Page 3 of The Thief
“I think I’m pretty fucking great,” I announced drily, being as arrogant as I could to piss him off as I smiled smugly to myself and kept my eyes fixed on the door ahead.
“You could be...” He paused for effect, then pushed himself off my desk and went back to leaning against the window. “If you weren’t such a dick.”
My head snapped around to glare up at him.
“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
He was the one grinning like a smug asshole now. “You’ve got skills. I can’t deny that. But from what we saw just now”—he jerked his head, gesturing outside—“you’re wasting your time pulling shitty moves.”
I was seconds away from jumping off my chair and smashing him through that fucking window. I tried to look relaxed, but my chest was rising and falling rapidly as I breathed heavily. My hands fisted as I prepared to launch my attack.
But he wasn’t bothered.
He wasn’t fazed in the slightest.
And that’s why I didn’t react.
This guy had something about him. Something slightly psychotic in the way he carried himself. Psychopathically calm and serene.
I wasn’t stupid.
I knew he was someone I probably shouldn’t mess with.
He crossed one leg casually over the other and said, “Congratulations on stealing Alfie’s wallet.” Then he clapped slowly and bent down to get in my face. “Yes, we saw that little display. The old bump into him and swipe it from his pocketwhile he’s distracted trick. That was quite the show... stealing from a man who barely makes minimum wage. But then, one look at his cheap suit and the desperation in his eyes could’ve told you who he was.” He leaned away from me. “You’re good at stealing,mate, but you’re shit at reading people.”
His face turned into a sneer that I found myself subconsciously inching away from. “Do you think, of all the people you could’ve chosen, he was the one who deserved to be robbed today?”
He took a moment, his nostrils flaring as he breathed deep, then carried on. “They gave him the role of site manager, but we all know that title doesn’t mean shit. He’s a gopher, a dogsbody, the poor sod who does all the shitty jobs no one else around here wants to do. But he does it with a smile on his face because he’s learned to be happy with his lot. It’s all he’ll ever be. But he won’t be smiling tonight, will he? Because of you.”
He stared at me with fire burning in his eyes.
I shrugged, and that fire grew wilder as he hissed, “He’ll leave his shitty job tonight and get into the car he can’t afford. A car he’ll probably lose when he defaults on the monthly payment because he lost his wallet, his credit cards—not that they matter, because he’s already maxed them out. He won’t know how shitty his day has been until he stops off at the shops to buy the few groceries his wife asked him to pick up on the way home. Only, when he gets to the checkout, guess what? Surprise, surprise, he can’t pay because you have his wallet.
“So, he puts all the stuff back, drowning in guilt as all the other shoppers stare at him in disgust. Then he leaves empty-handed, feeling ashamed that at forty years old, his life is crashing down around him. He has no luck. He never has done.He’ll go home, tell his wife he lost his wallet. He was broke before, but it’s worse now.
“Maybe the wife will leave him. God knows, she’s on her last nerve trying to survive this life. His kids will be devastated. Another broken home. He’ll fall into the bottom of a whisky bottle. He’s lost his job, his home, his family, his pride, and for what? So you can take the last ounce of dignity he had and buy yourself a packet of cigarettes on the way home. Because I can guarantee, there’s probably no more than twenty quid in there, if you’re lucky. Twenty quid that means the world to him... And it means nothing to you.”
I swallowed, taken aback by his rambling, scathing monologue. “You’re being a bit melodramatic, aren’t you?”
“Realistic,” he darted back, steel eyes cutting into me as he stared down at me with contempt. “I think you’ll find the word you’re looking for is realistic.”
I huffed, rolling my eyes. “All right. Jesus. Enough with the guilt trip. It’s just a wallet.”
He stepped back over to me, forcing his face into mine as he whispered, “It’s notjusta wallet though, is it? Did you not listen to a word I said? It’s a wallet to you. It’s life for him.”
I couldn’t deny that I was taken aback. The last place I’d expected to find this kind of Shakespearean dramatics was a fucking pupil referral unit.
“Fuck’s sake. If it means that much to you, I’ll give it back. Tell him I found it on the floor in the corridor or something.”
“That’d be a start.” He stood back, nodding in approval. “Or better yet, find a more worthy target for your…skills.”
He glanced over his shoulder, through the window at the car park, and pointed. I decided to stand up and see what he waspointing at.
“Him,” he remarked. “John Steadman. He runs this place. Treats the pupils and the staff like shit and creams what he can from the finances to lace his pockets. He spent the last two weeks in the South of France. His friends have a villa over there. I heard him telling everyone who’d listen, bragging about the size of the swimming pool. Now”—the lad turned to stare at me as I watched Steadman get out of his Mercedes, collect his leather briefcase from the back seat, then lock the car—“wouldn’t it be something if his wallet was stolen? You’d probably find a lot more than twenty quid inside that one. It’d be nothing to him. He’d claim for the loss on his insurance and think nothing of it after a few minutes of moaning to his secretary. He’d still be able to buy groceries. His wife would never know he lost it. He'd probably see it as an opportunity to treat himself to a new Italian leather one and write-off the cost through his taxes.”
I huffed a smile because, even though I didn’t want to admit it, I knew he was right. That scenario did sound better.
“Or,” he went on. “Some of that cash in his big, fat wallet could find its way into Alfie’s. Turn that twenty quid into a forty, fifty maybe? Give him a little bonus, like the one he probably won’t be getting at Christmas, because let’s face it, his boss is a dick.”
