I, Psychopath Read online

  As we drove off, I looked back and could see people running from the diner but it didn’t seem possible that anyone could have seen the license plate number. Bart had done his homework well and we were soon in the thick of traffic going out of the city. Bart was still smarting over the nerve of that guy to attempt a getaway and expressed a wish that he had shot both him and the girl. I was glad he didn’t but there was no use arguing now when everything seemed to go well. Bart drove on the freeway for several miles before doubling back toward my apartment for a look at what we had snagged. We arrived at my building about ten and the place was quiet as usual. We carried the bags into my bedroom and dumped them on the bed which couldn’t contain the overflow of bills. It looked like a lot more than the last job and we immediately set about to count our loot. After several false starts, it took us about an hour to arrive at a consensus of the total and both of us beamed when it amounted to sixty seven hundred dollars. That was a huge amount but I was sure that the diner took in more money than that sum However, it was possible that a bank deposit had been made earlier. Well, it was still a grand sum and each of us had profited very well from the two heists. I had made over five thousand dollars and felt that it was now time to quit the bakery and devote all my time to robbing stores until there was enough money to live on for years. At the rate that we were going, it wouldn’t take long to really accumulate a fortune as long as we didn’t slip up and find ourselves in jail. I didn’t think that would happen because my life was turning out to be charmed and nothing could go wrong with my plans.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  In all of the excitement of counting the money and congratulating ourselves, I had neglected to take the gun from Bart when he left. I didn’t like the idea of him holding onto it and getting it back would be my first priority tomorrow. I stashed my loot and tried to relax but the level of excitement in my brain just wouldn’t go down. Hoping that we made the nightly news, I turned on the television and watched with glee as our robbery was the first story presented. As usual, the events were exaggerated but witnesses were not too diverse in their description of our actions. Of course, no one could identify us and a couple of them had been so horrified by the pistol, that their stories were totally useless. As in the last job, we were identified as two tall, white males with gruff voices who would not have hesitated to kill the victims. The man that Bart hit with the gun was shown with huge bandages on his head and blood all over his clothes but he seemed to be alright. It certainly looked like we got away clean again which made me confident that the steps taken were fool proof and would never lead to our apprehension. While trying to fall asleep, I decided to give notice at the bakery and see how soon the job could end. I didn’t want to wait too long since going there every day was really getting to be a drag and the sooner it was over, the better. I even came up with some plausible excuses for my departure but decided that going into business with a friend in the construction industry was the best one. All I had to do was tell the manager and start counting down the days to leaving the bakery, which had become a very aversive place for me over the last few months.

  The people at work were very surprised when I gave notice and several of them mentioned to me that my chance of becoming a manager looked very good. I thanked everyone for their confidence in me but told them in no uncertain terms that my mind was made up and there was no use in discussing the matter further. I guess that my words sounded emphatic enough because after a few attempts at retaining me, they abruptly put a halt to it. The bakery only wanted one week to find a replacement for me and they probably had someone in mind already so these last few days should be fairly easy. Now, I was finally starting to take full control of my life and getting rid of all those burdens that kept me in a restrictive, unhappy existence. When I came home there were two things that were on my agenda and while one was more important, both of them were necessary. The first item was to phone Bart and ask him to bring the gun to me so it could be safely hidden and the second was to see Francine. I didn’t anticipate a problem with Bart who probably would be glad to get the weapon out of his crowded house. I called but he wasn’t home so without leaving a detailed message, said that it wasn’t important and another try would be made later. I had always been careful to avoid having my name associated with Bart since his family was an unknown to me. I thought that the less known about me, the better it would be in the long run. I was going to call Bart again later but in the meantime, would see about spending a little time with Francine. There had been some neglect on my part but with so many other commitments, time was limited for socializing.

  I knocked on her door and when she opened it, there was a look of annoyance on her face which might have been expected from a woman who felt that her man was not showing a proper amount of appreciation toward her. I could feel a flush of anger rise in me but having a woman was more important than showing her who the boss was. I didn’t like the fact that she had an attitude merely because my attentions had slacked off in the last few weeks. Gritting my teeth, I smiled and acted as if everything was fine and even offered to take her out for dinner. For a moment, she maintained the aloof pose and then seemed to warm up to the suggestion of eating out We hugged and kissed as if nothing had been strained and left within minutes for a restaurant where the food had been enjoyable at other times. I was so intent on having sex that my conversation continued right through the meal while noticing that Francine was very pleased by the attention heaped upon her. She was not used to hearing me talk a lot and probably thought that I really missed and loved her. It was a good act because when we returned to the apartment, the mood turned romantic and hours of love making ensued. I was proud of myself for becoming such a good actor and pretending that a lot of caring existed between us but a mental note was made to repay her for showing me that negative attitude. I had to get back to my place and take care of the gun situation so after making excuses about having to take care of some chores and promising to see her regularly, left and within minutes phoned Bart. He was home and after chatting about our great successes for a few minutes, I asked him to return the gun but to my surprise, a stubborn streak emerged, and my request was refused. I tried using reasoning but he would not listen while continuing to say that the gun felt very comfortable in his possession and no problem would occur with it being in his house. After a few more attempts at convincing him to see it my way, I ended the conversation and mentioned seeing him later to discuss this matter further.

  This glitch was not in my plans and having a gun in Bart’s hands was not my idea of safekeeping the weapon. From what he had told me about his family, they were very erratic and deviant and could do anything without warning. I was worried that the gun would find its way into one of their hands and end up in a robbery or other crime where police could get involved. If the cops somehow acquired the weapon, there was no way to trace it back to me unless Bart was implicated by the relative and eventually questioned. There was always a chance that my name could come up and that would be disastrous since our crimes had been very serious. I had a rough time sleeping that night as negative thinking kept pervading my brain. How could I have made such a mistake by not retaining the gun? This was the worst error I ever made in my criminal career and it had to be resolved to my satisfaction or there would be no rest for me. The trouble with Bart was that he was a little dense and stubborn and would be very hard to convince once his mind was made up. I suppose that a sum of money could be offered for the gun but why, I paid for it even if it was with Francine’s money. His family was trouble and I knew that something bad was going to happen as soon as someone discovered the weapon. For all I knew, Bart was the kind of showoff who would let everyone look at it so he could seem like a big man. I finally fell asleep from sheer mental exhaustion but not before a firm resolve had been made to retrieve the gun by whatever means necessary.

  I still had another week of work to finish although doing so was a complete burden to me that interfered with my important decisions. Ho
wever, to give the appearance of a decent person, I worked every hour and did a pretty good job. On my last day, the manager once again tried to convince me to stay on but all that did was make me feel better about myself. I was juggling my time thinking about how to retrieve the weapon and spending some time with Francine. I figured out that the only way to have a chance at securing the pistol was to plan another job and during or after its completion, somehow get my hands on it. Hitting another downtown firm might be pushing my luck at this time. I considered robbing a place in the suburbs which could throw the police a curve and have them running in all different directions at once. Finding a business to rob in the outer city areas shouldn’t be difficult since there were dozens of malls to choose from. I phoned Bart and asked him to come over to discuss business and he eagerly agreed. I thought that he might be running low on money since his spending habits were often out of control. Strangely enough, his lack of fiscal responsibility would work in my favor. He was coming over this afternoon so we could drive around the suburban malls and look for likely targets. Bart probably knew the area much better than I did since having no car made it very difficult to go anywhere but downtown. I relaxed as much as possible while waiting for his arrival and continued thinking of ways to obtain the gun.

  When Bart arrived, I could see where his money was going. He was wearing entirely new and expensive looking clothes which I didn’t think was cool since here was a guy who didn’t work and people might wonder where his money came from. It was then that the first inkling of not seeing Bart as an asset any longer began to take shape and other than losing the use of a car, there seemed to be no other reason to continue our partnership. In fact, I decided that this would be the last job we did and after I had the gun, there would have no reason to see him again. Of course, I had to hope that he didn’t get arrested for some future crime and decide to turn on me but that was always a problem when companions were involved. We drove out toward the edge of the city where Bart thought he knew of several successful businesses that should have a good deal of cash by nightfall. I was looking for one that was on the end of a strip mall to avoid having many witnesses from every direction who could possibly identify us as we left the premises. We looked at a few of the possibilities before one of them caught my eye as a good prospect. At the edge of one mall, stood a large sporting goods store that seemed to be doing a brisk amount of business and I noticed that the store closed at nine p.m. every night. I would have to check out the number of customers still inside at that time but didn’t think there would be very many even counting the few clerks still working. The biggest problem would be getting away from the area before police closed in since traffic was not as heavy on these streets as it was in the city. We would need a fool proof escape route that either blended us in with other cars driving in the vicinity or allowed us to get to a bar where we could sit for awhile until things cooled down. Bart would have to figure that out since he was the driver but once we had a plan, the robbery could commence and become the beginning of our last job together.

  Bart liked the idea and said he would work out a good exit plan over the next few days so we could be ready to act soon after. The quicker we engaged in this heist, the better for me and I encouraged him to do a thorough and speedy assessment. Bart said he would get back to me in a day or two and work out all the plans which I knew included bringing the gun. I was hoping that nothing went wrong at his house before we committed the robbery and advised him to keep the weapon out of sight. He took exception to my words and resented the intimation that I considered him to be stupid, which was a good guess on his part. After he left, I had nothing to do but wait for his report and then plan out the smallest details. I had to keep in mind that sporting goods stores carry weapons and if the clerks weren’t watched carefully, one of them might get heroic and try to use one of them against us. A shooting is the last thing I needed since it would bring police that much quicker but there would be no hesitation if someone aimed a rifle at one of us. Bart was probably close to being broke and immediately went to work by looking over the area and checking out all possible escape routes that would keep us away from police cars. The speed at which he completed the task impressed me and it raised his level of competence in my mind but not very much. I was still intent on making this our last job together and retrieving the pistol. As soon as Bart figured out the best exit from the store area, we would decide how to make the robbery as simple as could be.

  Now that I was no longer working, it was easy to slip into a lifestyle of rising late and going to bed at any hour in the morning. I seemed to have more energy and was able to have sex with Francine much more often than ever which pleased her to no end. She probably felt more secure in our relationship and less threatened by the thought that I could be cheating on her. I was really enjoying my time and looking forward to spending all my years in the same mode with the knowledge of course, that money would have to come from somewhere. That sobering fact was always in front of me and kept my thoughts focused on new ways of obtaining large sums of cash. Right now, the sporting goods store was my priority and I wanted to get it done very quickly. Two nights later, Bart came over with a diagram of the escape route and went over it with me until all the questions were resolved. Now, we had to plan on how to execute the crime and of course, it depended on the number of people in the store and whether pedestrians were passing nearby. I decided that entering the premises just before it closed would provide the easiest recourse since very few people are usually in a store at closing. Another advantage was that clerks would be tired from the long day of work and not in any mood to resist us. Seeing a weapon should be enough to force compliance with our requests. Anyway, why should they care about us taking the store’s money, it wasn’t theirs to begin with and insurance would make up the losses so really no one loses. We decided to pull off the job tomorrow night and would meet at my apartment about seven thirty when it was starting to get dark. We knew what to bring and there was little else to discuss other than once again, advising Bart not to fire the gun unless he absolutely had to. I hoped that he took my words to heart and didn’t ignore them.

  The plans seemed to be in good order and to my surprise, I had a good nights’ sleep for a change which hadn’t often happened before the day of a heist. I woke up feeling refreshed and fully alert without any doubts ruminating through my mind. All I had to do was have all my gear ready for the evening which only involved a mask to put over my face, latex gloves and a bag to carry the loot away with. I was really looking forward to our caper and sometimes became impatient with the slow movement of the clock. Watching time crawl by was always boring but I managed to fill up the day with stupid television shows and grocery shopping. As the hour approached for Bart’s arrival, my skin was tingling with anticipation of doing the job and grabbing all that money. I was hoping that this would be the biggest haul we ever made and would allow me to take some time off for resting and an assessment of my future plans. Before I knew it, the light was starting to fade and twilight took over. At the appointed time, Bart showed up and his eagerness was apparent by the facial expressions he displayed. The necessary equipment for the job was in a bag and he also showed me the gun that was stuck inside his waist band. It was now time to go and we left for the area immediately in a slow but steady speed that wouldn’t draw any attention. We approached the store and drove by slowly to have a look inside where all that could be seen was two customers and two clerks. I was sure that one or two more clerks were in the back, possible counting up the deposit for the night. Bart parked about a half block away where streetlights were absent and waited by the car while I walked across the street and past the store. Seeing nothing unusual inside, I signaled him to start toward the door so we could walk in together. Luckily, there was no traffic going past the store at this time so everything looked ideal for our entrance. It was very dark outside when we simultaneously put on our masks and walked through the door. We were met by a clerk who seemed not to notice the mask
s but advised us that the store was closing and no sales could be made at this time. The clerk’s face turned ashen when Bart took the gun out and motioned him to walk toward the rear. Within seconds, the customers and clerks were huddled against a rear wall while I opened the cash registers and scooped out all the bills in them. It was a nice amount of money but not exactly what I had in mind. While Bart watched the others, I had one of the clerks call out for the others to come from the back and when they did, their reactions were exactly as we had expected and they meekly complied with our requests. I asked the clerk where the days’ deposits were and he said they were already made which seemed to be a lie. Bart showed him the gun and asked if dying was worth protecting the money. The man thought about it for a few seconds and said the bags were in the back and led me inside to get them.