Robin Ch 2
Story by Cadi Carys on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
It took Robin a couple more weeks at the convent before she managed to get herself a reasonable apartment that would take cash. The hardest part really had been finding one that wasn't a rat den, but in the end she had one locked in. It was as well, because it gave her time to build up a nice bit of a nest egg hustling at the bars at night. She kept the day job for appearance's sake, and to keep the nuns happy, but now that she knew where she'd be living, she could find somewhere a lot closer to home, rather than clear on the other side of town.
Caroline expressed a little bit of concern when she helped Robin bring her things to the apartment, but Robin did her best to set Caroline's mind at ease, even if she was pouting more than a little when she gave Robin a hug and left her to return to the convent. Robin just couldn't help but laugh as she flopped down onto the mattress, spreading her arms and legs out. She'd managed to get one that was bigger than her ones at the convent, even if it wasn't a full queen size. Still, she'd wanted a little bit of 'luxury' for herself in her new home.
However, she couldn't let herself get carried away, no matter how successful she was. She didn't want people asking where the money was coming from. So, while she did get things like a nice couch and TV, didn't exactly cover the room with expensive shit. Heck, she even kept her computer fairly modest, at least outwardly.
She got a job at a store nearby... one which didn't pay as well as her other job, but it was family-owned, and treated her far better than the other one. It was far more pleasant, and she was more than capable of making up for the difference with her side-job.
She made sure to keep in touch with the friends she'd made at school who'd wound up in this part of town, too. And there were several nice ones... some of the girls who had been real sweethearts, even if they hadn't been... among those better off at the school. Still, she took the time to connect with them and make sure that they had what they needed. It was shaping up to be a good life here.
Things went pretty smoothly for several months before one of her old friends started showing warning signs. She'd been jumpier than usual... on edge. What was worse, Robin recognized some of the signs from what had happened with her father. That was like cold water being dumped on Robin's heart... Jenny was a sweetheart... not the kind of person who would get involved with drugs.
She arranged for the two of them to have some time together, without any extra ears. She looked Jenny right in the eye, her gaze filled with concern as she gently... warmly said, “What's going on, girl? You're changing... and I have seen this change before... with my dad."
Jenny knew what had happened with Robin's father, and her eyes went wide with fear, starting to shake as she looked around. Her hands gripped the hem of her skirt as she started breathing faster. “I... look... I know what it looks like... Bobby... look, he... and I couldn't... say no... he was gonna... kick me out..." she said with a whimper before explaining the things that Bobby had been making her do.
Robin's expression went to the place of cold fury, her eyes focused and clear. He'd been using Jenny. Using her to make money in... the worst way possible, and on top of that, he'd been making her use drugs so that she would become dependent on him as her source for the fix she would need very badly here before long. When Jenny finished, Robin sat there quietly, breathing slowly. She wasn't angry at Jenny. Never angry at her friend. But Bobby... that was a different matter. She'd have to figure out how to burn him for this.
She understood that, if she simply took Jenny in, Bobby would realize what had happened... and Jenny wouldn't live for much longer. Robin had to come up with a real plan. In the meanwhile, she took Robin to the pub next to where she worked, just having a pretty normal girls night out with her, taking her back to Bobby's place and giving her a big hug before calling out to Bobby, telling her to take care of Jenny before she, to all appearances, headed back home.
But she didn't go far. She ducked out of sight, staking out the spot. A while later, a visibly upset Jenny in... what could only optimistically be called clothes, heading toward one of the shadier parts of town while Bobby headed to one of the more industrial areas. As much as Robin wanted to just step in and try to save Jenny, she understood that the better way of accomplishing that would be to deal with Bobby.
She tracked him to an apparently disused warehouse, tracking along to find a window that she could look in through, even if that meant climbing a bit. What she saw made her sick. It was a drug lab... and as she investigated the place through the windows, she saw that there was a stockpile, and she even saw where money was being taken.
Bobby wasn't the ring leader, from the looks of things. Just a runner. She saw him taking his money to the strong room before heading over to the stash, refilling his bag before setting out again. Robin settled into a steadier stakeout, watching the flow of the place. She was quickly taking in who was there, what roles they seemed to have, and what the tempo of the place was.
It made for a long night, but she saw that, whatever else, it was a busy place well into the night. The next morning, she called out from work and went back to continue her stakeout. It looked as though they kept a low profile during the day, sticking to just enough guards to keep the warehouse secure while the businesses around them were working. She took that information in and started coming up with a plan.
She spent the rest of the day getting things ready. She knew a camping place that would have just the things she needed, grabbing a couple of small logs that had been pre-cut and packed with propellant in order to serve as portable campfires. She also grabbed a ski-mask and other bits of gear. A few days later, after she'd confirmed the pattern of activity at the warehouse, she called out from work again and dressed in the outfit that she'd pulled together for herself, with her head covered in a hood, with everything but her eyes covered by the ski-mask. The rest of her clothes were snug, with no loose bits of fabric to catch on things.
She made her way over to the warehouse, watching the guards to make sure where in their rotation they were. She found her opening, slipping between patrols and making her way up into the rafters, where she set up her logs and prepped the roof to go up like a candle, set with long fuses that would give her more than enough time to do what she needed.
She made her way down to the safe room, quickly picking the lock, getting into it and stuffing the duffle bag that she'd brought with as much money as she could. She went to the office, making sure that the records were out in the open when the fire department got here. She wanted this to be conspicuous... to draw as much attention to the place as she could. She'd even set smaller pyro charges near the stockpile and the lab to make sure that the department would have to go to those places, and she did the same right outside of the office.
Once everything was set, she made her way to one of the exits, hiding beside it in a spot the guards wouldn't see and counted down to the charges going off. When the fire alarms started blaring, she gave the guards time to dash into the warehouse before she slipped out of the door, and vanished into the industrial district.
She made her way to a place where she'd stashed a few things before going to the warehouse, quickly but carefully changing before she tucked her clothes from the heist into the bag and casually stepped onto a bus, calmly heading back toward her home while the sirens of the fire department were rushing toward the warehouse she'd just set on fire.
She'd actually managed to clear out most of the money vault, especially getting any of the smaller, high-value items. She'd had to leave a decent amount behind, but that would just be more evidence for the authorities. In the meanwhile, she got herself something secure to stash the money in until she could figure out something more permanent, and sat back to watch the news.
Early on, the reports were just talking about a fire at an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district, but after an hour or so, the talk started to shift toward rumors coming in from the firefighters. Those rumors were only reinforced by the fact that the Nottingham police department descended on the facility in force, locking the area down once the fires were contained.
It was a few days before any official statements were made by the police, but a few days after the raid, Jenny showed up one morning, knocking on Robin's door. Her eyes were wild, but she had a great big smile on her face, “They took Bobby! Oh my God, they came and arrested him for drugs... they even found some still at the apartment and cash!"
Robin showed no surprise at this, giving her friend a nice, big 'I know something you don't know' grin. “Oh, really... well, someone must have found evidence that tied him to a drug ring, or something like that..." she said casually.
Jenny narrowed her eyes, glaring at Robin. “Alright, what's up?" Her tone was stern, but she was still just too excited to really be angry.
Robin laughed and shook her head. “I tailed him the other night... and I found the warehouse that his drug ring was operating out of."
Jenny's eyes widened, putting the pieces together as her jaw fell open, “The warehouse that had the big fire a few days ago?!?" She looked at the TV that had a report going about the fire, taking a moment to think it through before she looked back at Robin, “That was... you?" Her voice was full of awe.
Robin laughed and grinned from ear to ear, “Yeah. I had to watch the place for a few days before I could hit it, but I set the fires so that they'd burn well enough to need the fire department... but not well enough to destroy too much of the evidence. I might have even made sure that a number of papers were out in the open in the office... so easy for anyone official to notice," she said with a laugh, and a glimmer in her eye that said there was still more.
Jenny smirked at Robin, reaching out to tickle her, “Okay, spill it, what else did you do?"
Robin laughed, squirming as she tried to escape the tickles, “Okay! Okay! I robbed them blind, too!"
That got the other girl to freeze, ceasing her tickling. “You didn't..."
Robin chuckled and walked Jenny over to the new ottoman in the living room, pulling the blanket off of it to reveal that there was a keyhole in the side. She unlocked it and opened the lid, revealing a good chunk of what she'd taken. Jenny's eyes went wide as she stared at it before looking up at Robin again with a newfound sense of awe and respect. Robin smirked and closed the ottoman again, locking it back as she sighed. “So... you need a new place to stay, don't you? This place has decent apartments, and they don't mind cash..." she said coyly.
Jenny just about fell over at that. “Wait... you'd... help me get a place here?" She really looked as though she couldn't wrap her head around that.
Robin smiled, reaching out to stroke her shoulder gently, “Hun, I'm certain that a cut of the money you were being forced to make went into this pot... so as far as I'm concerned, you have a right to this money, too. We can work on getting you set up with a new job... the place I work is pretty good, and they'll treat you right."
Jenny had no words, and instead just threw herself at Robin, hugging her friend tightly as she started to sob into the side of her neck. All of the fear... the pain... the humiliation she'd endured under Bobby was just pouring out of her, while Robin stood there with her, holding her. The fire deep within Robin was just taking it all in, glowing with warmth that radiated out for Jenny, filling her with the care that she desperately needed at that moment.
It was a few minutes of crying, but Robin didn't mind, and when Jenny was done, she just kind of slumped against Robin, breathing steadily. “Alright, hun... let's sit down for a moment, okay?" She guided Jenny over to the couch, easing her down onto it and sitting to nestle in close right as the news station announced that they were cutting over to a live press conference.
When the cameras changed over to the chief of police, he was standing in front of a simple podium, holding his hat in his hands with the burned warehouse behind him. Robin could see that the fire department had managed to save most of the structure, which wasn't entirely surprising, since she'd been careful on where she placed her charges, so that it would be much more obvious than destructive.
The chief cleared his throat and looked solemnly into the cameras. “I would like to announce that we have concluded our investigation of the warehouse fire in the industrial district. First of all, the fire department does believe that arson was involved, but we currently have no leads. More importantly, though, we would like to announce that, while extinguishing the fire, the fire department discovered evidence, which we have been investigating since. We can, at this hour, confirm that this abandoned warehouse had been illegally in use as a drug lab and distribution facility. We have found drug production and processing facilities, along with a stockpile of drugs for distribution."
“Further, we have found money and records that have already resulted in several arrests. We cannot assume that we have everyone involved in this operation in custody, but we are confident that we have a significant number of the leading members of this crime ring. At this stage, our conclusion on the arson was that it was performed to draw attention to this facility. If this was the case, and the person responsible is simply a concerned citizen who was unsure of how to alert us to the presence of the illegal operation here, I would like to remind them that we have a publicly listed telephone number for reporting crimes such as this, and would ask that, in future, rather than resort to arson, they make use of the phone line for any future communications they would like to provide. Thank you."
The cameras cut back to the studio, where the anchors were already discussing the press conference, amazed at what had been revealed. “It really goes to show that you just never know what's going on, doesn't it," one of the hosts asked the other, clearly amazed at the scale of the drug operation at the warehouse.
“You really don't, Alice. I do want to re-emphasize the chief's last point there, though. While we do appreciate the enthusiasm with which the authorities were alerted to this criminal enterprise, we would strongly caution against using this particular means going forward. The risk of damaging and destroying evidence is too significant, and it can damage nearby structures too easily," the other one said solemnly while the conversation continued on.
Robin and Jenny were in fits of laughter over that, just completely tickled by the press conference, and the way the reporters were going on about it all. “They'd... haha... rather you use... hehe... the phone next time..." Jenny said between laughing, just completely taken by the report, unable to contain herself.
Robin took a bit longer to collect herself well enough to talk, “But... if I had, I wouldn't have been able to take them for everything they were worth!" She lost it again for a moment before continuing, “Besides... I'm sure they had plans for destroying evidence before the cops managed to get into the place... hah... at least this way... what guards there were in the building... were too busy panicking to destroy everything... right?"
They both enjoyed a good laugh, just kind of slumping back and clicking over to another channel to just kind of unwind with, just letting random shows play while they relaxed.
The next few days were quite interesting as they got Jenny settled into a new apartment and a new job at the same place that Robin worked. Thankfully, she'd been able to get medical help for the damage that had already been done by the drugs. More thankfully, Robin had noticed quickly enough that Jenny hadn't been on them for long enough to really wreck her.
The interesting thing was that she exhibited far fewer signs of dependence than the doctors had expected, but ultimately they were just glad that they were actually able to help her heal, rather than just having to fight a rear-guard action against years of accumulated damage. One of them had even complimented Robin on catching it so early and helping her friend to get clean.
The apartment owner was quite happy to have Jenny move in. He wasn't some cold, distant man, only interested in the money his tenants could provide. No, he was a family man, himself, with a teenage daughter of his own. He worked very hard to make sure she had the education that she needed... and that he'd never had the chance to get in his home country. She'd never have had the opportunities she had here back where he was from.
More interesting was the son of the store owner actually seemed to take a bit of an interest in Jenny. He might have taken an interest in Robin if she wasn't so... unapproachable, but the truth was that Robin didn't want intimate relationships with much of anyone. The loss she'd been through was entirely too fresh for that to be in the cards for her. Still, she could be happy with close friends like Jenny, and take satisfaction in them living well, even if that included relationships of their own.
Robin was very satisfied with the news when it came to the warehouse. Most of the people identified in the records wound up being successfully prosecuted, including Bobby, who Jenny had needed to testify against. Still, at least she had a caring community to return to when it was all said and done.
Beyond that, though, Robin was very careful with the money she'd taken from the warehouse, making sure to keep it as an emergency reserve, rather than as a ticket to party. Yes, she had a windfall by being able to raid their safe, but she could never be certain when anything like that would come again... even if it had felt really good to take down a drug ring like that. On a certain level... she kind of hoped that her parents were able to watch what she had done from Heaven. Yeah, even her dad. She'd had long enough to cool toward him by this point... for the most part, at least.
What she couldn't anticipate was that her actions had garnered attention for her.
Something primal... elemental was awakening within this world.
And she had made a fine offering to it.
It would remember.