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he did. He’d had it in for the brothers since the events of the previous month, and was keeping a close eye on both of them. It took Tager about three seconds to tell Tony to get the hell out of his store, and to take his scheming little brother with him. So off they stormed, huffing with indignation that anyone would have the nerve to fire the two greatest sports legends in the history of Cuyahoga County.
    When they told their father that they had decided to quit without another job lined up, it made Steve curious, so he went over to Tager’s and discovered the real reason they were no longer employed. By this point, he knew this was the sort of thing his boys were capable of, and he was getting used to apologizing for them, so that’s what he did, and then he headed back home.
    He couldn’t believe how radically things had changed in just a few short years. He’d given them everything he had, and it wasn’t that long ago that they were pretty much the toast of the town, but now that was starting to feel like a dim memory. He thought all of their problems could be traced back to that group of guys they were hanging with at Barton’s Pub, but they wouldn’t listen to him about that crowd. They were good boys at heart, but he was going to give them a piece of his mind.
    Of course, when he got home and confronted them, a big argument ensued, and in the end Tony and Danny marched out the door, threatening never to return, which was fine with Steve. But Debby was terrified something awful would happen to her sons “out there on their own.” Steve assured her they would be back once they ran out of money and were hungry, and of course he was right. Besides, they were now at the age when they
should
be out on their own, but neither he nor Debby had the heart to toss them out into the street.
    There was something to Steve’s idea about the crowd at Barton’s being part of the problem, but the fact of the matter was that Tony was pretty much the ringleader whenever they would go out on a petty crime spree. If they knew someone was going to be away for the night, then a few of them would figure out how to break a window, sneak in, and steal anything of value. The problem was that most items were too big to haul away, and even if they were able to snatch a watch or a necklace or some jewelry worth a few hundred dollars, they would only get a fraction of the value. So, even with a little job here and there, Tony and Danny were broke most of the time.
    Despite being out of pocket, when one of the guys would suggest a B&E at a house they knew would be vacant, Tony would usually find a reason to nix the idea. They’d had too many close calls over these stupid little hauls. He had the good sense to realize their luck would run out eventually. He knew the answer was cash. Cold hard cash. But how to get that? A bank job was too risky. Gas stations and convenience stores had cash, but that was almost like robbing a place in broad daylight, and you never knew if the guy behind the counter had a gun or some other weapon. They were bound to get busted or worse.
    Then one day their luck started to turn for the better.
    Tony and Danny were friendly with this tall, skinny, frizzy-haired kid named Jimmy Bagneski, who drove a truck for a local delivery service. He liked to call himself “the Bagman,” because he thought it gave him a certain criminal cache, but to most folks he was usually just “Bags.” Bags was one of the Turner groupies who attended Geauga High back in the glory days, and he still thought Tony and Danny might one day find great fame. Tony thought Bags was an idiot, but he put up with him because he always picked up the tab—and he enjoyed reliving the days when he was the big man on campus.
    One night he showed up at Barton’s as excited as a dog at dinnertime, convinced he had found just the ticket they were looking for.
    “You know that antique shop over in Novelty, the one that sells all that crap like old