Chapter 9 – Planning the Caper
His wife knew he had accepted the deal, but Blistov didn’t. Blistov had great intuition, but that did not extend to reading a stranger as well as the stranger’s wife could. Roger decided to tell Blistov they were partners, but to hold something back on some of the acceptance. So he walked over to Blistov, nodded his head and said, “Let’s get together soon and talk.” With that he turned to his wife and started walking down Chalmers Street, staying on the sidewalk to avoid having to walk on the cobblestones that would loosen your teeth fillings if you drove on them in a car with a stiff suspension. He relaxed as he walked and took his wife’s arm. He loved the feeling of wine, wife, Charleston, evening, and an adventure pending.
They got home, opened the front door to find the cat sitting in the foyer looking up at them and the dog sitting at the top of the stairs looking down at them. Roger picked up the cat, kissed it, and threw it out the door. Gwen smacked her hip while looking at the dog, the dog jetted down the stairs to her where it was kissed, and where it too was thrown out the door. Roger and Gwen looked at each other, smiled, and went up the stairs to bed. An hour later Gwen came down the stairs, opened the front door, and found what she expected: the cat and the dog sitting on the front porch, patiently awaiting re-entry into their home.
The Junes are early risers, which was just as well because at eight am the next morning, after finishing their coffees, they heard a squeal of brakes outside, followed by the slamming of a car door. The Junes lived in a very quiet neighborhood in the old section of Charleston. Their house fronted on a very narrow brick-paved street that suffers from the same thing many of old Charleston’s streets suffers from, subsidence. A certain portion of the old district was built on fill, and the fill shifts around as the tidal ground-water flows into and out of it. The June’s street was wavy, and they liked it that way. It gave the place character and kept some of the tourists away. In fact, it kept most of the locals away too, and traffic was almost non-existent, which is why both of the Junes noticed the sound of the car parking in front of their house. That, and the fact that the Junes not are only very private people, but also very suspicious people.
When the knock came on the door, Gwen went first to the window, not the door. On the street she saw a huge black Lincoln Escalade SUV, and she wasn’t sure another car could get past it on the narrow street. She then saw Little Jinny Blistov standing on her porch, with a brown paper bag in his hands. She frowned, but not too seriously. Roger came to the top of the stairs and looked down at the front door. Gwen came into the foyer, said to her husband, “Your boy is here,” and went to the kitchen. Roger descended the stairs and opened the door to a smiling Russian gangster. Blistov said, “Good morning,” in what Roger thought was a very polite way, with an almost gentle intonation. Roger returned the salutation, and motioned the guy inside.
Standing in the large foyer and looking around, Blistov handed Roger the brown paper bag, inside of which he found two dozen Dunkin donuts. The bag was quite heavy. He looked at Blistov, smiled weakly, and said, “Let’s find Gwen.” He led the way to the kitchen where he said to his wife, “Mr. Blistov brought a gift.” He handed the heavy bag to his wife who, after examining the contents, also smiled weakly at their guest. “Well,” she said, “I guess this calls for coffee.” The Junes liked croissants and jam for breakfast every once in a while, but it had been quite some time since they had eaten any Dunkin donuts. Especially ones with pralines on them. Regardless, Gwen opened the bag and placed all twenty-four donuts on a large serving platter she got out of the cupboard. She set the coffee pot to dripping, rather than the $2,000 Italian espresso machine to hissing. It sat on a counter looking like it had come out of the space shuttle.
The three conspirators sat down at the counter and looked at each other. The Junes waited for Blistov to speak, seeing as how he had initiated this business meeting. Jinny didn’t wait for the coffee; he took a praline covered donut and started eating. The Junes, their sanctified Charleston politeness showing through, also picked up a treat, though neither one chose a donut with candy on top. Blistov said, “The sooner we get started, the sooner we make money and have some fun. I hope that’s all right with you guys?” Gwen got up and tended to the coffee machine, thinking she would leave this matter to her husband.
Roger was proper, but easy-going, so he took this invasion of their privacy in stride. He asked, “What do you have in mind; and thanks for the donuts.” Hearing this, Gwen turned, put her hand on her hip, and stared at her husband, her face expressionless, which in and of itself told Roger something. He smiled weakly at his wife and turned back to his guest. As mentioned, Blistov was a follower, not a leader, but he also was jacked up about this project, and he was not a shrinking violet. He figured if Roger didn’t want to get started right away, Roger would say so, and that would be that. Blistov would wait until the boss was ready to act, but he had no qualms about a gentle push. And he had brought donuts, right?
Blistov said, “If you guys want to, I brought some papers and things, and maybe we can get started with the planning. I got some of this stuff figured out, but we still gotta do a lot more of that. Detail, lots of details. Whatcha think?”
Gwen brought the china coffee pot to the table, and then the china cups and saucers. No time like the present to start the culture lessons, she thought. Since going to bed last night, she had reviewed Blistov’s proposal. She recognized the broad scope of the caper, and had figured out the broad role assignments. Not everything, of course, not any details, but she realized one of her duties would be to acculturate Charleston’s new and wealthy Russian population. She figured she might as well start with Blistov himself and hope it rubbed off on the others. Hence the china.
Roger wasn’t sure what Gwen wanted to do at this point, and Gwen wasn’t sure what Roger wanted to do. So they sipped some good coffee and ate some bad pastry. Blistov did too. He waited for the boss to speak, and was quite happy with the food and drink. He was ready to follow. In the ensuing silence, Gwen was astounded to find she was eating a second donut. Roger was astounded to realize he wasn’t thinking of anything other than the Boston crème donut, sitting on the antique serving platter. He should have been thinking about what to do with Blistov this morning, and he wasn’t. Oh well. He got it together, and asked Blistov what he meant when he said he had brought papers and things. Blistov stuffed the remaining half of his third donut into his mouth, jumped up, and ran out of the kitchen.
Five minutes later the Junes heard the dog bark and the door open, and a rather loud bang in the foyer. They emerged from the kitchen to find Blistov with four large tripod easels, four pads of paper two foot by three foot, and a large coffee can. He smiled and said, “The best way to plan things is to write them on paper.” With that somewhat cryptic statement, he hefted all four easels, the pads of paper, and the coffee can, and carried them into the June’s living room. He installed one pad of paper on each easel, and set the coffee can on the coffee table. He looked around the room, and was impressed. Artwork, a piano, and a sofa the size of ones he remembered from the Hermitage that used to hold six of the royal Borzois. He turned back to the Junes and said, “Ready when you are, but can I use the terlet first?”
Gwen pointed the way. When Jinny left, the Junes looked at the four easels, then at each other. Gwen left for the kitchen, and Roger sat down to wait for the show to continue. Gwen returned with the coffee pot and cups and the serving platter. When she set the platter down on the table, she wondered why she had brought it in. She had eaten two donuts. Was she, unconsciously, wanting a third? This possibility blew her mind, so she too sat down and waited for the show to continue. Blistov returned. Gwen wasn’t sure if she had heard the toilet flush or not. She wanted to ask her husband, but she didn’t. She sat, somewhat disconcerted.
Roger didn’t ask about the easels, he just gestured towards them whil
e looking at his new partner. Blistov went to the coffee can, took two magic markers out of it, and walked over to the easel on the left, where he wrote Saint Petes at the top; then on the next easel pad he wrote Paris at the top; then on the far right easel he wrote Charleston at the top. On the fourth easel pad he wrote three words: antiques, wine, real estate. With that, he relinquished his leadership role, sat down, and picked up another donut. He said between mouthfuls, “I learned this from a guy I worked with in Saint Petes, when we were planning jobs. This guy was ex-military, and he told me this was how they planned ops. They used these big tripods and big sheets of paper, and the commander would write directions and diagrams on the paper, and the soldiers would understand the plan. It worked good for the soldiers, and it worked good later, for us, doing a job. So I thought we would do the same to plan our job. Watcha think?”
Roger looked at Gwen, and shrugged. Gwen thought it was new and interesting. She was ready to go. Jinny smiled, ate, drank some more coffee, and waited for the boss to take up the ops planning. He had facilitated. After a brief delay Roger got up, reached into the coffee can, took out some markers, and went to the easels.