NEIL: Tiffany, the son of a bitch was a pussycat. Those fat shmucks have to show the hair on their chest, make a little noise. You know, they think they got balls as big as the Ritz. One look at the stills and he coughed up his fifty grand and rolled over like a pet dog and that was that. The other guy, maybe he wanted a free piece, who knows?
TIFFANY: Domino told me she thought he was following her too —
NEIL: Domino forgot it, goddamnit! She’s cool and you better. . . Jesus. That was back in October. You gonna carry that around the rest of your life?
‘Who’s Domino?’ Sharky asked.
‘She’s the joker Livingston was talkin’ about,’ Friscoe said. ‘All along we figured it was this Neil and Tiffany, period. Now we know he’s got another one in his stable. Listen . .
TIFFANY: Anyway, I think it’s too soon to try it again.
NEIL: You let me decide that.
TIFFANY: Can’t Domino do this one?
NEIL: Keep Domino out of this. What Domino and I do is none of your business. She ever bang your ear about what’s happening with her? Hell, no, she doesn’t.
TIFFANY: How come I get the dirty deals?
NEIL: (Pauses) Let me ask you, since when is twenty- five g’s a dirty deal? It’s passed. And this time we’re going for bigger stuff, maybe a hundred big ones, Tif. You want to sneeze off your half of a hundred grand?
Silence.
NEIL: Now are you set up for tonight? I don’t want you getting ants in your pants around Domino, got that straight? These two tonight, they’re worth a bloody fortune. Diamond merchants from Amsterdam. They’re throwing out fifteen hundred for the night. I don’t want you doing a sad-ass on me. They may be back and that’s big money for everybody.
TIFFANY: I’ll be fine.
NEIL: Good. They’ll pick you two up about eight-thirty in a limousine. Have a good time.
TIFFANY: Thanks.
NEIL: Later.
Friscoe switched the recorder off.
‘Okay, there it is,’ he said. ‘The way we put it together, this Neil and the Tiffany broad took some Texas oil millionaire named Norman for fifty grand. They had pictures, who the hell knows what else? But they stuck it to him and now it sounds like they’re getting ready for another round, only this time they’re sniffin’ after a hundred g’s. Christ, that’s just plain greedy.’
‘You got any idea who?’ Sharky asked.
‘Not the foggiest. But whoever it is, the way I see it, we let it start to come together, then we step in and maybe we can bust the whole lot.’
‘Who’s this Domino?’ Sharky asked.
‘Another lady in the stable. All the while we figure It for a twosome, now all of a sudden up pops the devil and we got another one in the act.’
‘You think maybe she’s got a scant working too?’ Sharky said.
‘Why not? It seems to be the season for it.’
‘Then let’s go after her too,’ Sharky said. ‘Do we have a line on her.’
‘Yeah. Livingston and Papa dutched them the night they went out with the boys from Holland,’ said Friscoe, ‘then followed Domino home.’
‘We should all live that good,’ Livingston said. ‘A Caddy limo the size of a 747 picks them up. They hit Nikolai’s Roof for dinner, dancing afterwards at Krazz. The bill for the four of them must have been five hundred bucks.’
Sharky whistled. ‘Maybe we’re in the wrong business,’ he said and grinned. ‘I wonder if she’d give me about ten dollars’ worth?’
‘Yeah,’ Papa said, ‘for ten bucks she’ll goose ya.’
‘On your pay you can’t even afford to smell it,’ said Friscoe.
‘Maybe she’ll take a dollar down and a dollar a week,’ Sharky joked.
‘Look,’ Friscoe said, ‘I agree we need to go after the
Domino broad too. I already got the office from Alvers.
After I played that performance between Tiffany and
Freaky Freddie, he was ready to give me permission to bug
her church pew.’
Sharky’s mind was humming. He had survived on the street for eighteen months with instinct and little else. Now every nerve ending was telling him that this Domino would provide a key, although he was not sure why. Perhaps because it had taken almost four weeks for her name to pop up. It seemed to him she was being well shielded and there had to be a reason.
‘What we need,’ he said half to himself, ‘is a first-class wireman. Somebody who can do it right. The apartment.
