Read Online A Simple Plan by Scott Smith - Free Book Online Page A

what she was going to say. “Because of Jacob and Lou.”
    “Jacob’s all right,” I said, not sure if I really believed it. “He’ll do whatever I say.”
    “And Lou?”
    “As long as we have the money, we can control Lou. We’ll always be able to threaten that we’ll burn it.”
    “And after we divide the money?”
    “He’ll be our risk. He’ll be what we have to live with.”
    She frowned, her forehead wrinkled in thought.
    “It seems like a small price to pay,” I said.
    She still didn’t say anything.
    “We can always burn the money, Sarah. Right up to the very last moment. It seems silly to give it up now, before anything’s even gone wrong.”
    She was silent, but I could see that she was coming to a decision. I returned the poker to its stand, then went back and crouched down over the packets. Sarah didn’t look at me. She was staring at her hands.
    “You have to go back to the plane,” she said, “and return some of it.”
    “Return it?” I didn’t understand what she meant.
    “Just part of it. You’ll have to go early tomorrow morning, so when it storms later it’ll cover your tracks.”
    “We’re keeping it?” I asked, a little thrill of excitement running over my body.
    She nodded. “We’ll put five hundred thousand back, and keep the rest. That way when they find the plane, they’ll assume no one has been there yet.”
    “That’s an awful lot of money.”
    “That’s how much we’re leaving.”
    “It’s half a million dollars.”
    She nodded. “It’ll bring us down to an even three-way split.”
    “So would two hundred thousand.”
    “That’s not enough. Five hundred is perfect. No one would walk away from that much money. It’ll put us beyond suspicion.”
    “I don’t think—” I started, but she cut me off.
    “It’s five hundred thousand, Hank. Either that or we give it all back.”
    I glanced up at her, surprised at the forcefulness of her tone.
    “Greed is what’ll get us caught,” she said.
    I considered that for a moment; then I acquiesced. “All right,” I said, “it’s five hundred thousand.”
    I counted out fifty packets right then and there, as if afraid she might change her mind. I stacked them up at her feet, like an offering at an altar, and put the rest into the duffel bag. Sarah sat in her chair, watching me work. When the bag was full, I pulled its drawstring tight, closing it, and smiled up at her.
    “Are you happy?” I asked.
    She made a noncommittal gesture with her hand, as if she were flicking away a fly. “We can’t get caught,” she said. “That’s the important thing.”
    I shook my head, leaning forward across the bag to take her hand. “No,” I said. “We won’t.”
    She frowned down at me. “You promise you’ll burn it if things get out of hand?”
    “That’s right,” I said. I pointed toward the fireplace. “I’ll burn it right here.”
     
    I HID the bag of money beneath our bed, pushed all the way back against the wall, with two empty suitcases jammed in after it, masking it from view.
    We stayed up late, watching a New Year’s show on TV. When the orchestra played “Auld Lang Syne,” Sarah sang along, her voice high and tremulous, but hauntingly pretty. We drank sparkling cider, nonalcoholic, because of the baby, and clinked glasses at the stroke of midnight, wishing each other the best for the coming year.
    Before we went to sleep, we made love—gently, slowly—Sarah crouched over me, the weight of her belly resting flat upon my stomach, her breasts hanging full and heavy in the darkness above my face. I cupped them carefully in my hands, squeezing her nipples between my fingertips until she moaned softly, a low, animallike sound coming up from deep inside her chest. Hearing her, I thought of the baby, pictured it rocking within her, enclosed in a watery bubble, waiting to be born, and the image gave me a strange, erotic thrill, sent a shiver running across the surface of my skin.
    Afterward Sarah