The Cost Of Doing Business

Crime Fiction by Pamela Ebel

Jackie stared at what was left of the Toscani cigar in the ash tray as she sprayed air freshener around the living room. Tossing the empty beer bottle into the garbage can she considered how to handle the phone call to her sister.

She and Christine had both been involved with Clemment after attending an investment seminar he had given a year and a half ago. She was thrilled when he told her he was no longer seeing Christine. Finally, she had taken a man away from her sister. Better yet, his plan would allow her to get back at Christine for investing half of their inheritance without her permission and losing it. Yet, for the plan to work Clemment made her promise  to make sure her sister wouldn’t get in the way. And that’s when things had started to go wrong.

“Hi Sissy. Clemment was here at my house. I knew it was him because of the smell from those latakia cigars he smokes. He left a note.”

“Those cigars smell like shit Jackie and you need to call the FBI. The bastard has been on the run for almost a year now. Maybe they can catch him and get our money back. Now he’s guilty of breaking into your house. We can send him to jail.”

“Well, he didn’t exactly break in. I never changed the back door lock. That would cost me $150. He knew where the key was.”

“God Jackie! I don’t believe you. I thought you would have learned after what he did to us. Just because he’s good looking and fun, etc. He stole over $500,000 from us in that investment scheme he cooked up. The FBI says we were among several he stole from. He disappeared without out a trace.”

“They never proved he actually got the money Christine.”

“Yeah. Some mysterious third party took our money and made it and him disappear. That ‘mysterious person’ took $300,000 from me and $200,000 from you. And you complain about a $150 lock change? Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He left a message. He’ll  tell us where our money is and how to get it. No strings attached. Would you just let  it go and not tell the authorities he’s here?”

“No. We find out where he is. I want him in jail and my money back.”

“I think we should give him another chance. ”

“That’s it Jackie. If you still want to be with him after what he did, I’m done with you both. I’ll find him and send him to jail myself.”

Christine was furious as she slammed the phone down. The bastard was supposed to get Jackie’s money and travel to Europe with her. Instead, he’d disappeared with her and Jackie’s money. She couldn’t tell Jackie about the scheme without implicating herself. But now she would just share his whereabouts with the FBI anonymously.

Jackie called the number Clemment  had left.

“I don’t think she’s going to drop it and I can’t figure a way to explain why I want to forgive you without telling her about our scheme. I would have to admit I never gave you,  my money.”

“Babe, it’s crucial to our plan to disappear forever to get all of the money in one account. I need your $200,000 in a cashier’s check made out to me. With all $500,000 transferred to that special account I can secure the stock I told you about at a special price. The stock will serve as collateral in Switzerland and the money trail will disappear. You let me worry about Christine. I’ll see to it that she’s out of commission long enough for us to get away.”

“How are you going to do that? She’ll call the FBI.”

“When we’re ready to leave tomorrow I’ll pay a visit and give her a bit of a sedative that will last long enough for us to catch that flight. Just don’t let her know where I am or where we’re going, and get that money to me tomorrow morning.”

They talked a few more minutes, then she hung up, poured herself a drink and sat deep in thought. Something about the rush to get her money into an account only he controlled didn’t seem right.

Taking out the investigation file the FBI had provided her Jackie read Christine’s statement about how Clemment insisted on a cashier’s check for  $300.000 made out to him in order to lock in a sky rocketing stock at a special price that week.

His conversation of a few minutes before came floating into her mind: “Babe, it’s crucial to our plan to disappear to get all of the money in one account. I need your $200,000 in a cashier’s check made out to me. Then, with all $500,000 transferred in a special account I can secure that stock I told you about at that special price.”

God, what a fool I’ve been. The same stock he was going to get a year ago? Well, we’ll see about that.

Later that evening Christine was still seething and trying to decide how to proceed with the search for her missing lover and her $300,000. He was going to go to Jackie and not to her! Not a phone call or a note! Nothing!

The phone rang and her sister’s voice drifted out of the answer machine:

“Sis, I need to talk to you. I have something to tell you and a plan to get our money back. Please! Call me. I love you.”

Christine hesitated for a moment and then picked up the phone.

The next night Christine sat in front of her fire place. The floor board behind her creaked and she turned and stared. She’d imagined this moment so many times. Clemment stood there smiling, wearing a tuxedo and white gloves, carrying a box of roses in one hand and a bottle of Cristal Champagne in the other.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in? Don’t you come any closer or…”

“Or what Chrissy? You’ll scream? Remember, you live on three acres of wooded property because you don’t like people bothering you. And I got in with the key I always used. Look, I have your favorite flowers and champagne. Why don’t  you get dressed in the negligee you always wore and we can sit by the fire and catch up.”

“Are you nuts? Jackie already told me you were with her. I want you in jail.”

“Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy. You know our plan. I have to make Jackie think everything is the way it used to be. Here let me open the champagne and we can talk.”

She heard the cork pop in the kitchen and soon he was back with two glasses. Reluctantly. she took one.

“Do you really think a bottle of bubbly and some flowers are going to make me love you again?”

“No. But this cashier’s check for $300,000 might do the trick. Someone at the bank notified the manager when I tried to deposit some of the cash a year ago. I had to leave town fast. I just now felt like the heat was off enough to come back and explain things. Here, take the check.”

Christine grabbed it and turned to pick up her glass. She spun back around.

“What about Jackie? Are you ready to leave her? I can to leave tomorrow. I…”

“I can’t do that right now. She still has her money. I never took it. I’ll need time to get it from her.”

“I don’t have any more time to waste you bastard. I want you and the money now.”

She grabbed the bottle and turned her back to him to pour another glass of champagne. Turning around Chrissy gulped the drink, put the glass down and tore the paper to shreds and threw it at him. He stood quietly and smiled at her.

She began to cough.  Struggling to breath and dropping to her knees Christine looked up at Clemment.

“I’m feeling funny. I can’t keep my eyes open. I…”

Clemment watched her slump to the carpet and go silent.

“You should never accept drinks from someone who took you for $300,000 Chrissy. In another few minutes you won’t need your money or anything else.”

He picked up the bottle of champagne and placed it in a bag along with the glasses. He put the bottle of pills  in Christine’s hand along with a suicide note. The pieces of the check went in the bag. The roses went back in their florist’s box. Taking one more look around to make sure no prints were missed he went out the back door and locked it with his key.

Jackie watched him from the passenger seat as Clemment slid behind the wheel of the car.

“Well, what happened? Did she agree to take the money and forget about the FBI? Did you explain things to her?”

“I’m afraid your sister was one for holding grudges. Tore up the check and threw the flowers at me. But she did drink the champagne. She’ll be out for quite a while.”

He laughed.

“We need to head to the airport. We’ll get there just in time to catch the 10:00 pm flight to Switzerland. Once there we can plan what we do next my love.”

They had a hard embrace and deep kiss.

“I never will understand my sister. This was a lot of money wasted on champagne and flowers for nothing. But I opened the second bottle you bought like you asked me to. Let’s have another glass and toast to the success of our plans. I didn’t have time to find flutes but tumblers will work just as well.”

As she leaned down to pick up the bottle, she glanced up in the  dark to see him dropped three pills into her tumbler.  He took the bottle, filled her glass,  poured his own glass to the top. and  raised it.

“To a successful venture.”

She watched as he guzzled it and poured himself a second glass.

“Working a grift always makes me thirsty. And the cost of the flowers and champagne is just part of the scheme. It worked the first time I got the money from her. Just the cost of doing business. Hey! You haven’t touched your drink.”

He started to laugh and it turned into a cough. He tore at his bow tie. Jackie poured her champagne back into the bottle and sat quietly out of his reach and waited.

“I can’t breathe. What was in that drink?”

“The same drug you thought was in Christine’s drinks. I pored those pills into this bottle. You won’t be going to Switzerland or anywhere.”

He reached for her and fell back toward the door. His breath slowed as he stopped moving. Soon Clemment stared into eternity. She honked the horn and Christine appeared. The sisters carried him into the house and placed him on the floor.

 Jackie put the bag with second champagne bottle next to him. A note explaining his remorse and hoping the two would forgive him curled in his hand. Exchanging his prints for hers Christine dropped the pill bottle back by his side.

“You’d better get your suitcase Chrissy. You have the tickets and our passports?’

“Sure, do. And the cashier’s check for my $300,000. He was so busy making sure I was drinking that champagne he didn’t realize I switched it with a photocopy of a check.”

The sisters took one more look at Clemment, locked the back door and headed to the airport.

“I think the Maldives will suit us much better than Switzerland Jackie. They don’t have an extradition law and their banking system is as private as the Swiss. They’ll be happy to handle our $500,000. Of course, it cost us more to move the money there and they charged extra for the new joint account.”

Jackie parked the rental car in the airport lot and watched Christine pour them each a glass of champagne from a new bottle. She smiled and raised her glass.

“Not a big deal Sissy. Just the cost of doing business!”

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Bio: Pamela Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.  She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband. 

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