First scene of Danny Pays His Debts

Danny gave the taxi driver a five dollar tip and stepped out into the drizzle. Despite being early spring, winter was pushing back hard, and a damp, cold evening like this could cause a man to try and hide his head under an umbrella, or pull the collars of his trench coat up tight to his cheek bones, but Danny walked tall, anticipating a profit. The only acknowledgements to the weather that he wore were a dark grey water resistant polyester soft shell jacket, a pair of worn leather gloves, and a faded black baseball cap. The sun had set and with the help of the heavy clouds, darkness was coming quickly. A gust of wind gave him a momentary chill and splattered icy droplets onto his face. Still, the meeting location was a block away, behind a nail salon that had recently closed down, and Danny walked briskly to his destination. He glanced at the fabric of a once colorful awning that sheltered the front door and windows of the now defunct enterprise. Sun and harsh weather had faded it from a bright canary to pale pastel, splattered with patches of dirt and grime. This was a clear sign that business had been slowing down for a while and the proprietors probably didn’t have the money to perform maintenance and make upgrades.  It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, since the word was that most of the patrons were choosing to go to a nail salon that imbedded itself in the new super grocery store that opened about a five minute drive away. None of that mattered to Danny.

He splashed through a puddle in size 10 brown canvas shoes as he turned down a dirty alley next to the nail salon, strewn with cans, beer bottles, broken glass, and random trash, en route to the meeting spot, eager to get on with the business. When he arrived, he found the location to be devoid of activity, but that only lasted a minute before a rented truck rumbled into the space, its headlights burning Danny’s retinas a bit. An unshaven man in his mid twenties was behind the wheel, his bright blue eyes blazing from within a visage defined by his scraggly beard and stringy hair. He shut off the engine, swung open the door, and jumped down. Apparently he too was unaffected by the weather and wore only a flannel shirt over a white tee-shirt and dirty jeans.

“Danny boy!” the man exclaimed. “Ready to make some money?”

“Howard!” Danny replied. “How you doing man?!”

Danny and Howard shook hands with the gusto of two men who had worked together before. Just few months ago, they managed to swipe a few boxes of car speakers off a loading dock at the mall. They were working on a much bigger score today.

“Where’s Ray?” Danny asked.

“He said he had some other things to take care of,” Howard replied, “but I’ll meet up with him later.”

 “Sounds good,” Danny responded, “when we’re done here, we should go grab a few drinks.”

“Definitely!” Howard agreed. “So let’s do this!”

They headed for the back of the truck and Howard rolled the door up and open, climbing into the back with Danny close behind him. Numerous boxes with the Sony logo filled about two thirds of the musty cargo box. There was a three inch hole in the ceiling of the cargo box, which let water in but somehow none of the cardboard boxes were dampened. Danny glanced at Howard to see where he positioned himself. He took notice that he was close enough for a hand to hand fight, but too close for the gun that he kept under his belt. If he was forced to draw the weapon, Howard would be in a position to wrestle for it. At this range, his knife would be a good option. Danny didn’t expect to have a fight with Howard, but he was always ready for one. Howard pushed a box over to Danny for him to examine. Danny ignored it and chose his own. He took his knife from his pocket and flicked out the blade, testing its sharpness against his thumb. He cut the box open, pulled out an item still in its original factory packaging, and smiled. He opened another box and smiled again.

“Just as I said,” Howard reassured, “Playstation 3s and games.  We staked out a warehouse and followed a delivery truck for an hour before we made our move. This has got be worth between 30 to 40 grand.”

“I hope 40 grand is the right number,” Danny mused.

Danny wasn’t sure which versions of the game console were in the truck, but he hoped they were the sixty gigabyte models that sold for $599. The lower tiered model wasn’t bad either and cost $499. He had it all worked out how he would sell the consoles. He already had a few customers lined up and the cash that he got from those sales, he would use to buy a computer. With the computer, Danny could then sell the Playstations over eBay or any other service he could get access to. Even though the consoles had been on sale for a few years, they were still popular and this was going to be easy money.