“Her name was Chantal Adair,” said Monica. “She was my sister, and that’s why I’m here, too. To hear Charlie tell me about Chantal.”

“Joey knows what happened to her, same as me,” said Charlie. “We all did. We were all a part.”

“But you the one that was there,” said Joey. “You the one that was handed the painting. It’s your story, Charlie boy. You tell it.”

Charlie sat quietly for a long while.

“Go ahead, Charlie, and tell us about the girl,” said Rhonda Harris as she fiddled with her tape player. And after another long moment, as we slipped into the gloaming, Charlie did.

The whole night of the robbery, Charlie had been seized with terror, terror that they would be caught, terror that the guards would come out shooting, terror that his mother would have to bail him out from the police station and what she’d do to him when she finally got him home. In his entire life, nothing had worked out like it was supposed to, and he was sure this crazy scheme would be no different. But it was different. Teddy’s plan fell into place like the parts of a delicate lock, and the world clicked open for them.

As they headed back to the neighborhood in Ralph’s van, Joey driving, the rest of them hunkered down in the back, amidst a welter of metalworking tools and the plunder of a lifetime, a thrilling euphoria overtook Charlie, overtook them all. He could see it in the smiles and flushed faces, in the pumped fists and nerves. They felt powerful, sly, young and frisky, renewed, special, invincible. They felt like they had actually leaped Teddy’s abyss and reinvented themselves. And, more than anything else, they felt love, yes love, one for the other, each for all, as they made their way in that van toward their suddenly limitless futures.

Ralph’s mother was deaf and an invalid, and so his house was the perfect place to put into play the final pieces of the operation. In Ralphie’s basement, using his lock-picking tools, Charlie carefully removed the jewels from their fittings in the bracelets and necklaces and rings they had taken from the safe. Ralph and Hugo worked together with the precious metals. Gold figurines, silver medallions, platinum settings were melted and recast into simple bars of precious metals to be sold. Joey spent all day and night listening to the police radio, monitoring reports of suspicions and raids as the police worked desperately to find out who had pulled off the crime of the century. And Teddy was making arrangements to sell everything but the paintings. There had been some cash in the safe, a few thousand that had already been split up, with promises not to spend a cent of it until the heat cooled, but the bulk of the proceeds was going to come from the metal and the jewels.

It wasn’t going to bring in as much as they had hoped, though. The haul was less than they had been promised by their inside source, although it was more than they had ever seen before. Still, to be truthful, it wasn’t really about the money, it was about them all making the decision and taking the chance and pulling it off. Suddenly the sweet possibilities of life that once seemed as far away as the moon now loomed large and bright and close enough to touch.

And then, just a few days after the heist, while the papers were still blasting headlines about “The Great Randolph Robbery” and the police were still turning over every stone, Teddy pulled in to the alleyway with a little red sports car Charlie had never seen before and parked it right under the deck. Ralph was at work, keeping up appearances, Joey was home with the radio, and Hugo was out, somewhere, so it was only Charlie in the basement, with the stash of valuables and the two paintings and the big hole in the floor that they had already dug up to bury the evidence in case the police came searching, when Teddy arrived with that car.

“I need the stuff,” said Teddy as he grabbed some wooden crates out of the car.

“Which stuff?” said Charlie.

“All of it. I got a guy who’s talking about buying the whole shooting match for more than we thought.”

“But isn’t it dangerous to take it all to him?”

“No more dangerous than to keep it here,” he said, and then he lifted his shirt to show a gun in his belt. “Don’t worry, Charlie, I got it covered. Give me a hand. I need to take everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, the paintings, too. I got to give the one up to my contact.”

“Okay, but why the other one? I thought you said that was our insurance policy?”

“We don’t want to leave anything here,” said Teddy. “This place is getting too hot. I’ll take it all someplace safe.”

“Do the guys know about this?”

“Absolutely, I cleared it with them all. Just help me load up, okay?”

“Sure,” said Charlie, even though he wasn’t sure, wasn’t sure at all. There was something wrong with Teddy, something off. Charlie thought about calling Ralph at work or going to get Joey, but Teddy brushed through the door and started reaching for the stuff that was scattered about, the jewels and bars of metal. Uncertain about what else to do, Charlie pitched in to help put everything in the boxes. They were halfway finished when the girl slipped through the open door and into the basement.

They hadn’t noticed her at first, they kept on loading the stuff into the boxes as she watched. They even talked about it, the paintings and the jewels, the whole operation. They spilled it all as she stood, motionless, just to the side of the doorway.

And then she stirred, and they both turned their heads, and there she was, the girl, staring at them with her wide eyes.

She was no stranger, this girl, dark-haired and pretty and impossibly young. She was one of the children who had been drawn by Teddy to the alleyway with candy and little gifts. First there was the boy, her older brother, and then he brought the girl, and then others showed up, like pigeons drawn to crumbs. Teddy liked having them around, their laughter, their unalloyed greed, the way as soon as they got some candy in their mouths they asked for more, and he liked this girl most of all. There wasn’t anything more to it, nothing sexual or weird, but even when the others suggested it might not be the best idea to have them around, Teddy persisted. He said the kids gave them all a cover, made Ralph’s place a more integral part of the neighborhood, but that wasn’t the real reason, they could tell. Teddy had some desperate need to be worshipped, and these kids were his congregation.

And now one of his flock, his favorite, was in the basement, wide-eyed and innocent, but not as innocent as she’d been just a moment before.

“Hi, Chantal,” said Teddy.

“Hi.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“I came to say hello. I heard voices.”

“You didn’t knock. You should always knock.”

“Okay. I will. Next time. I promise.”

“As long as you promise. We’re just packing up some stuff. Come on over, I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“Come on.”

She did. She stepped forward.

“Look at this,” said Teddy, holding out something big and glistening. “You know what this is?”

She shook her head.

“It’s a diamond,” he said. “Isn’t that something? Isn’t that cool? You want to touch it?”

“Okay.”

“Here, touch it.”

“Teddy,” said Charlie. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Shut up, Charlie. Here, Chantal. Touch it.”

She reached out her hand, petted the diamond as if petting a cat, even let out a little purr, and as she did, her eyes sparkled.

“Do you want one?”

“Oh, yes,” she said.

“Remember I gave you that lighter you liked? I could also give you a diamond. Just a little one. If you make a promise. Can you make a promise, Chantal?”

“Yes.”

“Will you promise not to tell anyone what you saw in here today?”