FAST CHARLIE

EPISODE THREE

Tony, did you find the package? Stop looking. Fast, Charlie. I am impressed. He was my second best guy. I'm looking forward to meeting number one. What do you want? You. Not breathing. And how you gonna do that? I'm doing it. Oh, you got a long way to go, my friend. I got more men than you got bullets. Ours ain't in your favor.

Bullets are easy to get. Men? I'm not so sure. Or I could find out what Rollo had on you before you do. How's that sound? That's what I thought.

Get me the freak.

Easy now, just be easy. Just tell us where it's at. Keep your plates from getting more f****d up. I'd be repeating myself. I could say it slower, or I could draw you a picture. I don't know what you're talking about.

The f**k kind of bird is this? Long billed woodcock. Yeah? Girl, I got a big ol woodcock on me. That's real clever. For a 12 year old.

Can you put that down? I've been working on it for 30 hours already. What happened to him? He got hit by a truck? Some shithead loaded it with birdshot. I don't see no birdshot. No? Look here. Turn it over. Right there. Wait a minute. This a bad time?

Fucking Catholic.

Now I see why you like that old man car.

Rolo was here. He showed up about four days before you did? Told him he'd give me 50 grand if I would help him rent a place to lay low while he was working some shakedown scheme. I told him the whole thing was gonna blow up in his face, and it did. Literally.

What now? Well, I'm gonna dump these guys on ahead to New Orleans. Rollo's home turf. Pretty sure whatever they're looking for is there. Probably right next to my 50 grand. I don't think that's a good idea. Oh, do you have a better idea? What would you have me do? Sit in some hotel room? I don't Wait for you to tell me the coast is clear?

What if you get killed first? Well And then I wake up one day and there's another mutt and Jap at the foot of my bed holding duct tape and 45. Besides, you have any idea where Rolo lived? Where he hung out? The morons he rolled with? I do. That 50 grand could really change things for me. I'm gonna find it with or without you.

Pack light.

So, this 50 grand, what are you going to do with it if you find it anyway? LSU campus in Baton Rouge, they have a natural history museum. Uh, they said that they would like to hire me to be the director of avian exhibits. Hmm, professor. No, not quite. But they like my work, said if I got certified the job was mine.

20, 000 pays for the course, 5, 000 in move in expenses, and the rest for a starter place. Plus a change of scenery would be good for me. New start.

What about you? Got any plans when this is over?

My line of work, it's best not to have any long term plans.

You must think about something.

Hmm? What is this? A place nobody knows. However, It does have a kitchen.

Hmm? So good. Hmm. Yeah.

So, Beggar. He decides to make his move. And he wipes everyone out. You end up being the last man standing. Well, it would appear that way. Why didn't you run? Stan Mullen, my boss. My friend of 33 years. Man who played by the rules, kept his word. Did well by people. He deserved to go out on his terms, only he didn't get to.

Stan's dead, Charlie. Why does this mean so much to you?

When I was five. I'd wait at the door for my pops to come home.

My cowboy hat on, my boots on, my gun on. He'd come in, I'd give him a gun, and he'd say, Draw. Now, obviously, a 25, 26 year old man's gonna beat a 5 year old kid to the draw. But what bothered me was, that every day, every single day, he'd beat me to the draw. He'd make me put my hands up in the air, turn around and face the wall.

Then he'd shoot me in the back.

Every day he did that.

Then one day I reared up and I said, you know, what's the sense of facing the wall if you're gonna shoot me in the back? And he said, well, maybe today I won't. So I turned around and faced the wall and shot me in the back.

Hated him.

Now one night, one night I tell this to Stan and he says, when he came home you should have been waiting for him. As soon as he came in you should have been hiding behind the door. Shot him in the back. I mean, f**k giving him a gun and f**k giving him a chance. He says, in life, you can play by someone else's rules or you can play by your own.

You play by someone else's rules, you're gonna get f****d every time. Cause it's their design, not yours.

My old man was just trying to teach me a lesson.

Stan got me to see that.

Lifted a weight I carried in my heart for thirty years.

I'm gonna order some lunch.

Eight years I asked him to fix the boards on that walkway. Always was a lazy f**k.

How did you two get together? Oh, yeah. Moment of weakness. I was 32, and you know. Mm hmm. How long? Till I realized that he was always one scheme away from ending up in your trash swamp. Mr. Kramer! Full delivery!

Launch us up. After

Beggar's guys turned the place upside down and inside out, I didn't expect to find Rollo's ace card. I just hoped to find a clue as to where he stashed it.

What exactly are you looking for? Red lockbox. Yay, Begg. Picture of a Mustang on it. That's where he kept his valuables.

I knew that look. I've seen it in the mirror a few cold mornings back when I started this life.

It's not really letting go of the past that sticks with you. It's coming to terms with letting go of the future that'll never be.

It stays with you. No matter how far you run from it.

You sure you wanna stay? I haven't finished going through everything. It's just the stuff he wouldn't let me have when I took off. I'll take an Uber back to your place.