check, neatly printed in block letters, that said:
THIS IS NO JOKE
IT'S A STICKUP!
I WANT $4000 NOW!
Geraldine stopped smiling. The guy with the metallic hair was telling her he wanted it in hundreds, fifties, and twenties, loose, no bank straps or rubber bands, no bait money, no dye packs, no bills off the bottom of the drawer, and he wanted his note back. Now.
'The teller didn't have four grand in her drawer,' Daniel Burdon said, 'so the guy settled for twenty-eight hundred and was out of there. Slick changing his style - we know it's the same guy, with the shiny hair? Only now he's the Joker. The trouble is, see, I ain't Batman.'
Daniel and Karen Sisco were in the hallway outside the central courtroom on the second floor, Daniel resting his long frame against the railing, where you could look below at the atrium with its fountain and potted palms.
'No witness to see him hop in his BMW this time.
The man coming to realize that was dumb, using his own car.'
Karen said, 'Or it's not Carl Tillman.'
'You see him last night?'
'He came over.'
'Yeah, how was it?'
Karen looked up at Daniel's deadpan expression. 'I told him I was a federal agent and he didn't freak.'
'So he's cool, huh?'
'He's a nice guy.'
'Cordial. Tells jokes robbing banks. I talked to the people at Florida Southern, where he had his boat loan? Found out he was seeing one of the tellers. Not at the main office, one of their branches, girl named Kathy Lopez. Big brown eyes, cute as a puppy, just started working there. She's out with Tillman she tells him about her job, what she does, how she's counting money all day. I asked was Tillman interested, want to know anything in particular? Oh, yeah, he wanted to know what she was supposed to do if the bank ever got robbed. So she tells him about dye packs, how they work, how she gets a two-hundred-dollar bonus if she's ever robbed and can slip one in with the loot. The next time he's in, cute little Kathy Lopez shows him one, explains how you walk out the door with a pack of fake twenties? A half minute later the tear gas blows and you have that red shit all over you and the money you stole. I checked the reports on the other robberies he pulled? Every one of them he said to the teller, no dye packs or that bait money with the registered serial numbers.'
'Making conversation,' Karen said, trying hard to maintain her composure. 'People like to talk about what they do.'
Daniel smiled.
And Karen said, 'Carl's not your man.'
'Tell me why you're so sure.'
'I know him. He's a good guy.'
'Karen, you hear yourself? You're telling me what you feel, not what you know. Tell me about him - you like the way he dances, what?'
Karen didn't answer that one. She wanted Daniel to leave her alone.
He said, 'Okay, you want to put a wager on it, you say Tillman's clean?'
That brought her back, hooked her, and she said, 'How much?'
'You lose, you go out dancing with me.'
'Great. And if I'm right, what do I get?'
'My undying respect,' Daniel said.
As soon as Karen got home she called her dad at Marshall Sisco Investigations and told him about Carl Tillman, the robbery suspect in her life, and about Daniel Burdon's confident, condescending, smart-ass, irritating attitude.
Her dad said, 'Is this guy colored?'
'Daniel?'
'I know he is. Friends of mine at Metro-Dade call him the white man's Burdon, on account of he gets on their nerves always being right. I mean your guy. There's a running back in the NFL named Tillman. I forget who he's with.'
Karen said, 'You're not helping any.'
'The Tillman in the pros is colored - the reason I asked. I think he's with the Bears.'
'Carl's white.'
'Okay, and you say you're crazy about him?'
'I like him, a lot.'
'But you aren't sure he isn't doing the banks.'
'I said I can't believe he is.'
'Why don't you ask him?'
'Come on - if he is he's not gonna tell me.'
'How do you know?'
She didn't say anything and after a few moments her dad asked if she was still there.
'He's coming over tonight,' Karen said.
'You want me to talk to him?'
'You're not serious.'
'Then what'd you call me for?'
'I'm not sure what to do.'
'Let the FBI work it.'
'I'm supposed to be helping them.'
'Yeah, but what good are you? You want to believe the guy's clean. Honey, the only way to find out if he is, you have to assume he isn't. You know what I'm saying? Why does a person rob banks? For money, yeah. But you have to be a moron, too, considering the odds against you, the security, cameras taking your picture. . . . So another reason could be the risk involved, it turns him on. The same reason he's playing around with you. . . .'
'He isn't playing around.'
'I'm glad I didn't say 'sucking up to get information, see what you know.' '
'He's never mentioned banks.' Karen paused. 'Well, he might've once.'
'You could bring it up, see how he reacts. He gets sweaty, call for backup. Look, whether he's playing around or loves you with all his heart, he's still risking twenty years. He doesn't know if you're onto him or not and that heightens the risk. It's like he thinks he's Cary Grant stealing jewels from the broad's home where he's having dinner, in his tux. But your guy's still a moron if he robs banks. You know all that.
Your frame of mind, you just don't want to accept it.'
'You think I should draw him out. See if I can set him up.'
'Actually,' her dad said, 'I think you should find another boyfriend.'
Karen remembered Christopher Walken in The Dogs of War placing his gun on a table in the front hall - the doorbell ringing - and laying a newspaper over the gun before he opened the door. She remembered it because at one time she was in love with Christopher Walken, not even caring that he wore his pants so high.
Carl reminded her some of Christopher Walken, the way he smiled with his eyes. He came a little after seven. Karen had on khaki shorts and a T-shirt, tennis shoes without socks.
'I thought we were going out.'
They kissed and she touched his face, moving her hand lightly over his skin, smelling his aftershave, feeling the spot where his right earlobe was pierced.
