Jack Hudson, retired cop, man about town, was soon to be employed in a shady money laundering scheme. He almost laughed out loud. This is the undercover work he did early in his career but on steroids. He was headed inside, undercover. At least he didn't have any of the brashness of youth left to squash down but he did have a keen sense of appreciation of the risks now. They are palpable and serious.
He waited the appropriate amount of time and casually rolled his old ford up to the curb in front of the nondescript office building in downtown Eaton. He found the office in the back easily enough and went in. There was an empty desk in the lobby surrounded by four private office doors, one of which was open. “Hello?” Jack called softly, just as a fifty-ish office type came out of the door that was open.
“You must be Mr. Hudson, I'm Jim Wix” he said, holding out his hand to shake. Jack noted the weak handshake, pleased that this was not the muscle guy.
“Jack Hudson, Mr. Wix.”
“Call me Jim. Come into the office, have a seat” Wix got right to it. “You say that you're retired now and looking for a little part time work?”
“Yes sir, er a Jim. Nothing too strenuous but a bit of entertainment to supplement my retirement would be nice.”
“I do have a need for an additional person that would be a confidential position. Someone that would not show up on the books, and just help out on occasion. Is that something you would be amenable to?”
If Jack was reading this right, Wix was offering him an undercover job and was willing to hire an undercover guy to do it. He almost laughed. Jack got right to it as well. “If you are asking me to work for cash, off the books, sure. I don't want the paper trail either. I would like a simple deal.”
“Good. Can you start today? Right now?”
“Sure, why not.”
“I need you to help me load some boxes into the trunk of my car and run them up to Sacramento. We'll be back here by early evening” Wix stated with a bit of relief on his face. Jack realized this was the solution to the problem that Wix and Davies had to solve from the early morning phone call. Jack was pleased that he had turned on his phone for the interview to have Bronson listen in.
Sometime later, they pulled into the parking lot entrance of the Farmers Bank in not-quite downtown Sacramento. They carried the boxes into the commercial desk then moved them to a back room behind the offices, in the ante room in front of the vault.
Jack drifted toward the wall to play the role of the attentive and aloof guard as Wix and the bank employee unloaded stacks and stacks of bills out of the twelve boxes they brought in. The lack of discourse between the two suggested this procedure had been conducted before. The bundled bills were stacked at one end of the table and the bank employee pulled out a clipboard with a tally form clipped to it. Jack smirked at the exact duplicate of the clipboard used at the casino. It must have come from Bank Supplies-R-Us, he thought. He silently chided himself, Focus.
Jim Wix initialed each violet wrapper, pushed the bundle to the far end of the table to start a new pile and called the move to the bank employee. He noted on the clipboard and the process continued for nearly an hour. The final number was 223 bundles of $20 bills and 68 bundles of $100 bills. Jack didn't know how much the dollar count but he was sure it was more than he'd likely have in his retirement account when the real time came.
The forms were signed, deposit receipt filled out and they were back in the car headed south. Jack discreetly thumbed his phone off so there was no risk of unwanted beeps in the car. “Well Jack, that was your first day on the job, what do you think?” Jim said.
“It was not as exciting as it could have been, I rather like it that way” Jack replied.
“So do I. That is pretty typical of what I need you for. The business is mostly all cash so I will be calling you when it, you know, builds up.”
“This should work out fine. I will need a bit of warning to drive over from San Francisco or Sacramento. I spend a bit of time with the family so I might be in either place” Jack said, in order to make sure Wix provided him with a convenient lead time to get the office involved.
They traveled mostly in silence and Jack didn't push. This was, after all, a boss to subordinate relationship and Jim Wix appeared to be a big boss. It gave Jack time to put pieces together. He noted that Wix did not use the services of an armored car company that was normal for big cash operations. He also noted the big cash came from the office in the small town of Eaton, far away from the concession operations. This was not surprising at all because Jack already knew where the cash came from.
Jim broke the silence as they pulled into town “I usually have to make a run like this every week or two. I will call you when I have the next one put together.”
“Sounds fine to me, my schedule usually has openings” Jack said with a sly grin.
Jim stopped the car at the rear entrance of his office, took two $100 bills out of coat pocket and handed them to Jack. “This should cover you for today; I'll give you a call.”
“That will do nicely, boss” Jack said, allowing his grin to go wide. He made his way to his old Ford and left.