the payoff

                                           photo shandra beri


leonardo sat unobserved in the deep shadows of the unlit room. when the breathless woman passed, she was so near he felt the gentle exhale of air left in her wake. oblivious to everything outside the scope of her mission, she divided her focus only between the instructions held on a crumpled sheet of paper and the steps counted to the destination it revealed. she stood finally- breathlessly- before a long dead potted fig. in order to confirm that she had done everything right, her perfect lips soundlessly shaped the words written on the page. satisfied, she shoved the paper into a pocket of her coat and began to claw at the soil in the pot. within moments, she was rewarded for her efforts and pulled up a crumbling, hollow dried clay brick. when leo spoke from the darkness, the woman did not startle. 'you got it.' he said, 'you must have made your investment early.' never taking her eyes from her treasure, the woman answered through a desolate smile, 'yes. yes i did.'. the moment enough of the clay had fallen away to reveal a block of large uncirculated bills the woman turned to leave. as she moved, she tucked the bundle within the folds of her skirt and hurried out of the room toward the  stairs. leo sighed. maybe this time someone would get away. he stood up and followed the woman. less than a minute had passed by the time he too reached the staircase. stepping down into the deeper darkness of the well, almost immediately he saw her broken body. it had fallen at the last stair. as usual there was no blood and her human remains looked like nothing more than a dropped marionette; a haphazard pile of fabric and akimbo joints. even in the dark, leo could see the dust and lighter pieces of the broken clay upon her garmants. her skirt now held only empty. there was no trace of the living, breathing person she had been only heartbeats before nor the cash she had thought she had safely tucked away. leo sighed. he stepped over the body of the woman and quietly walked into the the remaining hours of the night.