Invitation to Violence Read Free Page B

flash on his wrist watch.
        "At exactly a quarter to one we start breaking through the wall. I figure twenty minutes for that at the most. And be damned sure to keep the masks on."
        Once again he flicked on the light and quickly looked at the others.
        "Dommie," he said, "get the chopper out. Get out into the lobby and stay right there. Stay where you can watch the street. Anything suspicious, just the two short whistles. If anything happens once we get into the jewelry store, I expect you to stay right there and cover us until we get a chance to get out. Remember one thing, it'll only take us five minutes once we get through the wall."
        "A lot can happen in five minutes," Dommie said.
        "A hellofa lot can happen," Jake said. "But that's just why you are going to be out there with the chopper. The chopper is the difference. All you have to do is remember that. The difference."
        "You think it would be safe to light a butt?" Vince asked. "They can't see nothing in here."
        "No," Jake said. "No cigarettes. And keep your voice low. Now Vince, just to review it. Once we get our hands on the stuff, I come back through the wall and pick up Dommie. We go out the way we came in, through the back door. We pick up the heap and drive around in front. You, Vince, come out through the front door of the jewelry store with the stuff. It's a simple snap lock, opening from the inside."
        Vince cleared his throat.
        "Only thing I don't like is my coming out through that front door," he said. "I still can't see why…"
        "I told you a thousand times," Jake said, irritation in his voice. "I told you. The one really dangerous moment is when we start to drive out of the parking lot. A police cruiser comes along then and stops us and they'd stop us for sure. We'd be blocked in and wouldn't have a hope. They check that parking lot two or three times a night. Looking for kids laying up. If by any chance they happen to hit us as Dommie and I are getting in, we got a chance to make a breakout. If we get caught, at least we ain't got the loot and we can ditch the guns when we see 'em coming.
        "But you'll be in the clear and you'll have the stuff. If everything goes all right, all you gotta do is walk out the front door. It's a snap lock and closes behind you. We'll be in front ready to pick you up and then, if the cops should happen by, at least we're not trapped. We're in the open and we got a chance."
        Dommie scratched a match to light a cigarette and Jake quickly cursed him and told him to put it out. And so they just sat there then, waiting.
        The second time Jake flicked on the light and checked his watch, he grunted and got up from where he was squatting on his heels.
        "All right, Dommie," he said. "Out front. This is it. Vince, let me have the sledge. Hold the light and keep it on the wall. This stuff is nothing but plaster and lathe and it should go like cheese."
        Dommie walked into the lobby, carrying the machine gun under his arm as the first dull blow reverberated throughout the empty theater.
        Vince suddenly stopped worrying. Now that they were in action, there was no longer time to worry. Anyway, he felt a quick surge of confidence. It was going to work. It was bound to work.
        
***
        
        It was odd, odd and just a bit ironic, that he should have been reflecting upon the utter mediocrity of his life when the incident occurred.
        The seven of clubs was responsible. That is to say, the seven of clubs which Gerald Hanna had drawn to fill an inside straight during the last hand of the evening had started him thinking about himself and about his life.
        Gerald Hanna was not a man to draw to an inside straight. He wouldn't, normally, gamble on any kind of straight, even if it was the last hand. As he pushed the money into the pot and asked for the card, he was subconsciously amazed at his