299 Days VIII: The War (7 page)

“If this is some kind of joke, I’m really not in a great mood for that now,” Todd
said, attempting to gain control of the situation.

“You and your family are dead,” one of the officers stated, without emotion. So much
for taking control of the situation, Todd thought.

They had him. His mind raced to figure out how he would make this work without giving
away all of his worldly possessions.

“Surely, you guys are open to negotiation,” Todd said, after he realized he had zero
bargaining position.

“No, sir, we’re not,” the first officer said. “We would be risking our lives and using
an extremely valuable asset only we have: our badges.”

“Take it or leave it,” the normally quiet officer said as he walked away. The other
two started following him.

“Wait!” Todd yelled out. He instantly realized he was desperate, which was a bad negotiating
strategy. He said more calmly, “Surely we can work something out.” The officers kept
walking.

“Okay!” Todd yelled. “You can have everything, but I want some guarantees.” The officers
stopped and slowly turned to face Todd.

“Like what?” one of them asked.

Todd had no idea what “guarantees” he could obtain. He said it without thinking.

“You’ll see when we get back to my house,” he said, trying to buy some time. He added,
“Oh, and I need to ask my wife if this is okay.”

The normally quiet officer started laughing. “Why?” he asked.

“Community property,” Todd said. “She owns half the house.”

The first officer intervened to make sure the quiet one wasn’t scaring off a very
good-paying client.

“We understand,” the first officer said. “Makes sense.”

Todd nodded and pointed at the Range Rover and said, “Be right back.”

Then it hit him. He actually had to go ask Chloe for permission to give away all of
their things – the house, the BMW, the art, the boat, everything – in order to do
something that he could have done for almost free six months ago. That house was everything
to her. In that moment, he was more afraid of her than of the carjackers a mile way.

“Is everything okay?” She asked him as he walked up to the passenger side of the Range
Rover.

“Oh, yes,” he said with fake enthusiasm. “They will give us an escort to the cabin.”

“Oh, thank God!” she shrieked. “I’m so glad they’re doing that for us.”

“Well why don’t you step out here for a moment,” he said, not wanting this argument
to be seen by his little girls.

“Be back in a minute, girls,” Chloe said cheerily, although it was apparent she was
concerned something was very wrong.

When they were far enough away from the Range Rover, Todd said, “The cops aren’t doing
this for free.”

Chloe looked at him with amazement. Of course they would do this for free, she thought,
they were public servants. Or former ones, or whatever, but it was their job to take
care of people like her.

“How much?” she asked. “I hope it’s not more than a few hundred dollars because that’s
all the cash we have since the bank closed.”

“It’s a lot more,” Todd said, hoping to break the news to her gently. “Like, way more.”
He was trying to lower her expectations.

“But we don’t have any more cash,” Chloe said, perplexed at how they could pay more
than a few hundred dollars, and still wondering why public servants would want cash
in the first place.

“It’s not cash,” Todd said, “That’s the good news.”

“What’s the bad news?” Chloe asked.

“They want the house and everything in it.”

Chloe nearly fell over. She grabbed onto Todd’s arm and softly whispered, “What?”

Todd nodded.

“Sure,” Chloe said, without blinking an eye. “Let’s do it.”

Now it was Todd’s turn to nearly fall over.

“Yes,” Chloe said, “We have no choice. Let’s do it.”

“What?” Todd stammered.

“Don’t you agree?” Chloe asked.

“Well, yes,” Todd said, still in shock. “But I didn’t think you would.”

Chloe hugged Todd and whispered to him, “A lot has changed since yesterday. You’re
being a man and taking care of us. I need to do whatever I can to support you.”

Now Todd was in even more shock. What explained her sudden change of heart? “Huh?”
is all he could say.

“We’ll talk about it at the cabin,” Chloe said and hugged him tighter. “I’m thankful
that you’re handling this. Let’s do it and get going.”

Todd felt like he was floating on air. He was elated. This was going to work out.
They would make it.

After a few seconds of hugging, Todd realized the officers were waiting for him. “I
have a deal to close,” he said to Chloe, who hugged him tighter.

“That’s my man.”

Todd still felt like he was walking on air as he walked over to the officers. He couldn’t
contain his happiness, despite trying to mask it for negotiating purposes.

“Follow me to the house and I’ll get you all the keys you need,” he said.

The officers nodded. The first one said, “I’ll come so these two can stay as guards.”

“You need to get a ride?” Todd asked the officer.

“Nope,” he said, “I’ll ride on the rear bumper of the Rover. I can hold onto the roof
rack.”

“Okay,” Todd said. When he came up to the Range Rover, he motioned for Chloe to lower
her window. “He’ll ride on the rear bumper.”

“Okay,” she said, to Todd’s surprise. He expected her to question if that was safe.
She had completely changed since yesterday. Todd knew from years of marriage that
she had a personality that allowed her to change her mind on a dime. When she realized
she had been wrong, she could just switch gears and go on with life. Todd was enormously
relieved that she was fine with the AK-47.

“Girls, a nice police officer will be riding on the back of the Rover with us to our
house,” she said to the girls in the rear seat. “Don’t worry. It’s safe.”

Todd got into the Range Rover and felt a weight on the rear of the vehicle and then
two light taps on the roof, which he assumed signified that the officer was ready
to ride. Todd slowly drove off, back toward their beautiful home.

“Hey, girls,” Chloe said as they pulled into their long, beautiful driveway, “We’ll
stay in here while Daddy and the police officer talk about how they’ll get us to the
cabin!” She wasn’t prepared to tell them that their house, and everything in it, would
no longer belong to them.

“Yeah!” the girls cheered.

Todd stopped the Range Rover and got out silently. He still couldn’t believe he was
going to do what he was about to do. He felt a weight released from the rear of the
Range Rover as the police officer got off the bumper. “A weight off our shoulders,”
he said to Chloe, who smiled and nodded.

Todd wanted to make this quick. “I’ll get you all the keys,” he said. The officer
nodded.

Todd went through the garage and saw his prized possession, his boat. It was a twenty-five
foot 2005 Pursuit with twin Yamaha four-stroke engines, to be exact. It was beautiful.
That boat was Todd’s escape from all the pressures of being a corporate executive.
It was luxurious and comfortable.

To Todd’s horror, the officer let out a whistle and said, “That’s nice. Very nice.”

“It’s not part of the deal,” Todd impulsively replied, surprised by what came out
of his mouth

“You’re right,” the officer said with a slight smirk. “It’s not part of the deal for
getting you guys past the roadblocks,” he said. Todd was so relieved he was short
of breath.

“Nope, the boat is what the AK will cost you,” the officer said.

“The what?” Todd asked.

The officer pulled a frightening-looking rifle out of his long backpack. “It’s an
AK-47. You’ll need it. Very rugged. Perfect for what you’ll need at the cabin.”

“A $150,000 boat for an AK-47?” Todd asked. He knew the answer, but asked the question
anyway.

“Yes, sir,” the officer said. “This boat won’t do you any good here, anyway.”

Todd realized that the officer had a point, a really good one.

“Don’t let my wife see that,” Todd said and, almost on queue for bad luck, Chloe walked
into the garage.

“Oh, cool,” she said, pointing to the AK-47. “That’s just what we need, an Army gun.”
She was serious.

Todd still could not believe what he was hearing and seeing, but he was glad everything
was working out.

“I just needed to use my bathroom one more time,” Chloe said. She walked into the
house.

“Let’s label all the keys,” the officer said. Todd found some painters tape and a
Sharpie marker and started labeling the keys, remote entry devices, and garage door
openers. It took almost a half hour. Todd and Chloe had a lot of stuff. At least,
they used to, Todd thought.

The officer’s radio crackled, “What’s your ETA back to the shack?” one of the officers
asked.

“Just wrapping up,” the first officer responded into the speaker mic clipped to his
jacket. The officer looked at Todd and asked, “You got a piece of paper we can write
on?”

“Sure,” Todd said, heading to the office supplies in the study. “Why?” he asked as
he was walking.

“You’re going to write up a deed,” the officer said. “Your wife will need to sign
it because she owns half of this.”

“A deed?” Todd asked. “Are those even necessary anymore?”

“Not now,” the officer said, “but normal life might return and we need a deed, even
a handwritten one, to prove you gave this to me.”

“Seriously?” Todd asked.

“Seriously,” the officer said. “Probably will never need it, but it’s nice for me
to have.”

For some reason, Todd found that writing out a deed seemed to be the most surprising
thing of all that morning, despite all the craziness that had already ensued.

Todd knew that a handwritten deed didn’t even come close to complying with the law
for a deed, but he wanted to do it so that he and Chloe would, symbolically at least,
make it official that they had given the house away. Todd and the officer quickly
scribbled a two-sentence deed and Todd took it to Chloe in the Range Rover to sign.
She was surprised, too, but signed it anyway. The house was no longer hers in her
mind.

Todd read the deed to see the officer’s name hand printed above the signature. “Christopher
Willden” it said.

“Christopher or Chris?” Todd asked him. “I might as well know the name of the guy
who’s getting everything I own.”

“Chris,” Willden said. He felt bad that he was stripping this guy of everything that
he owned, but he had to take care of his family and his fellow officers guarding the
subdivision. It was just business, he thought.

“Heading back,” Willden said into his radio, and then said to Todd, “Let’s start getting
you guys where you need to go.” Those words sounded so sweet to Todd’s ears that he
almost began to cry.

Willden got back on the Range Rover’s rear bumper and they drove back to the guard
station.

“How many of you guys are coming with us?” Todd asked two of the other officers. They
pointed to Willden who pointed at himself and said, “Just me.”

“Oh,” Todd said disappointedly. Then he realized that the other two needed to stay
at the subdivision to guard it.

“What car are you going to take?” he asked Willden.

“I’m not,” Willden said. “Waste of gas.”

“So how are you getting back here?” Todd asked.

Willden pulled out his badge and said, “I can get rides pretty easily.”

They discussed the logistics. Willden would drive the Range Rover and Todd would be
in the front seat. Chloe would sit in the back with the girls; she was very slender
so she could fit back there much better than Todd, who was fit, but an average sized
man. Willden sitting in the driver’s seat would allow him to flash his badge at the
roadblocks.

Todd was still nervous about the AK-47 being in the Range Rover. He asked Willden,
“How do I handle the gun you got me?”

“I’ll show you how to shoot it,” Willden said.

“No,” Todd said, “I mean how do we announce to Chloe and the girls that it’s in the
car?”

Willden was puzzled. He felt sorry for Todd for being such a wuss.

“I dunno,” Willden said, trying to stay polite. “You have it in the passenger seat
so you can use it for threats on that side of the vehicle.”

“What?” Todd said, “Me? Shoot a gun?”

“Yes,” Willden said, this time unable to hide his displeasure for Todd. “That’s what
you do when people are shooting at you. You shoot back.”

“I don’t think I should be doing that,” Todd said. “It seems dangerous.”

Willden called over for Chloe who got out of the Range Rover and came over.

“You okay with riding in the front and shooting that thing?” he asked, pointing toward
the AK-47.