Something fishy

And today we’re with Robbie

 

 

Benor paid the bill for the coffee. As he and Mutt walked out of Ninno’s he  glanced down at Mutt. “Now I need somebody who can pick pockets.”

“Not ‘ard to find.”

“But really good, because they’ll have to be able to put something back again.”

Mutt stopped. “What you playing at? Forged coin and now picking pockets?”

Benor was tempted to ruffle the boy’s hair but decided that this might not be in keeping with the fact that Mutt seemed to regard Benor as his equal. As Benor was inordinately proud of this level of acceptance, he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise it.

“It’s like this Mutt. I need money to pay people to keep an eye on Minny, find the child she might be planning to kill, and generally ensure that nothing untoward happens.”

Mutt nodded. “Yeah, I see that. So you’re going to pay people with forged coin?”

“No Mutt, I’m going to borrow the money from Minny and replace it with the forged coin so hopefully she doesn’t notice.”

Much to Benor’s pleasure Mutt was staring at him with genuine admiration. “An’ the pickpocket?”

“She keeps her money in a locked box but we know she has the key in her purse. I don’t want to damage the box, so I want the key. So I want a pickpocket good enough to take the key, make a wax impression, and then put the key back. I can then get a key cut.”

“You don’t want wax,” Mutt said, “you want clay, then they can cast straight into it.”

“Fair enough, but do you know somebody who’ll do it?”

“Probably, but it’ll cost.” Seeing the expression on Benor’s face Mutt hastily added, “Not me, them. What you got to pay them with?”

“Not a lot to be honest.”

Mutt thought. “Tell you what. When you take the coins, take one extra for the pickpocket.”

Benor nearly spluttered, “It’s an awful lot of money.”

“Yeah but he’s doing it on credit, so it needs to be a lot to tempt him.”

Benor could see the logic in that. “Fair enough, but can you get somebody who’ll do it?”

“Yeah, think so.”

 

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