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Vivaldi was arguing with the thugs over something. It's in his nature to argue, so I wasn't paying attention. I decided for once to try and stay quiet and get ready for the next phase in my clever plan. Said clever plan being to see what happened next and try to take advantage of it. I've never been one much for forward thinking. The big thug who had been called Solly was left to guard me and he looked like he had attention span problems. I hoped he would not disappoint me.
"You guys have quite the billet here, slick. How much does it set you back a month?"
"Nothin'! We get a discount from the guy we got tied up in the basement what owned it in the first place." He tried to look clever, but ran straight into genetics and crashed on the shores of reality.
"Stealing a house, eh? I bet that gets a bit tough to unload. Who do you use as a fence for that sort of deal?"
"Shut up!" he explained.
The Boss Guy, who I figured to be Harry the Horse, said that they were leaving. He put a leash on the dog, with a lot of complaining and arguing. They marched out to the garage. As they went by Solly, Harry said, "Wait for ten minutes, then plug him and join us at the beachfront place." After moving his lips for a few seconds, Solly nodded in agreement.
Now, one of the things I like about this time frame of Red's is that people have become stupid. I think it's the TV. I watched a "drama" one time and just about died of laughing so hard. Take tying someone up, for instance. On the box, they tie your hands and you can't get away. So, since everyone knows that the TV is correct, they tie your hands together and figure they've done the job. Not everyone is bad at it. I once made the mistake of making a bet with Red while in a drunken stupor and spent an entirely uncomfortable weekend on my couch, trying to wriggle my way of the ropes he hogtied me with.
But Solly wasn't Red. Not by any measure. If you're willing to lose a bit of skin in the process, getting out of the typical hand tie is as simple as, well, this. I dropped the ropes on the ground and came up swinging. Solly turned out to have a glass jaw and he went down snoring. Another thing they don't teach these days is to never stand over your tied up victim, just in case he wants to try something clever like that. I undid the ankle ties and grabbed my hat. I had a word or two to share with Mr Horse.
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