Broken (27 page)

"Well done." I said.

"Then, a
little later Misses Whiteside came back into the office and
apologised to me." Cindy said. "She said that maybe they'd
overreacted. She said that she and her husband were both under a
lot of strain and that she would try her best to be nice to me. She
then asked me if I would tear up the copy of the letter of
resignation if she promised to do that. I just stared at her and
after a while she told me quietly that I was going to regret my
actions. Then she turned and left the office. I'm really not
looking forward to being there for the rest of the month but I
won't renege on the contract."

"Okay." I
said. "But if they try anything nasty just tell me and I'll sort
them out. In the mean time you can start looking for another
job."

***

I could see that Cindy was
becoming more and more angry with Mister and Misses Whiteside and
that she was gradually coming to hate them. Then, on the Friday
afternoon she came into the house, sat down on the couch next to me
in the lounge and burst into tears. I put my arm around her.

"And now?" I asked. "What's
happened now?"

Cindy wiped the tears off her
cheeks with her handkerchief.

"This morning I carefully added
up all the takings for the week, filled in the bank deposit book
and put the money and the book into the plastic shopping bag that
Mister Whiteside usually used to take the money to the bank." Cindy
said. "I also gave him the breakdown for the wages. But when he got
back from the bank he shouted at me that the takings had been fifty
Rand short and that he had been forced to make up the shortfall
with his own money. He then said that he was going to take fifty
Rand off my salary at the end of the month. Garth, I know that the
takings were correct and tallied with the total written in the
deposit book. I checked it twice."

"Next time get him to sign for
the takings." I said. "Make him sign that they tally with the
amount written in the deposit book as well. Do that every time you
give them any money. In fact, make them sign for the money that you
put into the safe every afternoon. Next, they’ll say that that
money is also short."

"I'll do that." Cindy said.

Cindy got up
and went to the kitchen to make our supper. I sat in the lounge and
thought about what Cindy had just told me. If Mister Whiteside took
the whole week's takings to the bank on a Friday it was probably a
sizable amount. Cindy had told me how busy the depot was. I needed
to know just how much the old man took to the bank each week.
Knowing how much Cindy had grown to hate the two old people, I
decided to take a chance. I got up from the couch and walked to the
kitchen. I sat down at the kitchen table. Cindy stood with her back
to me stirring a pot of stew on the stove. I took a deep
breath.

"How much money does Mister
Whiteside take to the bank on Fridays?" I asked.

I saw Cindy tense.

"This morning
it was just over fifteen thousand Rand." she said. "Why do you want
to know that?"

"No reason." I said casually. "I
was just wondering."

I got up from the table and took
another beer out of the fridge. I opened it and sat down at the
table again. I watched Cindy as she worked at the stove.

"Garth." she said after a while,
still with her back to me. "You promised me that you would never
rob anyone ever again."

"Who said anything about robbing
people?" I asked.

Cindy remained silent.

"But, now
that you've brought up the subject, look at it this way." I said.
"Those people robbed you of fifty Rand this morning and, if you
think that they're actually going to pay you at the end of the
month, you're being very naïve. I can tell you now that they'll
stall and stall; saying that they're short of money but that
they'll pay you your money as soon as they're flush again. And
they'll go on stalling for months, even years. And even if you go
to the Labour Council, they'll stall them as well. You'll never get
your money from those two crooks. Take my word for it."

Cindy continued to stir the pot
of stew on the stove in front of her. I waited, sipping my beer and
watching her surreptitiously. Eventually Cindy switched off the
stove and turned. She placed the pot on the table and ladled the
contents onto our plates. She set one in front of me and sat down
opposite me with her own.

"Garth."
s
he said. "Two wrongs don't make a right.
The fact that they've stolen from me doesn't give us the right to
steal from them."

I nodded.

"In a way, I
suppose you're right." I said. "But to me life's about survival of
the fittest. Those two people are just begging to be robbed. For an
old man to walk to the bank unescorted with fifteen thousand Rand
in an old plastic shopping bag is crazy. Somebody's going to attack
the old man sooner or later and take the money. So why shouldn't
that somebody be me? Those two have probably got millions in the
bank anyway. That's why they're so stingy."

Cindy took a mouthful of stew
and chewed thoughtfully. I continued before she could finish
chewing.

"Those two are thieves." I said.
"And they deserve to have their money stolen. Earlier, I was
convinced that you hated them. Am I wrong?"

"No, you're
not wrong." Cindy said. "I do hate them. But what if something goes
wrong and you kill Mister Whiteside by accident like you killed
that bookmaker?"

"We don't know that he died
because I hit him with the truncheon." I said. "He could have died
from a heart attack."

Cindy sighed.

"I don't know what to say." she
said. "My heart says yes but my brain says no. What if you're
caught?"

"I'll plan this very carefully."
I said. "Far more carefully than when I robbed Mister Eksteen. And
when I've got the plan together we'll discuss it and, if you think
it's too risky, we'll drop it."

"I'll have to think about this
some more." Cindy said.

"I we do this
and it comes off, we'll have fifteen grand." I said. "After we've
paid Mister Bogdanovic the money we owe him we'll still have enough
money to easily last us six months. And it will take the pressure
off both of us. The need to find work won't be nearly so urgent.
And, who knows? Another opportunity may show up. The important
thing is that we'll have to be very careful and never let down our
guard."

"Are you saying that we should
make a career out of crime?" Cindy asked.

"No, not at all." I said. "Once
we have permanent jobs we won't have to do that anymore."

***

The suburb of Kenilworth where
the Ace Dry Cleaner depot was situated was an old suburb with many
buildings dating back almost a hundred years. For this reason most
of the city blocks had old service alleys that ran behind the
buildings and were used mainly for refuse collection. The owners of
the buildings would leave their refuse bins in the alleys to be
emptied by the municipal refuse collection department once a week.
The alleys were kept clear of weeds and rubbish and most of them
ran from one side of the block through to the other.

Cindy had
told me which bank branch Mister Whiteside visited to deposit the
firm's takings and collect the wages. It was just over five city
blocks from the depot. She also described Mister Whiteside to me so
that I would recognise him as he walked to the bank. And she told
me that the plastic shopping bag that he always used to carry the
money in was green with white lettering on it.

I walked the
route that the old man took to the bank. It passed several
alleyways. As the alley in which I had attacked Mister Eksteen in
had provided the ideal escape route
, I
decided to use one of the alleys that Mister Whiteside passed as my
escape route as well. But it was important that the alley that I
used had to lead out into a busy thoroughfare as this would allow
me to mix with the other pedestrians quickly, should anyone be
following me after the robbery. Three of the alleys proved
suitable.

As Mister
Eksteen's robbery plan had been so successful, I decided to use
exactly the same plan when robbing Mister Whiteside. I would pull
or push the old man into the alley, grab the shopping bag with the
money in it, and run away along the alleyway. As I ran I would
stuff the bag of money into my rucksack, pu
ll off my ski mask and put on fake glasses. Even if Mister
Whiteside tried to follow me or shouted for help, I would be at the
far end of the alley by the time anyone responded. I would then
sling the rucksack onto my back, and casually walk out onto the
pavement and mingle with the other pedestrians.

I chose the
third alley that Mister Whiteside would pass on his way to the
bank, reasoning that he would be less vigilant by then than he had
been when he first started out. This would make it easier for me to
approach him. But I also knew that it would be dangerous to follow
the man from the depot. I therefore decided to wait for him about
fifty metres from the alley and then begin to move in on him. By
doing this I was less likely to attract any attention.

As I'd thrown
the frames of Auntie Rose's glasses away I went to the supermarket
and bought a cheap pair of black-rimmed reading glasses and removed
the lenses. The change that they made to my appearance was
amazing.

I discussed my plan with Cindy
and she couldn't find any flaws in it.

"What I can do is SMS you when
Mister Whiteside leaves the premises to go to the bank." she said.
"Then you won't have to follow him from the depot and you can wait
somewhere along the route. And you'll also know when to expect
him."

"That's a
brilliant idea." I said. "Can you also SMS me the amount of money
he'll have in the shopping bag? Then if it's a lot less than we're
expecting I can abort the plan. We don't want to make the same
mistake as I made when robbing Mister Eksteen and end up stealing
only a small amount of money."

Cindy nodded.

"I can do
that." she said. "And nobody'll be aware that I've been in contact
with you. An SMS would be perfect."

"So you're happy with the plan?"
I asked. "Can we go ahead?"

"Yes." Cindy said emphatically.
"But please try not to use any violence, Garth."

"I'll try not to." I said. "I
have a feeling that Mister Whiteside will be too shocked to do
anything."

"So when are you going to do
it?" Cindy asked.

"Why wait?" I asked. "We'll do
it this coming Friday."

***

My plan to attack Mister
Whiteside worked perfectly. As Cindy was going to send me an SMS as
soon as the old man left the depot it wasn't necessary for me to be
anywhere near the area where I planned to attack him. I walked
around the streets of Kenilworth, stopping to look at the
merchandise displayed in the shop windows and even spending a short
time sitting on a bench in a small park.

Eventually
the SMS arrived. Mister Whiteside had left the depot with the
week's takings and was on his way to the bank. The amount of cash
in the shopping bag was just over fifteen thousand Rand. I shook my
head in amazement that an old man was prepared to walk through the
streets of Johannesburg on
his own with
fifteen thousand Rand in an old plastic shopping bag. As far as I
was concerned, he deserved to be robbed.

I walked to a
spot about fifty metres from the entrance to the chosen alley and
saw Mister Whiteside approaching. Cindy's description of him had
been very accurate and he was also carrying a green shopping bag
with white lettering on it. With my ski mask was rolled up to just
above my eyebrows, I began to close in on Mister Whiteside,
surreptitiously watching the other pedestrians. None of them took
the slightest interest in either me or the old man.

By the time
Mister Whiteside reached the entrance to the alley I was walking
right next to him. As quickly as I could I pulled my ski mask down
over my face, shoved him into the alley and grabbed the shopping
bag with my left hand, holding the rubber truncheon under my jacket
with my right hand. To my surprise, Mister Whiteside made no
attempt to fight for the bag of money. As he stared up at me
through his thick glasses I could see the shock and fear in his
eyes. He was paralysed with fright. I pulled the shopping bag away
from him and turned away, sprinting along the alleyway as fast as I
could and expecting to hear shouts for help at any moment. But the
old man remained silent.

As I ran along the alleyway, I
pulled off my rucksack, opened it and stuffed the bag of money, the
truncheon and my ski mask into it. I closed it and slung it back
onto my back. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the
fake glasses. As I neared the end of the alley I put on the
glasses, and even though I had told myself not to, I glanced back
over my shoulder. Mister Whiteside stood at the far end of the
alley staring at me, his shoulders slumped in resignation.

I stopped a short distance from
the end of the alley to regain my breath. Then I casually walked
out onto the pavement and mingled with the other pedestrians. I
could hardly believe that it had been so easy to steal fifteen
thousand Rand.

***

I had expected Cindy to be
excited and pleased when she got home but when she walked into the
lounge where I was sitting on the couch with the shopping bag of
money she looked sad. She sat down next to me. She pointed at the
money.

"Have you counted it?" she
asked. "Was my figure correct?"

"To the cent." I said. "Your
idea of sending me that SMS was brilliant."