A Second Power Pop Heist, are available in print and ebook format on Amazon.