The Heist

You got it?”
    They nodded. Odell closed the door, dragged Nick to the center stall, and shoved him in.
    “Make it quick,” Odell said.
    Nick held out his wrists. “Aren’t you going to uncuff me?”
    “Nope,” Odell said.
    “So how am I supposed to clean myself?”
    “Should’ve thought of that before you broke the law,” Odell said, and closed the door.
    Technically, Odell probably should have left the door open, but the last thing he wanted was to watch Nick do his business. Turnedout he’d made a wise decision, because barely an instant after the door closed, Odell heard a gastrointestinal explosion that sounded like it could kill a man.
    Odell turned away and quickly put as much distance as he could between himself and the stall, which took him over to the urinals. Since he was there anyway, he decided to relieve himself. The “Theme from
Shaft
” played in his head as it always did whenever his zipper was opened. But the song wasn’t loud enough to save Odell, no matter how high he cranked up his mental volume control. The noise coming from Nick’s stall was epic. Odell wished he could walk out and wait with the other two marshals in the hall, but he knew he couldn’t. He wasn’t worried about Nick escaping from a windowless room with only one door, but what if he offed himself somehow?
    Odell went to the sink, glancing at the stalls on his way. He could see Nick’s feet, the orange scrub pants bunched around the chain on his ankles. The orchestra of intestinal distress continued, with special emphasis on the horns and percussion. It was sickening. Odell held his breath and washed his hands, then dried them with a paper towel and glanced at his watch. They were five minutes late for court already. But what could he do about it? Worse came to worst, he’d have one of the marshals go and notify the court. Maybe he should tell them to alert a HazMat team, too.
    There was a new surge of digestive distress, as if Nick had found a second stomach within himself to disgorge. To Odell’s horror, the disgusting melody was repeating itself all over again, from the top.
    That last thought nagged at him. It
did
sound the same. Then again, he figured, it’s not like there was a lot of variation to buttmusic. Even so, there was a disturbing familiarity to it. Like it was a loop. Odell risked a breath through his nose. There was no smell. How could that be? Odell glanced over at the stall and saw Nick’s feet. He marched over and hammered his fist on the door.
    “Open up,” Odell said.
    When Nick didn’t respond, Odell took a deep breath and kicked the door open. Nick’s shoes, chain, and pants were there, but Nick was gone. An ultrathin MP3 player rested on the toilet tank and played the intestinal soundtrack. Right beside the player was a pair of handcuffs. The MP3 player and the cuff keys must have been hidden in the toilet seat cover dispenser.
    Odell pushed against the partition between the second and third stall, the partition pivoted on a support pole, and the opening allowed access to the third stall, the one without a toilet. There was a hole torn in the wall, revealing a closet that had been hidden by a layer of paper made to look like painted stucco. The sounds of gastrointestinal distress had covered the noise Nick made tearing open the sealed doorway.
    Odell climbed through the center divider into the third stall, drew his gun, and went into the closet, which was full of mops, brooms, and cleaning supplies. He groaned at the sight of a second door, yanked it open, and found himself standing in the women’s restroom. The two restrooms shared the same utility closet. He ran through the restroom and burst out the door into the courthouse hallway, much to the astonishment of the two other marshals, who were still standing guard outside the men’s room.
    “Hey, Odell, how’d you get over there?” one of them asked.
    In that split second, Odell Morris saw his entire career pass before his eyes and even glimpsed his future working in mall security.
    “Why me?” Odell asked, and grabbed his radio to raise the alarm.
    There wasn’t anything sexy, or even remotely interesting, to Kate about chasing down guys who copy movies and make them available for free on the Internet. Sure, the stakes were high. The studios were losing millions of dollars in revenue from movies and TV shows that wouldn’t be purchased or rented because they were available for free. They’d probably cover those