I could hear him washing his hands in the bathroom, as I was counting the money he brought me. After I ran the last stack of cash through the machine, I stopped. Three-hundred-fifty; three-hundred-fifty thousand, when there should be four-hundred grand. He can’t screw me over, I thought while grabbing my gun from the drawer. He had just turned off the faucet. Thank God the door was open. “Whoa,” he shouted.

“Hands up!” I barked.

He did so. “So what the fuck are you? A cop.”

“No, but I’m also not a thief.”

“What?! Where are you getting the idea that--”

“That box you gave me was pretty damn light for four-hundred thousand.” My eyes were peeled through the sights. He was stiff and the lighting probably showed me a couple. And then his phone went off. He reached for it and I practically snapped. Bang! His body flew across the room and hit his head on the bathtub. I left the room and slammed the door shut.

I slipped the weapon away and got a bottle of Shiraz. There was a knock and I looked through the peep hole. There were two men in black and red, with their hair slicked back. Shit, I thought. These must be his friends. I opened the door. “Hey, do you know where Mike is?” one of them asked.

“He’s in the bathroom.” I walked away and they knocked on the door. After getting no response, one of them started ramming down the door. The other one started to reach for his back pocket; it was either gonna be a gun or a lock picking kit. But whatever it was, they couldn’t find out. Bang! Bang!

In hindsight, I should’ve just knocked them out. But then those guys would find out and the shit creek would’ve been deeper. I unlocked the bathroom door and dragged the closest one into the bathtub. And while I was there, I decided to take care of my other friend who brought those two here. The last one was still there and was much lighter than the other one was. As I dragged him into the bathroom, I heard the door open and closed. I turned around and saw Simon holding groceries immobile.

“Deborah,” he said as his thoughts were catching up. “What happened?”

I stopped when I got to the foot of the tub. “I had one of these guys here to buy merchandise. I got pissed that he was cutting corners, and got a little out of hand.” After that, I continued to drag the corpse.

“Okay. But what about the other guys?”

“Oh them. They’re his friends.”

It took him a couple minutes, but he got moving again. “Alrighty then. Look, I’m gonna get things ready for tonight. Would you mind cleaning some of this blood before Hector and Mason show up?”

“Sure.” Shit, I almost forgot. We invited them over last week. I threw the last guy in the tub and grabbed a nearby Swiffer. I probably went through three pads before most of the blood was gone. There was still a little bit there, but I could make something up there. I closed the shower curtains and locked the bathroom door. Now that I took care of that, I threw on a violet skirt and blouse with a grey coat. “We’re good for now,” I told Simon as I poured a glass of Merlot.

“You got rid of them that quickly.” I snickered.

“In this time? But the door’s locked. We’ll just make something up.” But once we heard a knock on the door, I knew that whatever alibi we came up with worked.