Wasco

He had a nifty sleight of hand. Rodrigo, or Rigo as he was known by his friends, had stolen several wallets and purses of visitors to his island nation over the past five years. Only twenty-two, it was as if he had been bestowed the gift of stealing by the gods. He had never been caught and he had Francs, Euros, Dollars, Yen, and even Pesos in his souvenir drawer. He spent only what he needed and the rest he saved for the day that he retired. He'd heard of retirement planning from some couple from Philadelphia when he was 18 and decided that it was a good idea, right after he stole $125 from the wife's purse. Their money made up the initial deposit into his retirement fund.

The island of Wasco was located in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, nestled within the Lesser Antilles. It was reachable by small prop plane, because the airstrip was the size of a city block in Laramie, Wyoming, which is to say tiny and only enough for small planes and the occasional helicopters. Of course, you could take a boat, after flying into an island with an actual airport. Cruise ships skipped this port despite the fact that Wasco had developed one of the elite resorts not only in the Caribbean, but perhaps in the world.

Jayson, Wayne, and Deirdre Marshall had bought the island over twenty-five years earlier with the goal of creating this resort paradise. At the time, Wasco had a population of 100 people and was bankrupt. The Marshall siblings had come there to do a feasibility study on the possibility of making this place profitable. Initially, they spent a couple million dollars building the infrastructure for fresh water, electricity, sewer and paved roads. Next they tackled the issue of housing on the island. Figuring that they would eventually need to recruit hundreds of people to work, they built upgraded modest homes for the current residents on the island. Then they tore down the old houses and built one- and two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom houses to be lived in by the people they would recruit to live and work at the resort.

Over the next five year they built the resort, hired staff, built an airstrip, built out the coastal dock so that they could more easily handle shipments and supplies. Wasco's population had grown to 350 people, now they needed to attract visitors. The first island event was a massive wedding for an international superstar. The resort owners spared no expense to ensure that this event was perfect. There were over 400 guests in attendance. They kept photographers and media members in the blind. The wedding and subsequent party was a three-day orgy of booze, sex, dancing and nuptials. Besides the stars of the event, three other couples spontaneously got married and nobody got divorced or had anything stolen. It was a huge success, and the attendees told their friends, who booked visits, and the friends told their friends, and so on. Within ten years of opening, The Marshall's resort was making more money than they could've dreamed, so they sold 49% of their ownership stake to a little company, whose name must be redacted, but they're known to be pretty good at running resorts themselves.

Everything was running smoothly until Rigo came of age. During the initial 17 years that the resort had been open, there were one dozen complaints of stolen property. That's right, twelve! Five were false alarms when guests who had overindulged had decided to put their valuables in the safe and forgot that they had done so. Security found each of those items. Three times guests found the items they had claimed were stolen in their bags when taking a third or fourth look through their things. Twice, the kids of the guests had actually admitted to taking the items and losing them in the ocean. Which leaves two complaints: the first one was a mugging by one of the employees who worked in the resort. The employee was caught with the stolen goods within 3 days by the security staff. The employee disappeared following their arrest and were not heard from again...they weren't killed...at least there's no proof of that.

The last complaint of stolen goods happened a decade ago and was unsolved by security staff. In this case an unnamed wealthy guest had their room broken into and ransacked, having more than three quarters of a million dollars in jewelry stolen. The Marshall family spent nearly $100,000 paying for the investigation, and the guest filed an insurance claim which ultimately paid them back for their losses, but this incident cooled interest in Wasco for a little bit. The Marshalls agreed to spend money to upgrade security throughout the resort. More cameras, more security guards, and a more advanced investigative body to handle potential crimes. The effect of the upgrades were no formal complaints filed for nearly five years.

Rodrigo Fuentes was born on Wasco in the small hospital run by a group of nuns from the Dominican Republic. The hospital was built prior to the resort, but the Marshall's upgraded and expanded the space in order to meet the needs of a growing population as well as the guests to the resorts. Initially the hospital had a dozen beds, but after the renovations there was enough space for a little more than 100 patients, four full time doctors and 13 nurses were hired. The nuns specialized in fiscally running the hospital and praying for the salvation of the patients. Rodrigo was the first baby born in the renovated hospital. In fact, when you go to the hospital's childbirth wing (three rooms), you'll find a plaque in the hallway commemorating Rigo's arrival.

Rigo hadn't always been a thief, but he had always been resourceful. As a kid, he hated eating. His parents worked long, exhausting hours at the resort and neither of them could cook for shit! His mom either burned their meals or overcooked them so badly that the food was dry and flavorless. His dad could barely boil water properly. So Rigo watched his parents struggle in the kitchen in order to learn how to use the stove, which was propane gas. Once he learned how to work with the gas stove safely, he began cooking meals for his family, which included younger brother and sister, Marnus and Flora respectively. His resourcefulness in the kitchen showed up when there was little food in the house, but he'd still make a full and delicious meal. By the time he was a teenager he was known for being a good cook by everyone in his neighborhood. At the age of 14, the head chef on the resort hired him to be his apprentice in the kitchen. It was a wonderful opportunity, and initially he loved the job. He learned so much during the initial weeks as an apprentice. But his love soured when he saw how much food was wasted by the resort guests. They'd order wonderfully cooked meals and half of it would be thrown away, not because they didn't enjoy the meal, but because they were spoiled rich babies! At least that's how Rigo saw them. So, after six months working as an apprentice, he quit the job, much to the dismay of his parents.

Rigo continued to cook meals at home, but he was dismayed by the limited meal options available for he and his siblings. He grew tired of making meals with limited meat and mainly consisting of beans, potatoes or rice. And since the family didn't have the money to buy much else, Rigo began his life as a thief.

He started off by going to the local grocer and stealing spices. Next he moved up to taking packages of meat. For weeks he would go into the small grocery store and move quickly through the four aisles picking out something small to buy and hiding a pack of goat pieces or chicken thighs under a tight-fitting shirt, which held the package of food firmly to his body. Over top he wore a loose t-shirt to hide the tight shirt. He'd buy a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk or a bag of beans and walk out of the store. This was a successful endeavor until he was caught by a suspicious shopper who told the owner that she thought Rigo was stealing from him. As the grocer approached Rigo with a broom shouting obscenities, the now fifteen-year-old dropped the package of steak and ran out of the grocery store. The grocer hunted down Roderigo's father at work to tell him what the boy had done. Rigo's father left work and beat his son for disgracing the family. Wasco was way too small to get away with stealing from his friends and family. However, Rigo was unfazed by the setback. He began to watch videos learning how to pick pockets and break into locks. Particularly the locks of the resort residences. He convinced Marnus and Flora to be his victims as he practiced stealing from their pockets and a purse that Flora had been given for her previous birthday. For a year he practiced becoming better at stealing, eventually doing it when his siblings weren't even in on the practice. He would steal items and put them back before they were known to be missing. Once he felt comfortable, he'd steal from his parents, always returning the items as stealthily as he took them. On a couple of occasions when he took items from his mother's work bag and was attempting to return them, she would turn around and look at him.

"What are you up to, Rigo?" she'd say. It was more accusation than question.

"Nada, Mama," he'd respond and then give her a hug slipping the item back in her bag. "I love you!" he'd exclaim, and she'd look at him suspiciously and mutter "I love you too."

After more than a year of training, Rodrigo Fuentes was ready to take his skills live. He would not steal from his neighbors; he would steal from the wealthy who came to stay at the resort. He was immediately successful. On the first afternoon of his new career, he stole more than $100 from two victims from Texas and Utah. It had been easy to take a wallet from an open bag take a couple of twenties from the wallet and put the wallet back. It took all of ten seconds. The other $60 came from watching a guy carelessly put cash in his pocket. He simple slipped a couple of fingers into the pocket and pulled out a fifty and a ten. He didn't stick around to find out when the pale gentleman from Ogden would figure out that he had lost sixty bucks, but he didn't rush out either. Casually and calmly, he exited. This would be the scene countless times over the next few years. He'd slip in and out of crowded situations taking money effortlessly, without suspicion. Or he'd take from those who were just inattentive of the slender boy with brown skin making his way around their valuables. It took most victims hours to discover they were missing money and most chalked it up to being forgetful or to dropping it somewhere on the grounds. The genius of Rigo's thieving was that he wasn't greedy. He was disciplined. He took anywhere from $20 to $200 from any individual and never a dime more. He figured the people at the resort wouldn't miss such a small sum. As more and more people came to the resort, he grew accustomed to stealing anywhere between $1000 to $3000 in a given week. For five years this was his life. Whenever he wanted money, he'd peruse the resort and pick out perps to steal from. There were complaints, but since the amounts were so small, it was often cheaper for the resort to comp a bottle of champagne or give them a room discount than to actually look for the thief. Plus, most of the thefts were never reported because most of the time the guest didn't know anything was stolen. Not only was Rigo an excellent thief, but his plan for stealing was a stroke of genius.

His latest theft haul had produced one-hundred fifty Euros, seventy-five Swiss Francs, and eighty dollars. He biked back to his apartment, which was a small studio a couple of miles from the resort entrance. It was early evening and the sun had begun to disappear in the horizon. Rigo unlocked his door and stepped inside his home, looking around for a moment before shutting and locking the door. Rigo searched the small apartment, he had the feeling that someone else was there. When he was sure that he was alone he went to the small table in the kitchen space and emptied his pockets, which included a folded green envelope that he'd never seen before. He unfolded it and in bold lettering it read:

I'M WATCHING YOU! OPEN ME!

Rigo went to the window to look outside. Who is watching me? He thought. He scrutinized the envelope. How had it gotten into his pocket? Who left it there? So many questions. He cautiously began to open the envelope. Inside was a folded napkin. Rigo unfolded the white napkin and read the words written in red lipstick.

Meet me tonight at 9 in the resort main lobby. He looked at his wall clock, which read 8:43...it always read 8:43 because it was broken. He knew it was around ten minutes to 8:00, so he made himself beef and noodles with a mushroom sauce that was full of flavor. No surprise, Roderigo had developed into a gourmet cook. He looked at his phone, and now it was 8:43, so he went outside, hopped on his bike and headed back to the resort to meet the mystery person.

As he entered the entrance of the main building, he all of the sudden had a feeling of dread that he'd be greeted by security and whisked away to a prison somewhere. He kept walking into a sitting area in the lobby. There was a woman sitting in a chair looking up at him with a smile. She had on a floppy wide brimmed hat and was wearing a yellow sundress with tropical fruit printed on it. She also had on a green pair of flip flops, and her feet were immaculately pedicured. Rigo had a bit of a budding foot fetish and was transfixed on her toes as he continued to walk towards the stranger.

"You came!" the woman said brightly. She stood up and greeted Rigo with open arms, he backed off as she walked toward him.

"I'm not going to bite," she said. "I'm a hugger. I like to greet people with hugs." Reluctantly Rigo allowed the woman to hug him, and he had to admit that she smelled heavenly, like a field of wildflowers.

"Come sit with me, let's talk," she said, still jovial, but with serious overtones in her voice. Rigo sat in a comfortable chair with high arms. He planted both feet on the ground and folded his arms. The woman sat in the loveseat next to him and looked Rigo in his face, smiling open mouthed, with the whiteness of her teeth nearly blinding Rigo.

"How did you get that note to me?" Rigo asked, deadpanned.

"You don't recognize me?" Rigo looked at her closely. The woman was older than Rigo, perhaps late thirties or early forties. She was very attractive, and as he looked closer, she did look familiar, but he wasn't sure why.

"A lot of celebrities come here. Are you a celebrity?"

"Not yet," she replied.

"Have you visited here before?"

"Many times."

"Well then perhaps I've seen you before."

"You've stolen from me before," she said softly. "Don't worry, I can't prove it, but I know you have. I didn't know initially, but then yesterday, I saw you steal from a Parisian woman. What did you take, 50 Euros? 100? You were very sly. I looked around and nobody else could even pick up what you did, but I...saw...everything," she punctuated the end of the sentence by slowing her pace. Rigo gave away nothing with his face, but inside, his heart was pounding.

"What does that have to do with you?"

"Nothing, but it made me realize that the $100 I "lost" two years ago, wasn't lost, it was stolen. By you." Rigo wanted to get up and leave, but he found himself frozen in his seat and immobilized by his curiousity for what this woman wanted.

"Who are you?"

"You can call me BP."

"Okay British Petroleum, what do you want?"

"I wanted to meet you. You are the most interesting person I've met in a while. It's not everyday that you meet a thief. Especially one who has never been a person of interest or caught. You've got yourself quite a little racket here Roderigo." She knew his name. How did she know his name?

"You've met me."

"Yes I have. I like you. I want to work with you."

"You want to steal money from guests? I thought you were rich."

"I have money, but I'm not exactly rich. I've been living off money I made a while ago and now it's time to refill the coffers. But you're right, I don't want to do what you're doing. Making a few hundred bucks at a time. I want a big score, with lots of money, that will last me a long time."

"I'm doing fine."

"You are?" BP pulled out a bag full of mixed currency and pulled it out in front of Rigo. "Is this your retirement fund?" she asked handing him the bag.

"You?"

"Yeah, me. Maybe put your money in a bank or something, it's not difficult to get into your safe. Or get a better safe, in a secure place, outside of your fucking house. It's all there, except for the $100 you stole from me, I took that back. Now, you can take your money and go back to stealing from all these poor bastards who are too dumb to notice, or you and I can put our heads together and do one job and make a lot of money."

"Why do you think that I'd want to work with you?"

"This can't be everything you want. Have you ever been off of this island? There's a world out there with a lot of opportunities in it. There's a lot you can do when you get off of this rock. Here? Here? All you can do here is work for the resort or steal from the people who come to the resort. The resort is everything. Now, you're young, and you've done remarkably well for yourself. You have so few options here, but out there? Out there is everything else. If all you want is here, then God bless you and good luck to you. But that can't be all you want. I know you have to wonder what else is there for you. I think together we can find the answers for you."

Rodrigo looked around the lobby. It was empty, nobody was roaming about. The concierge desk was being managed by Hector, who was inattentively reading a book and listening to music with a pair of ear buds in his ears. It was quiet, and the conversation between Rodrigo and BP had been hushed. Not in a secretive tone that might arouse suspicion, but not so loud that anyone would've been able to hear what they were saying without being in their midst.

"How do you know that I want to leave? Maybe I love it here."

"Rodrigo baby, you can love this place and still want to leave. It's not an either/or situation. The only question you need to answer is, do you want to make a lot of money?"

"Yes," he responded immediately. "How are we going to do what it is that you want to do?"

"We are going to take the money from this resort."