Chapter 6: Home Job

Susan McKinney was a 32-year-old mother. She’d become a mother when she was eighteen, and now she had this fourteen-year-old teenager on her hands. Luckily, she’d met Brad McKinney at work. They dated for a few years, then got married when Brad got promoted to sales manager. This involved more travel, but Susan met a teenage girl, Cindy, at church who would help with babysitting. They became good friends over time. On this Saturday night, they were sitting in the living room, eating pizza and watching a sci-fi love movie together; Susan, 17-year-old Cindy and 14-year-old Sherry.

In an opposite world, Marcus Johnson was eighteen, black and poor. Recently he’d been making good money selling crack and shit, but then it kept getting taken away by the police. The only jobs in town needed a high school diploma or better. All the other jobs were taken by home business family members in this neighborhood. All he wanted to do was make some money and go someplace else, anyplace else.

He’d been with his older cousin Fredrick and Fredrick’s friends the other night. They were getting high, talking about money of course. They said the best way to get money quick was from white people. Tony had said, “White people keep lots of cash at home, especially rich ones.”

Bennie said, “Yeah, but them houses are like fortresses, man. You gotta know how to bypass the alarm.” Tony asked sarcastically if he knew how. Bennie said, “Fool, I can bypass an Armour alarm. I don’t know about no others, but I know how to bust past an Armour alarm.” He went on to describe how. Marcus hardly spoke, but he listened hard. He memorized it all.

Two nights later, Marcus was at his friend T’s house. T and JJ were listening to Marcus’s idea. He explained how to disable the Armour system. “It’s easy. Look. You just...” They all listened. Just then Ajoni came over. He was black like them, their age too, but he was from some Caribbean place. They told him to sit down and listen.

Marcus outlined his idea. “Look, I got a few rich white neighborhoods picked out. See this map? They got sides near woods or businesses. Just the houses on the edge. We work our way down, until we find one with this Armour alarm system. We bypass it, then we go inside, tied them up, take our time searching the place, take as much cash as we can. Gone in twenty minutes, tops.”

T asked about dogs. “Remember, I got caught by that police dog last year. I ain’t messin’ with no dog again.” JJ wanted to know if they were going to wear masks or what. Ajoni wanted to know about weapons, and how they would tie them up. “You gonna need duct tape, strong stuff. A lot of it. How you gonna make them comply? Weapons steps it up to felony, you know?”

Marcus laid it down. Ajoni would bring duct tape. Himself and T would bring their guns. They rarely used them, mostly for flash, but Marcus said nobody argues with a Smith & Wesson 357. They’d use those ski masks his cousin Jimbo had in his basement. “Let’s do this. Tomorrow night, Saturday. We’ll meet right here.” JJ agreed. “Beats sitting around here broke all the time.”

Saturday evening at 7:30, Marcus, T, JJ and Ajoni got in their old Chevy sedan and went to Crestwood Estates, southwest of the city. T didn’t like this. Four black teenagers in an old car- police would find some reason to stop them, find out why they’re here. They had tint on the windows, but that was just an excuse for them to stop you. This was a bid idea, T thought.

Behind the north side of the sub-division was a row of businesses. They drove to one end, all quiet, everything closed now. They got out, went to the fence, climbed over it. They all wore black, had the ski masks on but pulled up for now. Only Marcus carried a flashlight. The went to the backyard of the first house at the corner. He and T jumped over the yard fence, crept up to the garage. At the corner they found an alarm box, but it was a NightEye model. They crept back to the fence, jumped to the next yard. Another NightEye alarm.

At the third home they found what they were looking for, an Armour alarm system. Marcus carefully removed the cover. He pulled two lengths of wire from his pocket, each with a clip on both ends. The yellow one he clipped here and here. The red wire he clipped to here and ... here. The green light turned red. Nothing happened. No alarms went off. Nothing. Holy crap, it had worked just like the guy said it would.

They waved the other two over. They came up, then Marcus said, “Let’s try the garage. See if we hear any dogs.” They went to the side door to the garage, opened it. No alarm sounded. Inside was a two-car garage with a BMW 5-series SUV parked there. T whistled some. JJ said, “Nice.” They went to the door, reviewed the plan. “Me and T will go in first, in case we need to shoot a dog. First thing we do, we get everyone on the first floor quiet. Not a word. Ajoni, you do that quick.”

JJ took a roll of tape from Ajoni. “We’ll get ‘em quiet, real quick, don’t you worry.”

Marcus went on. “Soon as they quiet, me and T will check upstairs, bring anyone down. Then we search the place.”

Marcus turned to the door to the house. He slowly turned the handle, slowly opened it. No alarms. He carefully opened it farther. They could hear a TV playing. He crept in, one step at a time. He saw a kitchen. He peeked around the refrigerator. He saw a living room beyond. A TV was on. He saw someone was in a recliner watching, their back to him. Seemed like some else was sitting behind the half-wall, someone he couldn’t see. He looked back, held up two fingers. Then he moved the other way. A dining room. Empty it seemed, all dark. Some stairs. He turned, pointed to the right, then began to move into the dark kitchen, crouched down.

Susan sat in her recliner watching the movie. She’d just had another drink of Diet Dew when she heard a creak on the kitchen floor behind her. She turned, not really expecting to see anything. Her eyes went wide as a man dressed in black came quickly up behind her, wrapping his arm around her head, covering her mouth and pressing a gun to her temple, all at the same time. She barely got out a gasp before she was muffled, her scream now blocked. She grabbed at his arm, but hesitated with the gun to her head.

Cindy and Sherry had both turned suddenly when Susan was grabbed. They were just as surprised when at the same time three men rushed at them too, all wearing black. Both girls were pushed violently down on the couch, crying out briefly. Cindy was closer; laying across the middle seat now, a hand on her face, someone climbing on top of her, whispering at her angrily, saying “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” Younger Sherry got shoved into the end of the couch, a black man gripping her neck, pressing her back into the couch, just staring angrily at her. She held his arm, scared to death, trying to breathe, her arms shaking.

The third one was a surprise to Marcus. As the others began taping them up, he moved down the hall and up the staircase. He went from room to room, a master bedroom, two kid’s rooms and an office. They were all empty. He went back downstairs. The others were finishing taping the women up. He went to the basement door, but it was dark down there. He went back to the woman in the recliner. “Yo, anyone else in this house, bitch?” he snarled. She shook her head no, her eyes wide and terrified. Good. He paused as the last girl got taped up. He lit a blunt, took a big hit. He passed it to T. When JJ and Ajoni finished taping up the third girl, Marcus passed the blunt to Ajoni and told the other two, let’s search this place. You, check down here. Look for purses. T and I will go upstairs, check the bedrooms and office. Cash, jewelry, get going!” He handed his gun to Ajoni and went upstairs.

After a search of drawers and purses, Marcus and T came up with almost $900. In the office they found over two thousand in cash in a small box safe in the closet. They grabbed anything that looked like gold or diamonds, then went downstairs.

JJ was counting out $650 he’d found in a drawer in the kitchen. Altogether, not bad. Marcus said shit, he’d expected more. Ajoni motioned towards the women. “What about them? They’d make a pretty good bonus. You get a good look at them?” The four paused, looked over at them.

Susan sat in the chair, ankles taped, wrists taped behind her, tape over her mouth. Her daughter and Cindy were the same way on the couch. The four black men stood by the kitchen counter, then came over, looking at them. Susan sure didn’t like that look. They were all teenagers, young black boys up to no good. One walked up to her, then put his finger in her blouse and pulled it out some, looking down her front.

Susan was 5’10” tall, weighed about 130 pounds and had some very nice breasts indeed. Her shoulder-length blonde hair really highlighted her young-looking face. People often thought she was in her early twenties. Ajoni turned to the others. “I say we let her watch.” They all chuckled a sick laugh. Ajoni grabbed her blouse, ripped it open in front, pulling it from her slacks. He pulled a knife from his pocket, flipped it open in front of her. She looked terrified. He proceeded to cut her bra off. He pulled it away, as everyone stared as her large breasts and big areoles. As they bounced free, everyone knew they weren’t leaving just yet.

T turned to the girl on the couch, the older one. She was this cute, young teenager with long, blonde hair. Looked like she was almost his own age, maybe 16 or 17. He grabbed her up, forced her to stand in the middle of the room as JJ helped. Then, slowly, he pulled the tape from the girl’s mouth. She was one of those really cute white girls, big blue eyes. Luscious-looking lips. He grinned at the thought of his dick being between them. He told her, very threateningly, to keep quiet. “Not a word, or I start cutting your friends up. You just fucking stand there.” He grabbed her, turned her around, cut her wrists free. He turned her back, then cut her ankles free.