Baird made an impatient movement.
‘If you hadn’t been hypnotised by his front you could have found out about him as easily as I did.’
Rico began to sweat.
‘How about this five grand?’ he asked, tapping the envelope. ‘He can’t be al that broke.’
‘Don’t I keep tel ing you? He isn’t the top man.’
Rico thought for a moment, then shrugged.
‘Does it mat er? At least we’ve got the dough.’
‘I like to know who I’m dealing with. Ever asked yourself why Kile wants Hater out of jail?’
‘I asked Kile. He wouldn’t say. I don’t see why we should worry.’ Rico spread out his hands. ‘We’re getting paid for the job. The money’s good enough, isn’t it?’
‘You’re a bigger sucker than you look,’ Baird said. ‘Don’t you know who Hater is?’
Rico shifted uneasily in his chair.
‘I don’t know what you’re get ing at,’ he said. ‘Hater used to be one of the big operators about twenty years ago. He specialised in jewellery. I seem to remember he pulled off a big deal and a fence shopped him.’
‘About fifteen years back he pul ed off a four-million-dollar job and cached the stuff. It was never found,’ Baird said softly.
‘Four mil ion?’ Rico gulped. ‘It was never found?’
‘That’s right. Doesn’t the nickel drop now?’
‘You mean Kile’s after the stuff?’
‘Kile and someone else. It looks like it, doesn’t it? Why should they want to kidnap Hater? He’s only got two more years to serve. If he escapes now, he’l be on the run for the rest of his life until he’s caught.’
‘Four mil ion dol ars!’ Rico got up and began to pace up and down. ‘Jeepers! That’s dough.’
‘That’s about the first sensible thing you’ve said tonight,’ Baird said sourly. ‘And they’re paying me ten grand. That’s a laugh, isn’t it?’
Rico wiped the sweat from his forehead. He went over to the cellarette and made two highballs.
‘I’d bet er talk to Kile,’ he said as he brought the drinks to the desk. ‘He’l have to jack up the ante.’
‘You’l keep your trap shut,’ Baird said. ‘I’m handling this. If we play our cards right, we should collect the whole bundle.’
Rico lost colour and gripped the edge of his desk until his knuckles turned white.
‘Are you crazy?’ he asked. ‘What would we do with stuff like that? We couldn’t handle it. Four million dollars! There’s not a fence in the country who could handle it.’
Baird took off his hat and ran his fingers through his thick blond hair.
‘I don’t know why the hel I bother with you,’ he said, exasperated. ‘Haven’t you any brains? Do you think I’m mug enough to imagine you could handle the stuff? No, the obvious thing to do is to wait until Kile gets rid of it. He must know someone he can unload it on or he wouldn’t be paying us to snatch Hater. The time we move in is when Kile collects the dough. Then we take it away from him. If he knows what he’s doing, the take should be worth half a mil ion at least, probably more, and that’s bet er than a lousy ten grand. Now do you see what I’m get ing at?’
Rico licked his dry lips.
‘It sounds al right,’ he said cautiously, ‘but how do we know when he gets paid off?’
‘That’s something you can find out. He’s got to be watched night and day after we’ve turned Hater over to him. And another thing, we’ve got to find out who the top man is, too. And then there’s that shamus who followed me: we’ve got to find out who employed him, and why.’
Rico started out of his chair.
‘What shamus? I haven’t heard anything about a shamus.’
Baird eyed him jeeringly.
‘Don’t get so steamed up. The night I went to Red River Basin I spot ed a fat guy tailing me. I caught him napping and softened his skull for him. He was an operator working for the International Detective Agency. Someone who doesn’t mind spending dough is having me watched. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the Hater snatch, but somehow I think it does. We’ve got to find out why I was being tailed, and pronto.’
Rico took a long drink. His nerves were fluttering.
‘Maybe it’s Kile,’ he said hopeful y.
‘I don’t know, but I mean to find out. How long’s this red-head been working for you?’
‘You mean Zoe?’ Rico’s face was startled. ‘What’s she got to do with it?’
‘I don’t know, but every time I’ve shown up here she’s been watching me. Maybe she’s a plant.’
‘Zoe, a plant? Don’t make me laugh,’ Rico said. ‘I’ve known her three or four years. She came to work at the club when it first opened. I knew her when she was in show business before that. She’s okay.
Maybe she’s interested in you. She has a yen for a big guy like you; she told me so.’
Baird jerked his thumb at the photograph on the desk.
‘Put that in your safe and lock it up,’ he said. ‘I think she’s mixed up in this. It’ll be easy enough to prove. Now,
