Page 21 of The Alibi Club
Vasken took a deep breath. “If I had told my brother I was going to hire a thief to install my security system, he would have told me to get my head examined.”
“Ex-thief,” Cliff corrected.
“But you bring a certain expertise, a knowledge not everyone possesses.”
“Does that mean we are in business?”
“Yes, it does,” Vasken said as he reached over to shake Cliff’s hand. “When can we begin?”
That was the problem. Cliff didn’t have the capital to buy all the high-end security equipment he would need to make Pasha’s Fine Jewelry thief-proof. And he couldn’t exactly ask his first and only client to front the money. He had a flashback to his meeting with a loan officer at Great Western Bank a few days earlier when he tried to get a small business loan. He was nearly laughed off the premises once they’d found out he was a newly paroled thief and bank robber. He grimaced.
“Vasken.” Cliff paused before continuing, assessing if it was a good or bad idea, but then realized he was out of options. He continued, “Do you happen to know anyone who might be willing to, say, offer a guy like me a small business loan?”
Vasken put both of his hairy arms on the counter and leaned toward Cliff, as if studying his character. “Is tough starting a new business, no?”
Cliff gave him a tight smile. “Indeed.”
Vasken stood up, walked to the back of the store, and returned with a business card. He handed it to Cliff and said simply, “The Siberian.”
“A Siberian?” Cliff looked at the black business card. It didn’t even have a name, just a phone number.
“No, no. The Siberian. He has reputation for helping start-ups like yourself.”
Cliff sighed. Great. A loan shark.
As if reading his mind, Vasken continued, “He is not loan shark. More like Shark Tank but with muscle. You have to pitch ideas to him. He invests in business. If your business succeeds, everybody happy. If your business fail, not good.”
“How not good?”
“Ex-KGB-with-baseball-bats-not good.”
“Got it.” So, like Loan Shark 2.0, Cliff thought. “So, I present my business plan, and he decides whether or not he wants to invest. Seems … doable.”
“One more thing, though,” Vasken warned. “You must bring lady friend.”
“Why?”
“The Siberian believes he can tell the essence of a man by what kind of woman he brings to table.”
“But.” Cliff’s mind raced. Amber was the only woman he knew, and he wouldn’t bring her to a street fight let alone a business meeting. “I don’t have a lady friend.”
Vasken started gnawing on his lower lip as he considered this. Finally, he shrugged and said, “Get one.”
Talk about a tall order. Might be easier to pull off the heist of the century, get away clean, and start life over again with a new identity than find a girlfriend impressive enough for The Siberian. He withered at the thought.
Just then there was a tapping at the door. Cliff and Vasken looked up and saw the figure of a woman through the sheer shades. She was standing at the front door. Vasken looked at his watch. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he said to himself, and then he held up a hand to the woman waiting at the door. “Just a moment.”
“Should I leave?” Cliff asked.
“No, no, this won’t take but a moment.” Vasken stuffed the diamonds back into the pack, carrying it with him when he disappeared behind the counter into the recesses of the store. Cliff’s eyes wandered back to the woman at the door. Shapely, with long auburn hair, wearing a white dress and a wide-brimmed black hat.
Vasken returned to the door and unlocked it for her. “Welcome, Ms. Gray.”
“Thank you for allowing me to pick it up today,” she said warmly as she sauntered into the jewelry store.
“I have your watch right in the back, please, have some tea.” Vasken gestured to the tea tray before going back to retrieve the watch.
As she approached, her wide-brimmed hat hid most of her face. All Cliff could see was the curve of her jawline and a portion of her mouth, a small beauty mark above the right side of her upper lip. Her lipstick was the exact same shade as her hair. If a woman could smell like money, she would.
