Three is a Crowd

Three is a Crowd

by Luigi Pagano

Harry emerged from the prison’s gates shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. He took a deep breath and inhaled a lungful of diesel fumes. A small price to pay for freedom.

He was the only survivor of the gang that had relieved a security van of enough ingots to set them up for life: Eddie had slipped in the shower cracking his head and Vince had died of food poisoning. It suited the old lag to perfection; it confirmed the saying that ‘Three is a crowd’.

Now no one else knew the whereabouts of the loot and, if he could reach it before the authorities discovered its hiding place, the haul, that could easily have sustained a banana republic, was his as a right. Who ever said that crime doesn’t pay?

He wasn’t expecting anyone to meet him on his release and was surprised to see two girls standing by a stationary car.

He didn’t have to think twice to guess who they were: they were the spitting images of his late partners in crime.

“Hello Harry”, Eddie’s daughter said, “We have waited fifteen years to meet you.”

Then the other interjected: “We have come to claim our inheritance.”

Luigi Pagano
Luigi Pagano is an 80 year-old, Italian born, dilettante who usually writes poetry and occasionally bits of prose. He has published three poetry collections: Idle Thoughts, Reflections and Poetry on Tap.