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Sure Thing

Written by Kerryn Offord

Sunrise, Monday, March 13, 1634, Magdeburg

Elisabetha Schmelzer was sure the shadow walking behind her was a man, and that he was following her. Every time she stopped, he stopped as well. She wasn't quite ready to panic just yet, but a woman alone in this area at this early hour of the morning wasn't safe. She loosened the knife she kept in her sash, and considered her options. Around the next corner, if she put on a quick burst of speed, she should be able to get to the alleyway before whoever was following turned the corner. If she could hide in the shadows, then maybe she could lose him.

She stepped round the corner, and then ran as quietly as she could for the alley. Once there she crouched in the shadow of a doorway, her knife ready.

Elisabetha was tempted to poke her head out to see if she could see her follower. No, it's safer to wait. I'd surely hear him if he comes down here. She settled down to wait.

****

The movement and rustle just about caused Elisabetha to jump out of her skin. But it was only a black kitten playing with a bit of colored paper. Elisabetha grinned. Then she concentrated on the piece of paper. It looked like a banknote. She leapt to her feet. Well, she would have if her right leg hadn't fallen asleep. Instead she lurched to her feet, making a noise as she did so. The kitten took fright and was off in a flash.

Elisabetha picked up the piece of paper. It was a bank note. A ten dollar note. Then she saw the other zero. A hundred dollars. That's nearly a week's wages at the laundry. She searched the alleyway just in case the owner was looking for it. There was nobody. So she wiped the note as clean as she could and put it in her purse. She looked around to see if she could see the kitten who had found her this prize, but it was long gone.

The sun was getting higher in the sky and more people were on the streets, so Elisabetha stepped out of the alley and continued on her way home. She needed to buy food for the day and then she needed to get some sleep. The nightshift at the laundry paid well, but it was exhausting work.

****

Johann Roeloffse sat at his usual table in the café just down the road. Whenever Elisabetha had a spare dollar she bought a number in the lottery from him. She adjusted her shopping bags and felt in her purse. The coins didn't add up to enough for a ticket, but she did have the banknote she'd found earlier. Feeling lucky, she walked over to Johann with the banknote ready. "Could I buy a number for today's draw, please?"

Johann smiled and pulled out his policy book. "Of course you can, Elisabetha." Then he saw the note in Elisabetha's hand. "A one hundred dollar note? Elisabetha, what've you been up to?"

"I found it," Elisabetha protested. She was pretty sure she knew what Johann thought she had been up to. There weren't that many things a girl could do that would result in being paid with a one hundred dollar note. "Honestly. I was walking home from work when I thought I was being followed. So I slipped into an alleyway and hid. A kitten was playing with it. Look. You can see when he chewed on it."

Johann examined the note. "I don't suppose you have anything smaller? I don't have that much change." A sneaky grin appeared on Johann's face. "Hey, why not buy a hundred tickets? It's not as if they'll cost you anything. It's all found money."

Elisabetha shook her head. "It's the smallest I have, sorry. And it might be found money, but there are other things I want to buy."

"Well, what about fifty tickets? I can give you fifty dollars in change. Go on, girl. Think what you could do with your winnings."

"I don't know. Fifty dollars is a lot of money to gamble."

"Sure it is, but it's not your money. It's found money, so you're not really gambling. Go on, Elisabetha, take a risk."

Elisabetha sighed. "Oh, very well. Fifty tickets, please."

Johann opened his policy book and got his pencil ready. "You won't be sorry. What numbers do you want then?"

Elisabetha looked around searching for inspiration. The only number she could see was the date on the paper Johann had been reading.

"Thirteen."

Johann wrote out the first ticket. "Right, 'thirteen.' Only forty-nine to go."

"No, I mean, thirteen is the number I want."

"What?"

"I want fifty tickets made out to the number thirteen. I can do that, can't I?"

Johann nodded vigorously. "Yes. Sure you can, and think of the money if you win. Seven hundred dollars fifty times, that's. . ."

"Thirty-five thousand dollars," Elisabetha supplied.

"Yeah, thirty-five thousand dollars." Johann quickly wrote out the tickets and passed them and fifty dollars in one, five and ten dollar notes. "Don't spend it all in one place."

Tuesday morning March 16, 1634, Karickhoff's Gym, Magdeburg

Wilhelm Koch walked into Tommy Karickhoff's office. Tommy sat behind a massive desk, leaning back in his chair. "Herr Karickhoff, I have the results from Monday's lottery. The winning number was zero-one-three. . . "

"Hey, I like it. Not many people like the leading zeros. How did we do?"

Wilhelm buried his face behind his papers. "Sales for Monday were eighteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three tickets. Our gross income was eighteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three dollars. Less commissions that is seventeen thousand six hundred and ninety-one dollars and eighty-five cents."

"Wilhelm, just cut to the chase. How many tickets won and how much profit did we make."

The papers rustled in Wilhelm's nervous hands. He poked his head over the top of them. "Normally we would expect between fifteen and twenty winners on sales of that size . . ."

"Come on Wilhelm. We don't have all day. How many winning tickets were there? From the way you're carrying on I assume there were more than expected."

Wilhelm nodded.

"Well? How many?"

"Fifty-six," Wilhelm whispered.

"Speak up. That sounded like you said fifty-six."

"I did, Herr Karickhoff. There were fifty-six winning tickets on Monday's draw."

Tommy shot to his feet. "What? Fifty-six? On a leading zero? We haven't been selling more than ten tickets per number on any number with a leading zero for months. Who the hell sold those tickets?"

Wilhelm checked his notes. "Anna Dieckmann sold two, Philipp Schneider one, and Otto Wolforath three. Johann Roeloffse sold fifty."

"Fifty? One person sold fifty tickets on the winning number. Something smells." Tommy slammed his fists onto his desk. "I want you to take Conrad and Georg with you and invite Johann Roeloffse to visit me before noon. Understood?" Wilhelm nodded nervously. "Well get a move on."

****

The day started just like any day for Johann Roeloffse. He sat at his favorite café and opened his newspaper. He read the comics first—chuckling quietly at the antics of Brillo—then the sports page. Finally he turned to the financial reports for the previous day's trading. He looked at the three trading figures Tommy Karickhoff used for his numbers lottery, and wrote down the last dollar digit from each. By the time he'd recorded the third number he knew today was going to be bad. He put down the paper and looked around. Already he was starting to sweat.

And there they were. There was no way a person could fail to recognize Tommy Karickhoff's men. The black American-style pinstripe suits with the tip of a white handkerchief poking out of the left breast pocket and a white carnation pinned to the lapel, the black hat with the white band, the black shirt with a white tie, the black and white lace up shoes, and finally, the small instrument cases they carried, made them instantly recognizable. He'd never met anybody who'd actually seen what was carried in the instrument cases, and he didn't want to be the first of his contemporaries to find out. He looked behind him, looking for a line of escape, but it was no good running.

Wilhelm stepped up to Johann's table. "Herr Roeloffse, please follow me, Herr Karickhoff wishes to talk to you."

Johann stood and followed. Resistance was futile. He'd once seen a couple of bully boys after they'd foolishly attacked one of Herr Karickhoff's men. It hadn't been pretty. "Is Herr Karickhoff angry?"

Georg Wachter smiled grimly. "What do you think?"

Johann swallowed.

Karickhoff's Gym

Tommy was building up a useful sweat on the punch bag, alternating periods of punching with periods of kicking. He kept working the punch bag for another five minutes after Conrad and Georg escorted Johann into the room. Finally the timer went off and he stopped.

He grabbed a towel and mopped up the sweat pouring down his face. "This the guy?"

Conrad nodded.

Tommy turned his attention to Johan Roeloffse. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I didn't expect the tickets to win. Everyone knows that numbers less than a hundred don't come up very often."

Tommy held back a grin. Only ten percent of the time. "So you sold fifty tickets on the number thirteen. Who did you sell them to?"

"You can't blame Elisabetha. I pushed her into buying so many tickets."

"Elisabetha? Are you saying one person bought fifty tickets on one number?"

"Yes. She tried to buy just one ticket with a one hundred dollar note. I didn't have change so she took pity on me."

"And where did this Elisabetha get a one hundred dollar note?"

"She found it." Johann must have seen the look on Tommy's face. "Truly, Herr Karickhoff, Elisabetha is a good girl."

"Sure she is. Well, it seems your 'good girl' has bought tickets worth thirty-five thousand dollars. Do you know where she works?"

"She works the night shift at the laundry, Herr Karickhoff."

"Right. Lead Conrad and Georg to her and then you can get back to selling numbers. And don't plan any trips out of town for a while. Understood?"

"Yes, Herr Karickhoff," Johann answered.

****

Her landlady looked grim. Elisabetha wondered what she'd done to so upset Frau Knoche. She really couldn't afford to lose this room. Affordable rooms were in short supply in boom town Magdeburg.

"There are a couple of men who want to talk to you," Trina Knoche said.

Elisabetha looked around Frau Knoche. She saw the suits. "Oh."

Conrad pushed forward. "You are Elisabetha Schmelzer?"

Elisabetha nodded.

"Right. Georg, escort Frau Knoche back to her room."

"Now just a minute. This is a respectable house. I'll not have strange men in one of my girl's room," Thrina protested.

Georg reached out a hand. Applying pressure to a point on her shoulder he escorted the suddenly silent Frau Knoche out of Elisabetha's room.

"Sorry about that." Conrad smiled. "But I don't think you want people knowing your business. On Monday you bought some numbers from Johann Roeloffse. Correct?"

"Yes."

"Do you have your tickets?"

"Yes. But what is this about?"

"Have you seen today's paper yet?"

"No."

Conrad opened his instrument case and extracted Johann's paper. He opened it to the financial page and passed it over.

It took a few minutes for it to sink in. Then Elisabetha dived for the purse under her pillow. She pulled out the bundle of tickets and checked the numbers. "I won?"

"Yes, you won. The boss would like to talk to you."

Elisabetha held the tickets protectively to her breast. "Why? I haven't done anything wrong."

"Why don't you come along with me and Georg and find out?"

"I've really won? I've really won thirty-five thousand dollars?"

"Yes, you've really won. Don't shout it from the rooftops. The fewer people who know, the safer you'll be."

Karickhoff's Gym

Tommy liked what he saw when Elisabetha walked into his office. She wasn't what most people ...