I followed Ricky and Chad up the rickety stairs of the house and onto the porch. We stopped for a moment just in front of the door and Ricky stuck an ear up against one of the broken-out window spaces.

We game planned in the days leading up to the heist. Ricky had heard that the two stashes were in the top crow’s nest attic floor kept beneath a loose floor board and in the basement in the back of an old furnace. Being the fleetest of foot, I was going to run up to the crow’s nest, Chad was going to try the basement and Ricky was going to keep watch just inside the front door.

I took off up the grand staircase as soon as we stepped into the house, but immediately discovered something we didn’t calibrate for. There was no lighting in the house and we didn’t bring flashlights. Shocking, a soon-to-be potential college dropout and two guys with a combined 3.5 years of high school weren’t prepared.

I stopped in my tracks. Was about to speak up about the problem, but didn’t need to. Dim lights fired up all around the foyer area of the house just as I opened my mouth.

“What the fuck?” Ricky exclaimed from the base of the stairs.

Ricky looked up at me with all the confidence drained from his eyes.

“Maybe Chode got a light switch to work?” Ricky suggested, not sounding uber confident. “Go up and find that shit before things get weird.”

I followed Ricky’s orders because I didn’t know what else to do and traversed the last of the stairs, found myself on the second-story landing flanked by long, murky hallways on each side.

The lone light in each hallway flickered when I gave glances their way. I had no idea which path to take. They both just seemed to lead to dead-end hallways lined with doors.