Janey had kicked the councilors out for now, but they would not be too happy about missing out on another payday. Reginald or Regine, or whatever he called himself, he was the ringleader for sure. Two just took the money and enjoyed the benefits. Richard, as Bob had mentioned, enjoyed shoving things up his nose, so he was a liability for them.

“Do you think we’ll have any more to do with them? Janey asks.

“I think they’ll have quite a few discussions about us over the course of a couple of days,” I reply.

“Reginald was pissed, and not just from a business side. We have a one up on him, and you know ‘hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.'”

That was going to be the main issue with the councilors. It was going to be Reginald's womanly pride that would cause the most complications this week. Janey explained she thought he would hold grudges. We were prepared for grudges, a couple of keystrokes from Bob and everything about the corruption deals and the non-paying of taxes would be sent out into the open. This we were going to do anyway, but it was a backup plan until then, in case we heard from them again.

I pull up a chair at Brent’s dining table and lick my lips over the pancakes that Bell has just prepared.

“These are special, banana pancakes,” Bell says.

“They smell delicious,” I reply.

“What do we have planned for today? I ask.

Janey grins at Bell. “We have to start preparing Mikey, later.” She laughs.

“What do you mean preparing?” I ask.

“He has to have some serious waxing, his legs are really bushy.”

Jesus Christ. How much is that going to hurt? And that’s just his legs.

“Do you think he will pass as, you know, one of those, um?” Brent asks.

“Once we have finished with him. He will be the queen of the party,” Bell says as she forks a large piece of pancake into her mouth.

“Regine will be jealous,” I say.

Janey sips from her glass and wipes her mouth. “That is the distraction we’re looking for, we don’t need Regine's guy to take a shine to him,” she says. “Just to cause a distraction while either Bell or Mikey can do something with their glasses.”

“What about the wives of the councilors?” I ask.

“They keep away from those two. The other two are single, that Richard and the other guy. Players taking advantage of the high life.”

“High life being the optimum word with his drug habit,” Janey says.

“Now, there’s a thought of how to get him with the drugs. We can crumble a couple of the tablets, and he will be all ours if he takes the bait,” I say. “He won’t know what’s hit him.”

“We just have to get him in an area where we can introduce it to him. Don’t forget we’re mostly naked,” Bell says.

“Not being one to state the obvious, but you have two, brilliant, wonderful, and fantastic card dealers under your nose, a simple pack of white powder will be easy to conceal,” Brent says.

“You want to take Karen to a swingers club?” Bell says.

Brent grins. “She can be Owen’s partner, Janey can’t go now, they have seen her face.”

“We plucked her from a dead end job in the bedding department, and now you want her to strip butt naked in a swingers club and get her to give drugs to a city official?” Bell says plainly.

“Nearly. I can do the talking to him. I might just need her assistance to get it past the security,” Brent says.

“We have to ask her in the right way, I’m not going to make myself look a fool,” Bell says.

“Karen is cool. I’m sure she has seen it all before,” I say.

“Owen, you have never seen anything like it. Heaving bodies everywhere. Cocks in mouths and vaginas on faces, right in front of you.”

“My god Bell, do you have to go into so much detail over pancakes?” Janey says.

“Sorry. I’m just a little protective of Karen.”

“We should actually decide who is going to go, this could be crucial,” I say.

“We have Brent and me for starters. Mikey can just be a friend,” Bell states.

“Karen can be with me, and then I think we need two others,” I say.

“Cally and Ty, it has to be,” Bell says. “They have the smarts to see what is happening.”

“Shit, Ty was going to be stealthing. We’ll see what he says. Now all we have is two things to do, and we can go again,” I say as I start grinning.

Janey looks at me suspiciously. “And what might they be?”

I feel my shoulders jiggling up and down as I giggle. “We just have to get the day we can pay a visit, and we have to come up with a sexy name for Mikey.”

“Michelle?” Janey says.

“God, that is really common. Have something seductive, ‘Soraya,'” Bell says.

“Soraya?” I say.

“Yes, it’s Persian or Arabic, it means jewel I think,” Bell says.

Janey looks at me. “You have to admit, Mikey is being a real gem by doing this.”

“I’m not disagreeing with that, and I can’t get my head over how much waxing he will need,” I reply.

“Now who is giving too much information over pancakes?” Bell says. “And we can’t use that pink limo again, that is just way too obvious.”

Janey turns to me. “We can go separately, there is nothing to say we have to go in together.”

“I’ll take Mikey with us,” I say. “He can make his introduction while you’re with Regine.”

“Two other cars then, one for Karen and me, and one for Cally and Ty.”

“I better get going, I have to get Susan to the pharmacy for these pills,” I say as I stand up from my chair. “Do any of you know the texture of cocaine?”

Janey stands and glares at me. “I think you’re asking the wrong people.”

“Not exactly true,” Brent says. “I have seen some of the dealers cutting it in the washrooms halfway through a night shift.”

Bell looks at Brent firmly. “You used to do a lot of night shifts. That’s what you told me?” she says.

“I never used. My thrill was from dealing, you know cards just make me so horny,” Brent replies.

“There were no cards in your bedroom that night,” adds Janey. I glare at her and Brent laughs.

“That is another thing I’ll have to speak to you about,” he says laughing. “We knew you were both there the whole time.”

“The whole time?” I ask.

Brent laughs. “Yep!”

* * *

Stepping into the courtyard, Susan comes walking toward me with a piece of paper in her hand. “Are you ready?” she asks.

“Yeah. Do you think the pharmacy will give you the meds with an old date on the prescription.”

“We can only try. But I’ll have to go in myself, if there are two of us, they might suspect.”

We head to the end of the street and drive toward the pharmacy that we hope stock the meds that Susan used to use.

“Do you think this will work?” she asks.

“I think this side of it yes, getting the money out, I’m not so sure,” I reply.

Susan turns to me as I pull the car in front of the pharmacy. “If there is one thing I’ve noticed with you lot, you always find a way to do what seems impossible.”

“It does seem strange when you look at it, but you’re right,” I reply as she leaves the car. I wait.

Susan walks into the pharmacy as I lean on the hood of the car and wait for her. My cell rings in my pocket. I look at the display and see Ty is calling.

“Hi.”

“I think I might have found out how to get the money out of the vault in the club,” he says.

“We have actually planned to go back to the club and get into the back of the house,” I reply.

“We will do that as well, but for Sunday, I think I have it sorted.”

“Okay then, how do we get the cash out?” I ask.

Ty laughs through the phone. “We don’t, they do that for us.”

“You’ve lost me, why would they bring the cash from a vault?”

“Because it’s full of water.”

“And how the hell are we going to fill the underground full of water?” I ask plainly.

“You should see the size of the two swimming pools.”

“I like your style Ty, all we need is a way to empty the pools,” I reply.

“Yeah. That’s where I got stuck. Maybe Bob has some insight on how we can do that.”

“I’m out with Susan trying to buy some drugs, so he will have to wait until later,” I say.

“Out buying drugs?”

“Sleeping pills and anti-smoking tablets. I’ll explain later,” I say. “By the way, you’re coming to the swingers club, in a day or so.”

“Swingers club. Me?” he asks. “How the fuck did Joseph manage to get out of all of this? He just had to have a holiday now! Fuck! And Beau. Fuck!”

“And Cally of course.”

“I’ll be glad when all this over. I don’t know if I am coming or going,” he says laughing.

“Ty, I have to go, Susan is coming out of the pharmacy.”

“I’ll see you back at the club later.”

“Do me a favor, and break it to Cally about the swingers club.”

“Owen, Cally worked in a club. A swingers club to her will be nothing out of the ordinary.”

“If you say it like that, it makes me feel so much better.”

“Information is like water. Difficult to hold on to and hard to keep from leaking away.”