Page 52 of Mimosa

“I might have a guy who’d buy the Camero,” Hippy said. “I had completely forgotten about it, but he’s been looking for one, and the car lots, they want too much for what they have. If we gave a little on the price, we might be able to sell it free and clear.”

Murphy’s brows drew hard, like they did when he worried. His brilliant white hair, beard, and eyebrows were his crowning glory, but his brows told them Murphy’s moods much better than the rest of his face. “Who is this guy? We’re selling him a stolen car, Hip.”

“He’s no angel, believe me. He sells pot, but with it legal, he doesn’t do so well with that anymore, and he…well…”

“Drugs? Hippy, we’re not selling to drug dealers.”

“No! No, he runs credit card scams. Doesn’t hurt anyone except the companies, I swear. He doesn’t use real names.”

“How does he do that? You need credit ratings to get cards,” Murphy reminded him.

“He’s a little like Mims, can get onto the sites to make fake people. He used to do it for gangs that needed money laundered, but that got too dangerous for him.”

“I see,” Murphy said as his lips twitched into a smile. “As long as he’s not some asshole.”

“Oh, he’s an asshole. Turned me down twice to join his band, but this might help that too.”

Mims barked a short laugh, then snorted too. “Hippy’s got a hidden agenda.”

“Not hidden now,” he said grumpily.

“Fine, then the Lincoln can go to the fence, and hopefully, we’ll have enough to give Haze his dream. Why do I have a feeling I’m going to need a whole new crew soon?”

“Think of it like this, Paps. Maybe you’ll only need a new crew for the bar, and you won’t have to steal anymore. We can hope, right?”

He got a wink for that. “Sure, Mims. I do hope that.”

Chapter Fifteen

Havingaprojectkepthim busy. He and Abs went to a gallery that was only a few blocks from the pub and spoke at length to a manager only to be told they don’t take works they hadn’t asked for.

That didn’t stop Abs, of course. “You see, up and coming artists from our hometown would attract a lot of attention. And he’s been busy, working to live, to get any networking done, but as his friends and managers, well, we could show you some of the pieces, and if you like them, you can invite him to show them at a wonderful showing that we’ll cater, we’ll work and we’ll pay for. All you need to do is get the word out to your buyers, critics, whatever it is that you do.”

The manager was thin and pale as Abs, but much taller. He hunched over the desk, his blue eyes glared from Mims to Abs and back. “You’ll pay for the food and the wine?”

As Mims was about to speak, Abs set his hand on Mims’s and squeezed, then he said to the manager, “We said the food. You can supply the wine, and there is a local winery that will give youa discount, if you use them. There is where our networking for our portion of it.”

Mims knew Abs had a friend at the winery that lay just west on Interstate 70. They were just beginning but everyone loved their wine, and they’d won three awards five years after starting the vineyard.

The manager scowled at that, but he reluctantly agreed, “Fine. But I need to see the works first. If they’re not up to snuff, we won’t accept no matter your circle talking.”

“You’re going to love them. We’ll send you some samples via email, and we’ll write in the subject line, Attention Matthew Winston.”

“I’ll look out for it. Nice meeting you gentlemen.”

In the walk back to the pub, they stopped into a coffee shop and ordered two tall lattes and sat at an outdoor table, making more plans.

“The framers are ready for the paintings, but if we get them out of his room, he’s going to notice.”

“Why can’t we just leave one, one of the bigger ones? Set that in front of a stack of blank canvases?”

Abs nodded to him. “Good idea. If he sees them gone, he’s going to lose his shit. Okay, so we get them to the framers, and it’s going to take at least a month for them to get finished.”

“That’s perfect. We need the time to get the rest of this ironed out, and Winston said he didn’t have an opening for at least that long. We might actually do this, Abs.”

“We’re going to. All this other stuff going on, it’s nice to think about dreams and making them come true.”

“Like the family we’re helping after the fire.”

---