The Collectors

She handed them all three-ring notebooks. “Inside these are the PINs for each card, and the exact amounts at each ATM you’ll transfer for deposit and then withdraw for each account. After we finish, the notebooks get burned.” She rose, went to a closet and threw them duffel bags. “Your disguises are in there, and then use the bags to carry the money.” She sat back down. “I’ve allowed you ten minutes at each bank. We stay in contact with each other at all times. If anything looks weird at one location, skip it and go on to the next one.”

Freddy looked at the dollar amounts listed in his notebook. “But what if the people don’t have the funds to cover the deposit? I mean, even rich people are sometimes short of funds.”

“They have the cash. I’ve already checked that,” Annabelle said.

“How?” Tony asked.

“I called their bank, said I was a vendor and asked if they had enough money in their savings to cover a fifty- thousand-dollar account payable that they owed.”

“And they just told you?” Tony said.

“They always tell you, kid,” Leo answered. “You just have to know how to ask.”

Annabelle said, “And over the last two days I’ve visited all the marks’ homes. Each one, to my eye, was worth at least five million. There were two Saleens at one of the mansions. The dollars will be there.”

“You visited their homes?” Tony said.

“Like the lady told you, license plates come in handy,” Leo remarked.

“The total take will be nine hundred thousand, an average of thirty grand a card,” Annabelle continued. “The banks we’re hitting all net out their ATM accounts on twelve-a.m. cycles. We’ll be finished long before that happens.” She looked over at Tony. “And just in case someone gets the urge to cut and run, the next short con is going to double what we make off this one.”

“Hey,” Tony said in an offended tone, pushing a hand through his styled hair. “This is fun stuff.”

“It’s only fun if you don’t get caught,” Annabelle pointed out.

“So have you ever been caught?” Tony asked again.

In response, Annabelle said to Tony, “Why don’t you read over your binder? That way you make no mistakes.”

“It’s just ATM stuff. I’ll be okay.”

“It wasn’t a request,” she said stiffly, and then walked out of the room.

“You heard her, kid,” Leo said, not trying very hard to hide his grin.

Tony muttered something under his breath and stalked out of the room.

“She keeps things close to the vest, doesn’t she?” Freddy remarked.

“Would you want to work with a con who didn’t?” Leo countered.

“Who is she?”

“Annabelle,” Leo answered.

“I know that, but what’s her last name? I’m surprised I haven’t crossed her path before. The high-stakes con world is pretty small.”

“If she’d wanted you to know, she would’ve told you herself.”

Freddy said, “Come on, Leo, you know all about us. And I’ve been around the block. It goes no further.”

Leo considered this and then in a low voice said, “Okay, you gotta swear to take it to your grave. And if you tell her I told, I’ll deny it and then I’ll kill you. I mean it.” He paused as Freddy promised.

“Her name’s Annabelle Conroy,” Leo said.

“Paddy Conroy?” Freddy said at once. “Now, him I’ve heard of. I assume they’re related.”

Leo nodded, keeping his voice low. “His daughter. But that was a well-kept secret. Most people never knew Paddy even had a kid. He passed Annabelle off as his wife sometimes. Pretty weird, but that was Paddy for you.”

“I never had the pleasure of working with the man,” Freddy added.

“Yeah, well, I had the pleasure of working with ol’ Paddy Conroy. He was one of the best cons of his generation. And also one of the biggest assholes.” Leo glanced in the direction that Annabelle and Tony had left the room, and his voice sank even lower. “You saw that scar under her right eye? Well, her old man did that. She got that for blowing a claim con when they were cheating the Vegas casinos at roulette. She was all of fifteen but looked twenty-one. Cost the old man three grand, and she got a hell of a beating for it. And it wasn’t the only time, I can tell you that.”

“Damn,” Freddy said. “His own daughter?”

Leo nodded. “Annabelle never talks about any of it. I heard from another source.”

“So you were working with them back then?”

“Oh, yeah, Paddy and his wife, Tammy. They had some good stuff going on back then. Paddy taught me the three-card monte routine. Only Annabelle’s a better con than her old man ever thought of being.”

“How come?” Freddy asked.

“Because she has the one quality Paddy never had. Fairness. She got it from her mother. Tammy Conroy was a straight-up piece of work, at least for a con.”