Page 10 of The Honeymoon Heist

After dropping off the painting in the cave, they’d spent the night in Positano and met their contacts at a small coffee shop near the pebbled beach for payment. Only they didn’t get paid. A couple of muscle-bound pipe-hitters that refused to give their names showed up. Buck had taken to calling them Guido One and Guido Two, and what they said told him his easy money had just become a little harder. Someone had seen the painting after they’d left the grotto, and payment was being withheld until they knew more about who the people represented.

Buck said, “What’s that got to do with us? We don’t know anyone here, and if we were going to double-cross you, why on earth would we bring the painting at all?”

In heavily accented English, Guido One said, “They sat off the shore watching you two, and as soon as you left, they went up. Like they knew what you were doing.”

Guido Two said, “We don’t think you were going to double-cross us, but wonder if maybe you were sloppy.”

“Sloppy? How? All we did was what Mr. Salvatore told us to do. Down to the letter.”

“That’s what we want you to figure out. Find out what those people are up to. If they’re just tourists, like they told us, then you get paid. If not, we’ll have to determine what we’re going to do.”

Miles spoke for the first time. “What do you want us to do? This is your town.Yourcountry. How are we going to find some guys that went up to the cave after we left?”

“First, it’s a woman, child, and man. Second, they are American.”

Incredulous, Buck said, “You think some American tourists are out to get you? A woman and a child?”

Guido Two leaned forward and said, “The man was no tourist.”

Buck waved his arms in the air and said, “How do you know? Because he actually had a wife and kid with him? You guys are insane. I want my money. I did everything you asked.”

“Because I know. I saw him. Looked him in the eye. He’s like us. It’s something you can sense. He’s not here with a wife and kid. He’s here for something else, and that’s what you’re going to find out if you want to get paid.”

“How on earth am I going to do that? Just wander the streets to find him? I don’t even know what he looks like.”

Guido Two passed across a sheet of paper, saying, “We got the information from his boat rental. He had to give them a residence and leave a copy of his passport. He’s staying in the Villa Magia in room seven, in the upper area. This is his name.”

Buck took the slip of paper and said, “If you know so much about him, why don’t you two track him?”

“Because he saw us at the dock next to the White Grotto. We had a little bit of an altercation. He knows us on sight, but not you.”

And now Buck found himself waiting in a café to track a man that he was sure was just a tourist. But he’d do whatever it took to get the money he was owed. Spending a day following a family around Positano? He could think of worse things.

He watched the flow of pedestrians crossing the street from the upper staircase to the lower, finding it easy to determine who was the tourist visiting and who was the local. The locals attacked the slope of the stairs like they consistently did it five times a day—which they probably did. The tourists looked like they were at thirty thousand feet about to summit Everest, staggering forward as if they needed an oxygen bottle.

His phone vibrated on the table and he snatched it up, seeing Miles’s number and wondering how much it was costing for the two to be talking on cell phones based in the United States but located in Italy.

Miles said, “They’re out, and they’re headed your way, going down to the town.”

“How do you know it’s them?”

The hotel Magia had been created out of two giant old houses, with half the rooms in the front house, and the other half in the back. The room Guido One had given them was in the back, but because of the way the house was built, they couldn’t get eyeballs on the actual room number without arousing suspicion. All they could do was watch the steel door leading to an alley from the house itself, which left potentially four other occupied rooms that could exit at one time or another.

“It’s them. A man, woman, and a kid of about fourteen.”

“What if it’sanotherman, woman, and kid staying in that block of rooms?”

“It’s not. They’re headed your way.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because the guy is just like Guido One said. He’s a hard-looking motherfucker. Like a pirate or something. He doesn’t fit in with the woman and kid.”

“Did you get a picture?”

“Yeah, from the back.”

“Send it.”

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