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“Yeah. Noah, try to focus,” Hinton said. “Here’s the thing. They have the warrant. They got my ass in a crack. They said if I cooperated...”
“Cooperated?”
“Yeah. You know, talked about the charities. Talked about you. They said that would be taken into account by the prosecutors. I’d get off if you went to prison. Well, bullshit. They were lying, of course, and I’m out of here. Tonight.”
“Where are you going?”
“Never mind about that,” Hinton said. “I need some money from you.”
“Money?”
“Yeah, you know. Dollar bills. Twenty-dollar bills. Fifty-dollar bills. I gotta tell you, Noah, if they grab me, I’m gonna tell them everything I know. I been to prison and I’m not going back if there’s any way I can get out of it. I believe I can get away from them, change my name, get a job somewhere, but I need cash and I know you got some.”
Heath whined, “My money? My money?”
“Yeah. You can always get some more. Sell this house and move to Arugula or whatever that island is called.”
“Antigua? I’m a citizen there, I don’t—”
“Don’t bullshit me, man, I once saw you take five grand out of the safe in your office,” Hinton said. “I know you got it. I know you can get more. If I disappear, they got nothing on you. Doreen don’t know shit.”
“Doreen?” One thing Heath suspected: Doreendidknow shit. Maybe more than Dahl.
“Noah! Get your shit together,” Hinton said. “Get some money! I gotta get out of here. I’ll be three states away before they come looking for me.”
“My money,” Heath said, then he took a breath and said, “I suppose we should go upstairs.”
“There you go,” Hinton said.
Heath took another breath, snapped the elastic on his boxer shorts, and said, “Come along.”
They climbed the stairs and took a turn into the East Wing—a small brass sign on a walnut panel said “East Wing”—and walked down a long hallway to his office. The office held an expansive rosewood desk and a line of matching file cabinets against one wall. One of the file cabinets was actually a hardened, fireproof safe with a keypad.
Heath looked at Hinton in exasperation and a little fear, then bent and used his body to cover the keypad as he punched in the code. When the top drawer unlocked, he took out another brown envelope and thumbed through it. “I can’t give you all of it, I gotta keep some handy.”
“Nope, nope, I gotta have it all,” Hinton said, extending a hand. “If I run, you’re good. If I don’t, you’re screwed. I need to get far away and I need cash to do that.”
Heath reluctantly handed over the envelope. Hinton opened it and thumbed through the wad of cash, asking, “How much?”
“Five thousand dollars, or a little more,” Heath said.
“Goddamnit, Noah. You got more than that in there. Gimme it, or I swear to God I’ll make a deal with the cops. I can’t run on five grand.”
“I have to live, too.My bank account’s low...”
“You don’t seem to understand what’s about to happen, Noah. You’re going to Stillwater prison,” Hinton said. “It’s Minnesota’s butthole, is what I’ve heard. A rich guy like you ain’t gonna do well. They don’t serve no butter croissants.”
Heath began to tremble, put a hand to his mouth, bit on the knuckles, staring at the impatient Hinton. Then he turned, opened the bottom desk drawer, and took out a much fatter envelope. “That’s it,” he said. “That’s all of it from the last Vegas trip, twenty-two thousand. I’ll have to go to the bank just to eat...”
“Better than getting those free meals, the ones at Stillwater,” Hinton said, satisfied now. He turned and walked through the office door, into the hallway, with Heath trailing. “I’ve got to make one more stop, and then I’m outta here. You won’t be hearing from me again.”
“Listen, leave me five thousand, Bob. Bob? Is that your real name?”
“Not exactly. I started out as Darrell Hinton and the cops know that. You can explain that you did a background check on Bob Dahl and never found anything, that you didn’t know me as Darrell Hinton. Blame the hustles on me.”
“Okay, but... five thousand to keep me going? I’ve got money going out for the surgeons, I can speed it up a little...”
“Hey, fuck that,” Hinton said. “You’re a cheap asshole, Noah. Take the money out of the bank. Sell the house. I don’t care.”
