The Family Store

THE FAMILY STORE

By

David McClain

Mally O’Grady was a skinny slip of a man with a sharp, weasel face and lank dark hair that hung limply across his forehead like a wet mop. His eyes, sharp little things that made one think of cornered rodents, constantly scanned the sidewalk ahead of him as he swaggered down Main Street toward his bus stop.

Mally O’Grady was the best at what he did and it showed in his walk; in everything about him. He exuded confidence. Mally was the best damn thief in the state of Texas and he knew it.

He had grown up on the mean streets of Houston as a poor Irish kid whose grandfather had come over from the old country. Unlike so many other immigrants, Mally’s grandfather had not stopped in New York City, but instead made his way down to Houston. There he made a meager living for his wife and two sons working as a roustabout in the big oil fields that abounded in Texas at the time of Spindletop.

Mally always shuddered when he thought of his grandfather. If there was ever a meaner man on the face of the planet, O’Grady hoped he would never have to meet him. He remembered his grandfather sitting in Mally’s house, in the best chair, holding court like some damn country squire.

Mally’s father and mother were both mousy little people who had allowed the old man to move in after he could no longer work. They had treated the old man like a king, bowing to his every mean-assed whim. Mally was their only child. His earliest memories were of his mother, desperately trying to keep him quiet, so as not to disturb the old bastard while he sat in the living room getting drunk and listening to the radio.

Well, Mally mused as he neared the bus stop, that was a long time ago and his grandfather was long dead. He had died when Mally was thirteen and the boy had left home the next day. He had vowed to put as much distance between him and his weak assed parents as he could. He had succeeded. He had traveled the country and lived by his wits. Mally O’Grady had become what he was today - the top thief in Texas.

All these things ran through his mind as he reached the bus stop. He stood, with the few other people, waiting for the bus to take him to his latest mark, The Family Store.

He had heard about the new store with the simple name a week ago. Today was supposed to be it’s grand opening and he didn’t want to miss it. Mally was not just a great thief, he was a versatile one. Any kind of thievery you could name, Mally was good at it. Shoplifting was a specialty of his and Grand Opening sales were the best time to hit a big department store. The crowds, the relatively new employees, all conspired to give O’Grady the best chance of making a big haul. He knew, if he played his cards right, he would be able to score some good stuff to fence for money or drugs.

O’Grady was going over his options for the new store when the bus reached his stop. Just down the block was the shiny new establishment that was to be his target. As he stepped off the bus he noticed someone he knew in the parking lot. He walked over to a small black man leaning against a rusted old dodge. The man straightened when he saw O’Grady approach him. He scowled darkly as the little Irishman stopped just inches away from his face.

“Wut the hell you doing here boy.” The man growled ominously.

Mally frowned back at the man and leaned in close, their noses almost touching.

“You need to move on Leroy.” Mally said tightly, his body tense with anger and one hand held out of sight in his jeans pocket.

Leroy couldn’t move back because of the car he was up against. Mally pressed into him and swiftly brought his hand out of his pocket. The cold steel blade of the stiletto against Leroy’s throat made him freeze in his tracks.

“Hey man!” His voice squeaked with the pressure of the blade against his neck. “I didn’t mean anything, I’m going, just take that damn blade away.”

Mally slowly lowered the knife and stepped back from Leroy.

“Ok mother, get out of here before I change my mind. This place is mine today.”

Leroy lurched away from the car and hurriedly retreated across the parking lot. Mally watched this disappearing figure with some pleasure. The last thing in the world he needed was some damn amateur messing up what could be a big haul for him.

Mally dismissed the other thief from his mind as he walked into the huge new store. It was full of shoppers. Mally dove into the throng and made his way down the isles. Like any good shoplifter Mally’s hands moved with the speed of light as he transferred merchandise from the shelf, to his cart, then finally under the oversized coat he wore.

As he plied his trade up and down the isles of the store, he couldn’t help but notice the lack of security cameras throughout the building. Damn, he thought as he quickly pocketed a Craftsman wrench set into one of his deep pockets, this is like taking candy from a baby.

After an hour of wandering around the store, filling his pockets, Mally figured he had taken enough. He headed for the exit. As he approached the doors he noticed a small, wizened old man standing there speaking to people as they filed through the doors. Mally shook his head, wow this must be their door greeter, he thought. As he came nearer, the old man looked his way and smiled warmly.

“Thank you so much for shopping with us today.” He said. “I hope you found everything you needed.”

Mally felt a bit awkward since he had made no actual purchases. He just nodded his head and hurried past the old man and out the door. An hour later Mally O’Grady was back home and counting up his take from the new Store. His living room was filled with different types of merchandise. Some he had just brought in, and there was much more from previous jobs. Merchandise just waiting to be fenced.

It took Mally the better part of two hours to catalog and record everything. When he finished he was one happy thief. His conservative figure was about 800 dollars that he could get out of this load. It was like taking candy from a baby he thought gleefully, he would definitely be taking more of his business to the FAMILY STORE.

Mally had just opened a bottle of wine to celebrate his good fortune when there was a knock at his front door. He frowned. Now who would be coming to see him? Better not be that damn silly landlord wanting more rent. He strode over to the door and opened it just a crack, leaving the security chain in place and peeked out to see who it was.

What greeted his eyes as the door opened made O’Grady almost faint. Standing there on his front step were two of the biggest, ugliest, meanest looking men he had ever seen and god knows he had seen some bad ones in his life of crime.

“Whatta want?” O’Grady’s voice carried a definite waver in it and he inwardly cringed at this obvious weakness.

The mean looking thug on the left spoke then with a voice that sounded like a avalanche of boulders sliding down a mountain. “We need to talk to you O’Grady.”

Mally, relying on years of street wise instinct, immediately slammed the door in the faces of the two goons. Then he bolted toward his bedroom where he kept a .357 magnum in the night stand by his bed. He had made no more than three strides when the door behind him splintered and crashed inward, propelled by the massive foot and leg of the thug on the right.

O’Grady kept going but was stopped a good six foot short of his bedroom by a ham like hand that clamped onto his neck and lifted him bodily off the floor. Slowly Mally felt himself being turned around, his feet dangling six inches from the floor, until he faced the big man who had grabbed him.

The large man, whose face looked like it had been chiseled out of a block of old concrete, frowned and shook his head slowly. “Dat wasn’t very nice a thing for youse to do Mr. O’Grady.” The frown on the man’s face and the tone in which he spoke belied a great deal of disapproval which wasn’t lost on Mally, even if he was starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen from the vise like grip his neck was held in.

“Vito, you better set him down.” The second thug spoke and his voice was strangely soft for something so big. “Youse know da boss don’t want him hurt, yet.”

O’Grady didn’t like the sound of that 'yet'. His mind was racing a thousand miles an hour trying to figure a way out of this predicament. Even more importantly, who were these guys and who had he pissed off.

Vito, the goon who had Mally in his grip, slowly walked over to the dining table and deposited him almost gently onto a chair which his partner had thoughtfully pulled out for him. Mally was just about to start trying to talk to these guys. He figured maybe he could weasel his way out of what ever mess he was in, whether he knew what it was or not. But before he could open his mouth they were joined by someone else.

Mally’s eyes bugged out in surprise as the old man from The Family Store walked leisurely into his house and up to where he sat trembling at the dining table.

The two big goons looked at the older man then stepped back to make room for him to approach O’Grady. The old man stood looking at O'Grady for a moment like a disapproving grandfather, then he spoke.

“Mr. O’Grady, I believe you forgot something when you left my store today. You forgot to pay for everything you took.”

Mally started to speak but the old man held up a hand to silence him.

“No use to deny it Mr. O’Grady. We know you stole from us. But first let me tell you a little about myself, after all I am new to your city. My name is Frank Gamble and The Family Store belongs to me.”

Gamble began to walk around O’Grady’s living room examining many of the items that just that morning had resided on his shelves and he continued to talk to Mally.

“You see my name wasn’t always Gamble. I moved here from New York after I retired from my family business. I wanted to, shall we say, start over. My name was Franco Gambino. Maybe you heard of my brother Dominick, ‘Ice Pick’ Gambino?”

When Mally heard that name he felt his heart drop. Dominick Gambino was the biggest crime boss in the country. He ran the mafia in New York and THIS WAS HIS BROTHER? Mally began to sweat profusely, his hands were shaking. He had really stepped in it this time. Before he could beg Mr. “Gamble’s” pardon, the old man spoke again.

“I see you now know the gravity of your mistake. You see I came here to actually run a ligit business for whatever time I have remaining. The Family Store is mine but you see, the family in that name is the Gambino family and we have our own way of dealing with theft.”

As Gamble was speaking two other people walked through O’Grady’s ruined door. One was a middle aged man carrying a black bag and the other was a young, pretty woman with medium length blonde hair. She was dressed in a nurse’s uniform.

“Ah, good.” Mr. Gamble said with a friendly smile. “The rest of our little party has arrived. You see Mr. O’Grady, before we ever opened we had an extensive file on all the best professional thieves in the Houston area and you my friend topped the list. So naturally, when you were spotted walking in the door you were followed, at a discrete distance by our staff of loss prevention people. Who, by the way, learned their trade from the other side of the fence, just like you. That’s why you never saw them.”

Gamble stopped his pacing and took out a very large cigar. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

O’Grady shrugged and just smiled weakly. Vito stepped quickly over and lit the end of the cigar with a gold lighter then returned to his position just behind Mally’s chair.

Taking a long draw on the cigar, Mr. Gamble exhaled a plume of smoke and watched it drift toward the ceiling. Then he turned back to where Mally sat. “You see Mr. O’Grady, I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on expensive cameras and surveillance equipment. I would rather let word of mouth serve to dissuade your fellow thieves from any further visits to my store. You, sir will spread the word that The Family Store is not to be stolen from.”

O’Grady began to relax. He started to regain some of his confidence. The old man just wanted to scare him and have him spread the word not to steal from his store. Hell, he thought, this was gonna be easy. All I have to do is BS the old man and tell him I will go along with him and I am home free.

Mally was just about to assure Mr. Gamble of his cooperation when suddenly Vito grabbed his shoulders and the other thug slammed a rock hard fist into his jaw rocking his head backwards and breaking the jaw in the process.

“Thank you Carlo.” Mr. Gamble said mildly. “I believe he is about ready for the rest of the process now.”

Mally could barely see through the sheen of tears from the pain in his jaw, but what he saw chilled him to the bone. The man carrying the black bag had set it on the table and opened it up. He removing a surgical saw, while the nurse prepared a shot and an IV bag.

O’Grady tried to talk but his broken jaw allowed only a small whimpering noise to escape. Vito bent down and wrapped his massive arms around his shoulders and Carlo grabbed his right arm and stretched it out onto the table.

The man with the saw walked over and placed the blade against the skin of Mally’s arm right at the wrist and Mally managed a mangled scream as the man began to cut.

Afterward the man who was a doctor, and his nurse dressed the stump of Mally O’Grady’s right arm, where his hand use to be, and gave him a shot for the pain. He lay on the floor of his dining room amid a pool of his own blood. Drugged and just barely conscience, O’Grady was aware of the old man standing over him smiling sadly.

“I am really sorry we had to do that young man, you really were quite good at your craft. But now you will spend your time passing the word to your friends in the business that the Family Store is off limits. After all, I would hate to have to pass on the price of all that thievery to the customers, now that just wouldn’t be right would it.”

One by one the men, and the woman filed out the same ruined door they had come in until Vito was the only one left standing over the prone O’Grady. He looked down at the maimed thief and shook his head. Reaching into his jacket he removed a card and dropped it onto Mally’s chest.

“That’s my card son.” He said kindly. “Give me a call when you heal. I am head of Mr. Gamble’s security and we could always use another good RETIRED thief as a floor walker at the Family Store.” Vito smiled, turned and followed his boss out the door.

THE END