Barbra was so excited when she and Peter came back from torching

Mocha Daze, I had to laugh.

She was like a little girl, her eyes ablaze (pun intended), her

hands animated as she paced around her house, telling me her

illegal act.

*****

"We drove to a local filling station. That one run by the nice

Iranian family?"

"In this city, that could be one of a million stations, Barbra," I noted,

dryly.

Her head bobbed up and down in agreement. "Anyway, Peter filled

the gas cans while I watched the little numbers roll up over each other,

and all I could think of was how expensive gasoline was. And how it

was cutting into my profit margin! We only bought thirty dollars

of gas but I couldn't help thinking that we'd have been able to buy

a third more if the prices were lower and-"

I sighed. "Babs, get on with it. You're putting me to sleep."

*****

They cut the alarm wires and went in through the rear door.

"We splashed the gas around, up over the walls, behind the bar, and in

the back office. Here I was, committing a very serious crime, and I

felt...I mean, I felt bad-- I'm human-- but I felt..."

"A rush?" I added.

"Yes."

We stared each other down, the intensity growing.

"C'mon. And then?" I asked.

"We moved to the rear door and I dropped books of lit matches into the

gas."

"Books of matches?" I asked.

"They kept going out when they hit the gas. In the movies, they

always just flair out."

"You need to get a good pool of it."

"Exactly. We hit a table, completely soaked, it just went up.

WHOOSH!"

*****

The shocked look on everyone's face as we solemnly passed on the

info that Hugo had tried to burn Mocha Daze to the ground was

classic.

The only person that didn't seem to believe it was Fran, who just

curled up her lip and narrowed her eyes when I talked, like a

rabid dog eyeing the postman.

I made a mental note to see what I could find out about her-- just

in case I might need to nail her later.

*****

Because most of the coffee house was in Barbra's name, she went to

her lawyer and started proceedings to get Hugo's share, claiming

abandonment of properties.

The whole shop was going to be mine soon enough, so I just kicked

back and let "my bride" do all the work.