I looked at the man. "Do you seriously want me to answer that?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, perhaps a touch too quickly. "That's why you're here, isn't it? Don't you want to get hired on for my next job?"

I shook my head politely. "I'm a troubleshooter. I only have two jobs. To know trouble when I see it. And to shoot it, if somebody pays me enough. And you, sir, are definitely trouble. Fortunately--"

He made as if to jump up out of his seat, but he froze when I moved my hand and he saw that I already had him at gunpoint.

"Let. Me. Finish. I was about to say 'Fortunately, nobody's paid me to shoot you.' I remember the job you're talking about, and I happen to also know what the police said was stolen. And I seem to recall that amongst the stolen property were a set of diamond and platinum cufflinks more or less exactly like the ones you're wearing right now."

"So, no. My answer is, 'no thank you.' I have no interest in working for a man who plans an entire heist just to throw off the authorities after he has already performed the robbery himself. But if the reason you actually called me here for this interview is because you wanted to figure out if anyone knew what you did? I honestly don't think that they do."

"Good to know." He swallowed. "You gonna put that thing away?"

"Not yet. Look. I'm going to level with you. You're pretty good at planning heists, but you suck at planning a life of crime. You didn't have a plan in place to liquidate the loot. You didn't do anything about the cameras at the bank. If that kid had been carrying a cell phone, your entire plan would have gone up in smoke five minutes faster than it did.

Now, you've stiffed your crew, you're hiding out in a shabby office in the Mafia's backyard, and you're within the 90th percentile of Uncle Sam's Most Wanted. Let me help you out of this situation you've put yourself in."

I gave him a moment to stew in his own juices, as he wondered what a person with my skillset could possibly do to help him.

"Half a million for all five jewelry sets. Final offer. Do we have a deal?"

"Now, hold on--"

I cocked the gun.

"I said, do we have a deal?"

And here I made a point of grinning like the devil himself.

"Or are you going to make trouble for me?"