Chapter 29: Late Night, Unsettled Hearts
It was still in the suburbs of Chicago, at a small pub with a CLOSED sign hanging outside, but inside, it was filled with smoke.
A bartender and four well-dressed men were smoking and drinking heavily.
"Who knew that drunkard was so hard to beat? Now he's dead, and we've messed up our plan, making the police investigate even more. Damn it. Goss, give me another drink." One of the men finished his whiskey and cursed as he slammed the glass on the counter.
These four strong men were the unlucky ones who failed to rob the jewelry store because of Tony Wendys' drunken accident that night and instead took the blame for Josh.
From the man's words, it can be seen that they really didn't know that Tony Wendys was later killed by Josh and thought they had beaten him to death themselves.
"That's enough. You've already had two bottles of my authentic Kentucky bourbon! " Goss, the bartender, who was also the owner of this small pub and the accomplice of these four men, helped them with logistics such as buying guns, fixing cars, and selling stolen goods.
"Oh, come on, Goss, it's only two bottles of whiskey!" One of the men complained.
"Just good use of words, Cody! Do you think it was still two years ago? Go outside and see. Now a bottle of whiskey is worth two hundred dollars, and you can't even buy it with money!" Goss grumbled.
Although the Prohibition era had long passed, the war had caused alcohol prices to soar again. By 1943, there were almost no legitimate distillers left in the market.
Even many of the imported whiskeys from Ireland had been confiscated.
A bottle of genuine bottled whiskey would cost at least tens or even hundreds of dollars.
As for premium whiskeys like bourbon, two hundred dollars was not expensive at all.
Of course, there were still cheap drinks available. It might only cost ten dollars if you bought a bottle of home-brewed liquor from a small workshop or farm.
But anyone who knew about alcohol knew that such unskilled homemade liquor had a poor taste, low alcohol content, and even the risk of poisoning.
"Hey, two hundred dollars is nothing. We robbed so many jewels before." Cody was unhappy. He knew that alcohol was expensive, but so what? What was the point if they didn't drink themselves to death in their line of work?
"Is it a lot? Yes, you guys robbed a lot before, but how many of them were premium quality? Even the gold was only 18K, and there was very little platinum. The quality was only slightly better than silver, and the total value was not more than a hundred thousand dollars. Not to mention they haven't even been sold yet. Even if they were all sold, we could only get more than twenty thousand dollars, thank God. After deducting other expenses such as guns and cars, how much would be left?" Goss scolded.
That's right, these people had already robbed three times in Chicago.
But the targets of those three times were only ordinary civilian-level jewelry stores.
These stores would not have any high-end jewelry.
So even though they had stolen a lot of jewelry, the quality was poor and basically only worth dozens or hundreds of dollars per item.
Compared to the jewelry stores in the 21st century that sold for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, it was a world of difference.
Anyone who knew a little about the business would know that jewelry of this level, apart from the precious metals used to make the jewelry itself, had very little value in terms of the gems on them if there was no commercial markup.
So those hundreds of pieces of jewelry that seemed to be worth over a hundred thousand dollars, in reality, were only worth about forty or fifty thousand dollars.
But that's not all. In the business of selling stolen goods, intermediaries would take at least fifty percent of the difference. The more unscrupulous ones would take seventy or eighty percent.
Otherwise, who would take the risk of selling stolen goods?
So according to this calculation, what Goss said was already quite generous.
After dividing it among the five of them, it was only four thousand dollars per person... enough to buy a few bottles of whiskey?
At this point, the slightly smaller but oldest-looking man among the four men spoke up.
"Okay, Goss, open another bottle. It's on me!"
Seeing him speak, Goss didn't argue anymore, nodded, and took out another bottle from the counter.
"Hey, hey, Louis is still so generous!" Cody was excited and poured some whiskey for Louis, who had spoken earlier and then filled his own glass.
"I don't have much of this good whiskey left. Soon, I'll only be able to sell my own moonshine." Goss shook his head and said.
"Don't worry, Goss, everything will be okay." Louis smiled and took a sip of his drink, then turned to the other two. "Frank, Dix, why so quiet today? Don't worry. Once the dust settles, we'll make a big score together."
"Of course, Louis, I trust you!" Dix, the tallest person in the room, said loudly.
"Louis...I want to quit!" The last person, Frank, hesitated momentarily before speaking up.
With Frank's words, the small group in the tavern was thrown into chaos.
"Why? Frank? We just started, and we're doing pretty well." Cody, another group member, became anxious upon hearing Frank's words. "Are you planning to betray us just because of this little trouble?"
"Cody shut up!" Louis stopped him and turned to Frank. "Frank, can you tell us why?"
"It's Marcy. She doesn't want me to continue down this path." Frank hesitated to say.
Marcy was a girl from the countryside and Frank's childhood sweetheart.
"Oh, come on, it's always Marcy. What's so great about her? Look at Verna. When does she dare to interfere in my business?" Seeing Frank's expression, Cody became extremely contemptuous.
"Cody!" Louis spoke out again, stopping him.
Cody shrugged and stopped talking.
"If you want to quit, there's no problem, but Frank, a few things must be said upfront. First, you must give up half of your share because you're quitting early. Also, it's absolutely not allowed to betray your brothers. Otherwise, you understand the consequences." Louis finished his drink and said.
"Of course, Louis, I understand. Thank you for your understanding." Frank expressed his gratitude.
Knock, knock, knock. Just then, the door of the tavern was knocked.
The people in the tavern immediately became nervous upon hearing the sound.
Goss signaled for them to calm down, then carefully approached the door and looked outside through the peephole. He relaxed immediately.
"It's Cobby!" Goss said to the four people inside the room.
Upon hearing this name, the four people finally relaxed.
Cobby was a famous underground broker in this area, helping people find work, fence stolen goods, and run underground gambling and horse racing businesses. He was a big shot on the street.
Louis and his people had done many things through Cobby.
"Louis, someone wants to see you!" After coming in, Cobby scanned the environment in the store and said to Louis.
"See me? Who is it?" Louis frowned and asked.
"Dr. Schneider, Erwin Lyndon Schneider, have you heard of him?" Cobby asked.
"Dr. Schneider? The one from Philadelphia?" The others looked puzzled, but Louis' eyes lit up.
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