Bjorn woke her with a warm glass of milk the next morning and a tray of breakfast in bed.
“Oh. I hesitate to ask what you did for me to deserve this,” she said pushing her hair out of her eyes. For a minute she thought about rushing to the bathroom, fixing her hair maybe brushing her teeth but Bjorn smiled.
“You’ve never looked better,” he said. Samara’s eyes narrowed, wondering why he was being so nice.
“So I have something to tell you. The reason why I’ve been so…confused.”
“Okay,” Samara said heart speeding up.
“Your dad came here two weeks ago,” he began.
“What! What did he say? What did he want?”
“If you shush and listen, I will tell you,” he said irritably.
Samara put an exaggerated hand over her lips and Bjorn sighed, rolling his eyes.
“So he tried to extort both I and Alison for money-“
Samara gasped but didn’t say a word.
“And we thought we needed to find a way to get rid of him for good. That is if you’re agreeable to that.”
“Uh huh,” Samara said leaning forward. “But how? You’re not going to…have him killed are you?”
Bjorn snorted, “I’m a businessman not a mob boss Samara.”
“I know that. But you said ‘get rid of’ and short of killing him, I don’t see how you can make him go away. Even if you give him money, he’ll be back for more eventually.”
Bjorn nodded impatiently, “We know that. That’s why Alison and I came up with a plan.”
“What plan?” Samara asked feeling anxiety claw at her throat.
“Dad?”
“Yeah Alison.”
“Can we meet?”
“Where?”
“I’ll come to you. Diner across the street, right?”
“Yeah. I can wait for you there.”
“Cool.”
Alison hung up. Trust her dad to be lying to her about where he was staying. She took a deep breath, hoping against hope that this plan worked. She paced up and down until it was time to go meet him. He was right on time. He always was when money was involved.
“So, I don’t have access to fifty large Dad,” she said once he’d sat down at the outdoor café where she was waiting.
“So why am I here?”
“Because I happen to know that Bjorn Fredriksen has a safe full of cash and jewels in a safe place inside a false wall between his room and Samara’s.”
“And? How does that help me?”
“Samara has the combination in case of emergency. I’m pretty sure there’s enough cash in there to set us both up for life. But it’s a two man job to get it out.”
Chris smiled at her, “There’s my girl. Why is it a two man job? Get the combination, go to the safe, and get the stuff.”
“Are you crazy? We do that, we have cops on our tails from here to eternity. I need to trick the combination out of Samara and give it to you. She doesn’t know you and I are still talking or that you’re in town. Bjorn’s going to New York next week. All I need to do is get Samara out of the house. You get in, get the cash, leave everything like you found it…we split the cash and you go underground. I continue life as normal. No one’s the wiser.”
“Yeah but what happens when the money runs out?”
“Exactly, this is the mother lode if we play our cards right. We just gotta be smart about this.”
“How do I get in to the apartment?”
“There’s an employee entrance. I’ll have a key card made and get it to you.”
Chris was smiling excitedly.
“How much you think is in there?”
“I don’t know man. But last week, Bjorn took Samara out and he gave her a jeweled necklace to wear. It had like at least a 30 carat diamond and it also looked like the chain was pure gold. Plus he gave her a ring and a bracelet to match. I know those aren’t the only jewels in there and that combo alone has to be a hundred grand at least.”
The pleased smile on Chris’ face widened.
“Good. Set it up. I’ll get in touch with Julio the Fence so we can get the money quick. That Fredriksen guy might suspect that I’m involved.”
Alison frowned in feigned puzzlement, “Why?”
Chris shrugged, “Well I mighta have confronted him in front of the lawyer building. I figured I might as well get my order in now that they were decidin’ how much cash to pay her for the kid.”