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ANGIE
"The truth." Jim shook his head at me. "Why should I tell ya anything? Whatever I tell ya, you’ll just tell Lynn, right?" He leaned forward, his hands pointing like an arrow shooting through me, eyes flashing. "Did she send you?" he accused.
Wow, he can be a little scary sometimes. He reminds me of a snake. At any moment, he's either ready to either lash out with venom, or slither and hide.
"No, Lynn didn't send me. I don't even know if we're..if we're still friends." I took a deep breath, centering myself. "But I think you maybe have something. Or know something. Is there something you don't want to tell her?"
"Oh yeah?"
He paused. Then he said, "Mebbe I do. Maybe I could tell you all sorts of stuff, or I don't have to tell you anything. What do you want to know?"
"Um. One second." I pulled my notebook from my bag, and dug a pencil from the side pocket. Flipping through the pages I opened to my notes about the robbery. Sure, why not. I'll ask him about something he definitely doesn't know about. An easy question to lower those defenses a bit.
"Do you know anything about the music that's gone missing from the Sociology building?"
"Yeah, I know something about that." He shrugged. "But you can't tell Lynn, 'K?"
I was shocked. "What? Really‽" I slapped my hand on the desk, and a bunch of papers slid to the floor. Jim didn't move to pick them up, so I ignored them too, and continued before he changed his mind. "Well, what can you tell me?"
"I dunno where it is now, Detective, if that's what you are after." He gave me a lopsided grin. "But it wasn't me who stole it." He looked, happy. What was he happy about?
I pushed, "But it was stolen! Not by you, wait, what do you mean? Maybe you better start at the beginning."
"It's not a big deal. You know some of this already, and it's got nothing to do with Lynn, so sure."
I turned to a blank page and waited.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
I nodded. I need to find out.
"Okay well, first you have to know that when I started this semester, I needed a bit of cash, y'see. I picked a number off of a flyer that was posted up in the Union, y'know, on the big board?" I nodded again.
"Well this one was for 'odd jobs'. It didn't say what kind of work, just that I would "make money now"." Although he spoke casually his voice sounded oddly rhythmic. I wondered if he had practiced this speech before, if only in his head.
"Second, I met this guy at the Union Deli, um, in early September I think? And he gave me a line on some odd jobs for cash. It was easy, really. I was picking up boxes and moving them from one place to another. Sometimes from the school, sometimes from businesses in town. He had me drive people around, or pick them up at the bus depot and drive them to the school. One time, he just needed me to help him move a car to Franklin City." He grinned widely and snapped his fingers. "It was a sweet deal. Every job was a hundred bucks, tax free. Although the hours were bad. I mean, just I never knew when they would need me, days and days would go by with nothing and then all of a sudden it was 2am and it was time to drop everything and rush right over."
He paused, and I quickly took some notes. A hundred-bucks, tax free? So clearly this is some kind of scam.
I waved him on, and he sat up in his chair, which made him appear a little taller. "Third, then I told them, I need to take a break. I liked the work, I said, but it was hurting my studies, and I need my time with my girl. So then, this guy Aburra, he tells me that there is some big job coming up, but wouldn't tell me when. He said I should just keep going a little longer, and there would be a big payoff."
"Aburra?" I interrupted. "I know a guy named Aburra, but maybe it's a different guy."
"Does your Aburra work as a T.A. in the music department? Smelly, and greasy? Always forgets to tuck in his shirt? A little whiny, or angry about something all the time?"
I replied, "Uh, yes."
"Same guy."
"Weird." I said. "Um, sorry, please go on."
"Thanks. Yeah, well I didn't know at the time where he worked, but it's the same guy, I think. Back then he was just one of the guys giving me jobs. So this one day about two weeks ago, Aburra says to me that it's time for a big job. He said that all he needs is for me is to drop by the Music department, and pick up a few boxes. Three hundred bucks, easy money. As usual, it's the middle of the night."
He took a breath, then said in a rush. "So, I have the car, uh it's their car, not mine, and I'm waiting outside with the trunk open and the engine running, when suddenly he comes running out of the building with one of his Russian buddies. They slam the trunk shut and jump in, tell me to get going."
I imagined the pieces coming together as he talked, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting for him to finish.
"I don't see anything, y'see. Aburra makes me take them to a bar pretty far outside of town to let them off." Jim looks uncomfortable now, and his eyes are shifting side to side. His next sentence comes out in a jumble, "On the way to the bar, Aburra says that there was a big mistake. That we were supposed to pick up the music, records, equipment, and some CDs, and sell it at his friend's record store, because the department was changing its courses and needed some money. That the big payoff was going to be this music sale, and we were going to get a cut. But now there was a problem; because someone else had already broken in to the music department and stolen it. And then he tells me that for some reason, he thinks that we're going to take the fall for it."
I was shaking my head. "No, that's not right."
Defensively he said, "Yeah, right. Why should we take the fall when we didn't do anything! That's what I tol' him."
"That's not what I meant. What I meant was - the department wasn't changing anything about their program. They weren't selling the music, or stopping their courses, or at least, not willingly."
He shook his head. "Well that's not what I heard."
I made a note "Music department change? Or Jim lying again?"
He continued, "Anyway, a few days later I caught up with Aburra. He told me that unless we found the music collection, then he'd be out of a big business deal. If the deal died then I would have to give him back all of the money he'd paid me. That was a lot of money, for a guy like me. I mean, who has a few grand just sitting around? So I've been helping Aburra try to find the music." He had a satisfied look on his face, and clapped his hands together. "So you see, I didn't steal it." He leaned back in his chair, now folding his hands behind his head. It squeaked as he rocked, sounding like a tiny bird was trapped in the office with them. "That enough 'truthin' for ya?" He grinned.
I ignored him and looked over the notes, because something he had said caught on a memory that I couldn't shake off. Then I flipped back a page, and remembered.
"Hey, were you talking to Aburra at the music shop this past Sunday? Hanging out in the Singles section?"
"Uh, um, er..."
"C'mon, the truth now. You said."
"Yeah, that was me. How did you know about that?" He squirmed. "That was the day Aburra was trying to encourage me to find the music... sooner. He wasn't exactly being nice. You heard that? What were you, spying on me?"
"Spying? Sort of. Nice‽ He wasn't nice. He was the opposite of nice. He threatened you. He told you to help him steal it back, and you said you would!" Wow. He can't stop lying, not for one minute! I stood up, and pointed at him.
"You are not a child, stop lying to me and to yourself. You are acting like you don't understand what's going on here. You know. You were going to steal it for him, and you know it!"
He looked up at me, opened his mouth, and closed it. Then he opened it again. "Yeah, I know."
Did he just admit it?
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