Sorry, the Number You Dialed Is No Longer Available.: Zipper

By Ed Merwede

This book is the third in fourteen books by author Ed Merwede. It is the exciting story of a small-time thief with a plan to steal millions of dollars from a supermarket and do it in broad daylight while the manager stands by! Jimmy Walker, the thief, pulls off the robbery and makes his getaway. But all doesn’t quite work out. Just one small act of nature turns the tables.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796010718

Ed Merwede

ED MERWEDE, also the author of “DONE!” started his career with Yale University Press. After eleven years as plant superintendent, he went on to manage three other printing companies before starting his own business with his wife, Ellen. That business, PrintAbility, operated for fourteen successful years, before the couple retired to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In the late 1990s, the author was diagnosed with syringomyelia, caused by a very severe crash while serving on a US Naval Air Station. Ed is listed as 100 percent disabled with the Veterans Affairs Office. His wife of thirty-five years, Ellen, died in November of 2014. He is now living in an assisted living facility on Cape Cod.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Merwede.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019900537

ISBN:                  Hardcover                       978-1-7960-1073-2

                            Softcover                          978-1-7960-1072-5

                            eBook                               978-1-7960-1071-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/17/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

791093

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

PART II

Where’s theBag?

Chapter One

A Little Background

Chapter Two

Flight to the Cayman Islands

Chapter Three

Getting to Know You

Chapter Four

The Bag Pick-Up

Chapter Five

Make Plans with Amanda

Chapter Six

Don Grazi’s Decision

Chapter Seven

Assault on the Home of Evil

Chapter Eight

Looking at Death in the Eye

Chapter Nine

May We Rest in Peace

Epilogue

To my two sons and wives,

Gary and Cheryl

and

Curt and Deb,

without their constant care and support,

this book would not have been possible.

Chapter One

I was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Queens General to be exact. Many years ago, my family moved to Franklin Square, a small town in Nassau County. Growing up was pretty normal, but then what did I know?

There was an entire mixture of people—Irish, Italian, German, and yes, even Greek—not to mention our small population of blacks. We all mixed in great until high school, and then young people seem to mix or stay with their own kind. Blacks didn’t do too well; they would be taken in by one of the majority groups. Funny, things seemed so normal then; no big fights or feelings of bias surfaced yet. By my junior year in high school, things changed. Not for the better I might add. It must have been the parents’ influence because kids don’t just come up with a hate for other kids because of their heritage, unless taught to do so at home. And oh, there it starts. As it says in the song, You must be taught to hate and fear, it has to be drummed in your little ear, you must be carefully taught.

Years later, after working at several jobs, I decided, without an education, you might as well steal. Hell, that’s what the politicians do but on a much higher scale. They just ask for donations and get them in turn for turning a favorable eye to any of their supporters. The more money you give, the more contracts are thrown your way. Now that’s just the way of stealing from the public but in a nice way. Some idiots, who don’t know any better, praise them for their works. This was my upbringing; I wish now I had just bought the bullshit and settled for an average life. Ah, but not me, there was more to be had by not being a politician and just settled for stealing.

Now you have the best of two worlds; you can make a lot of money, pay no taxes on it, and live a very comfortable life. The trick is not to be caught, but that’s the same for the politicians. That got my vote, now to come up with a good plan to steal a lot of money.

Being a petty thief was not the way to go. The risk was high, the pay was low, and the exposure to the police was much, much too high. If you’re going to steal, steal a lot. You need a plan and stick with it. The problem is you need other people to pull off the deal. Most of them are dumb and difficult to control.

Chapter Two

So here I am on Long Island and looking for a good spot to make a great deal of money. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is Las Vegas. WRONG! Their security people have thought of more ways to stop a thief than there are ways to do it.

So one thing that’s needed is a good deal of money coming into a spot not that well covered. Next, where that spot is and how well protected it is. And this is the most important part: How much money are we talking about? Bingo! Cape Cod! Why not, there is tourist money pouring in from all directions? All I want is one nice big chunk!

It has to be after Memorial Day and before Labor Day; that’s when all the tourist money flows like water through the canal. I picked Cape Cod because I do not have a large bankroll to finance this operation. It’s not that far away, and there are many targets to consider. All in all, it’s not a bad choice. There are only two ways onto the cape and the same two ways off: the Bourne or the Sagamore Bridges. If you own a yacht or airplane, there are other ways onto the Island, but for the immediate future, that leaves me out.

Now how do you pick the spot where the most money will be at one time? There are a few areas on the cape where the elite congregate but not necessarily spend their money. So the area to focus on is something everyone has in common and goes and spends money on on a regular basis. I came up with food. The first thing that comes to mind is restaurants. No, not viable. Oh, they have money at the end of the night but not that much because of credit cards. The more I thought about this, the more I feel like just going out and getting a job. No, I want it all at once, not twenty years down the road. And with my education, I’ll end up retiring on Social Security and living in a trailer somewhere in Florida. Shit, I might as well shoot myself now! OK, this is your last shot, so make it good! I drove around the cape trying to pick out the best business to hit. It was slow-coming, but all of a sudden, I think I found the end of the rainbow! It would take a team of at least four men but very doable. Finding the four men was going to be a task. So I cut it to three, and I knew