She opened the door on the passenger side, slid onto the leather seat. She tossed a fat manila envelope into his lap. 'Bingo!' she said.
He smiled and leaned to kiss her lips. 'Any problems?' he asked.
'Nope. They wanted to give me a bank check, but I told them I was flying home to San Antonio tonight and needed the cash. So they came across.'
'Beautiful,' he said.
He took a thousand in hundred-dollar bills from the envelope and handed them to her.
'Invest it wisely,' he said.
'With you?'
'You could do worse,' he said. 'Now let's go eat. I know a place that makes a great chef's salad.'
'Can I have a hamburger instead?'
'You can have anything you want,' he said, and kissed her again. 'Partner,' he said.
They had a nice, relaxed lunch, did a little shopping at the Town Center, then headed home.
'Can we pull that bank dodge again?' she asked him.
'Oh-ho,' he said. 'Getting ambitious, are you?'
'It's so easy,' she said.
'Sure it is. The problem is whether or not to use the
Gloria Ramirez ID again, and if we do, hit another Boca bank or try somewhere else. I'll have to think about it.'
'Who printed up that queer check?' she asked idly, staring out the side window.
'A genius,' he said, and she didn't push it.
An hour later they were lying naked on the terrace lounges. The sun was behind a scrim of high cloud cover, but it was strong enough to cast shadows and hot enough to make them sweat. They drank iced tea from a thermos.
'I'm going to have to change my plans,' he said.
'What plans?'
'A schedule I had mapped out. I was going to give it maybe another six months and then retire, get out of the game.'
She raised her head to look at him. 'What about me?'
'Not to worry,' he said. 'I'll take care of you; you know that. But this check scam changes things. The possibilities are tremendous if it's handled right. Also, something else came up the other night that could be a gold mine. So I think I'll stick around for a while.'
'Where were you going?'
'Oh. . there are a lot of places in this world I haven't seen yet.'
'When you decide to go, can I go with you?'
'We'll see. Let's take another half-hour of sun and then go shower.'
'And then what?'
'You know what,' he said.
That night they dined at an Italian restaurant on Atlantic Boulevard, and David ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon to celebrate their triumph at the Crescent
Bank. Then they drove to the Grand Palace and found the gang already assembled at the big table in the Lounge. Rita sat in one of the mate's chairs and watched as Rathbone beckoned James Bartlett over to the bar. The two men stood close together, talking with lowered heads.
'Jimmy, have you given any more thought to what I suggested on poker night?'
'The commodity trading fund? Yes, I've talked to several clients about it. You know, David, these guys are shrewd. They've got all the street smarts in the world, but they don't understand options and futures. Finally, I stopped trying to explain, and just told them it would mean money in their pockets. That, they could understand. Four of them definitely will sign contracts for delivery in three, six, nine, and twelve months at preset prices.'
'They'll trust you?'
'On the first delivery. If I welsh, I'm dead; you know that.'
'So actually we have three problems. One is to analyze the market for the coming year and determine prices that'll yield a profit. The second is to make sure funds are available to take delivery. And finally, we've got to line up markets and sign contracts with buyers.'
'You've got it.'
'Jimmy, I think now is the time to bring Sparco, Coe, and Little in on this. It's too big for the two of us to swing alone.'
'I agree.'
'Then let's talk to them. I think they'll go for it.'
'They'd be idiots not to.'
'Who were the four clients who agreed to play?'
'Three Colombians and one American. These are not men you'd want to introduce to your wife, David- if you had a wife.'
'Hard cases?'
Bartlett rolled his eyes. 'Last year one of the Colombians murdered his younger brother because the kid lost a shipment to the Coast Guard. You know how he killed him?'
'No, and I don't want to know. Let's get back to the table.'
'Rita is looking especially sexy tonight, David. She's not beautiful, but she's striking.'
'I know.'
'You serious about her?'
'I don't know how I feel about her. All I know is that she's got me seeing pinwheels.'
'That sounds serious. Does she know what you do?'
'I'm letting her in on it, little by little. It doesn't turn her off. I think she likes it. Maybe it's the risk, the danger.'
'Uh-huh,' Jimmy said, staring at him. 'And maybe it's fear. With some women fear can be an aphrodisiac.'
Rathbone laughed. 'And what's an aphrodisiac to men?'
'Guilt,' Bartlett said.
18
'Mr. Harker,' the secretary said on the phone, 'will you come to Mr. Crockett's office, please.'
Tony pulled on his jacket, straightened his tie, walked down the hall. There was a somber man seated alongside the chief's desk. He wore wire-rimmed spectacles with lenses so thick they made him look pop- eyed.
'Tony,' Crockett said, 'this is Fred Rabin from the Federal Reserve. Mr. Rabin, this is Anthony Harker, who spoke to your office.'
Rabin didn't stand up or offer to shake hands, but at least he nodded. Tony nodded back. No one asked him to sit down, so he remained standing, looking down at the two men.
'Mr. Rabin,' Crockett said, 'will you please repeat what you told me.'
The Federal Reserve man stared at Tony through those thick glasses. 'You asked us to put a trace on a U.S. Treasury check in the amount of $27,341.46, issued to a Gloria Ramirez and deposited at the Crescent Bank in Boca Raton. Is that correct?'
'Yes.'
'Why did you ask for a trace?'
'Because I had good reason to believe the check was counterfeit. Allowing it to clear the Crescent Bank and then recovering it would give me hard evidence of bank fraud. Did you find the check?'
'Oh, we found it,' Rabin said. 'Would you like to see it?'
