love you.”
“I’m Brad Pitt, remember?” A chill ran through Nick from where she grasped his hand.
“You’re a cold-blooded killer with no conscience. The man with no name saved a Mother and her child in
“Maybe I love you because I can’t think of anyone else who would have made the connection.” Nick brought Rachel’s hand up to his lips. Flashes of her in his arms the night before, muffling her screams of pleasure with both hands, romped through his head.
“So, how do we play Tanus off against Fletcher?”
“We find out first if those two guys from the mug shots I showed you are down here for Fletcher Exports.”
“And…and we turn them over to the cops,” Rachel added excitedly.
“After the cops drag those two away we’ll only have the Tanus team to deal with for a few days. I’ll give Fletcher’s people a call and tell them Javier tipped off the cops. That will cause some excitement. We’ll hit the bank the moment we only have Tanus waiting for you. I’ll take them beforehand.”
“Gus drives up. You get out, dressed like a model, with red hair and all your accessories. Gus will back your play if you need help. As we discussed, you can bet Tanus owns a couple people inside the bank. The moment you access the safety deposit box, their team outside will know it. Since I found out Javier switched sides, I’ve decided against having you bludgeon your way through. Hopefully, with Fletcher and Tanus at each other’s throat, we can get far away from Sarasota before they know we’re gone. I’ll get the flash drives copied and then we’ll begin negotiating.”
“What if they have more people than you think and they follow Gus away?”
“Let me worry about pursuit. We want -”
“There, Nick.” Rachel paused the video taken while cruising earlier, pointing to a blue Ford Five Hundred parked across the street from the bank. It had Louisiana plates.
“I’ll take a stroll first and see if I have any luck. There are little shops along this side of the street for me to saunter past.” Nick took two photos from the folder, along with their rap sheets. “Vertinski here was busted in Baton Rouge for drugs and assault.”
Nick turned the computer toward him for a moment. He hacked into the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles, querying their database for a stolen Ford Five Hundred with license plate matching the one across the street from the bank. Nick started laughing.
“Dum…da dum dum,” Nick intoned the popular opening to the TV series ‘
Chapter Eighteen
“Nick, be careful. Don’t let a little positive stuff screw up your bad karma.”
“Ha ha, very funny.” Nick gave Rachel’s hair a tug before exiting the Buick with ball cap and sunglasses on. He had dressed in khaki shorts, gray t-shirt and tennis shoes with no socks before leaving the condo with Rachel. The heat after being inside the air conditioned Buick nearly dropped him to his knees. He pointed at the throwaway cell-phone near Rachel. “I’ll have mine at my ear like all the other cell-junkies do so we can stay in constant contact.”
Taking a few deep breaths and feeling droplets of sweat forming everywhere, he closed the Buick door. He walked briskly toward Main Street while phoning Rachel’s cellphone.
“Rachel on the run, Rachel speaking.”
“Oh, you are just too cute for words.” Nick rounded the parking lot in front of a Spanish-style building. He stepped up on the sidewalk, glancing at the cars parked diagonally near a line of shops with awnings. “I see it and the genius.”
Vertinski stood, arms folded across chest, in front of the second shop, leaning against the building. He wore mirror type sunglasses, a sleeveless white t-shirt, loafers and tan shorts. Nick stopped in front of him, smiling up at the heavily built man.
“Excuse me, Sir, do you know what time it is?” Nick asked politely, pointing at Vertinski’s Rolex watch.
“I don’t know,” Vertinski growled, not making any move to turn his wrist. “Go ask inside, meatball.”
“Sure, sure.” Nick scurried back as if frightened, and then walked away up the street. He lifted his phone up again. “It’s Vertinski.”
“I heard you playing with him, dummy.”
“I’m going across the street to the bank to start up a savings account. When I get done taking pictures in there with my really good digital camera, I’ll leave and take a picture of the gorilla posing right in front of his stolen car. We’ll post the picture to the Sarasota police department and kick back to watch the fireworks.”
“Showoff.”
Nick took his hand-held digital camera out as he walked into the air conditioned bank with an audible sigh of relief, clicking away with his camera, while talking to Rachel. While he waited in a seat near the desks for his turn to talk with a consultant, he snapped pictures without being obvious. His mouth tightened when he saw one of the security guards come out of the rear.
“We have a tiny problem.”
“What, you can’t walk from the bank to the car because of the heat?”
Nick smiled. “No, Vertinski’s partner works as a bank guard.”
“Oh joy.”
“We’re going to really cause a stir when I get out of here. I shouldn’t even start up an account now, considering their hiring practices.”
Thirty minutes later, Nick had a savings account with five hundred dollars in it under his Roscoe Weatherby name. He also had pictures of Vertinski’s partner. As Nick walked from the bank, he fiddled with his papers, zooming in on the immobile Vertinski and the stolen Ford. Nick crossed the street down from Vertinski, almost directly in front of the rented Buick. Vertinski did not glance his way, so Nick moved quickly to the Buick. He entered with a sigh as the cool air hit him.
“C’mon, Geeks R Us, get busy with the pictures,” Rachel ordered, turning the notebook computer toward him.
Nick popped the memory chip out and plugged it into his computer. The pictures were automatically downloaded into a file. Nick looked at each one of them with satisfaction.
“Not bad for off the hip shots. Look at the one for Vega, the security guard. Oh boy are the cops going to love this stuff. They have one wanted felon out casing the bank and an inside-man felon as a security guard. Nice setup.”
He looked up the Web address for the Sarasota police department and uploaded the pictures with date stamp and explanatory note. He included Vertinski's and Vega’s mug shots with partial rap sheets. Next, he had Rachel call in on her throw away cell-phone, explaining to the police how she had spotted the two. Until she talked them into checking their computer for the pictures, they were less than enthused. When they suddenly wanted to know everything about her, she ended the call. Twenty minutes later, police squad cars ringed Vertinski and his Ford. A second team carefully entered the bank. They emerged with Vega five minutes after they went in.
“Dum…da dum dum…daaaaaa…” Nick crooned.
“Tell Gus why we couldn’t have hit the bank right after the police took Vertinski and Vega away,” Rachel directed. She brought refreshments over and set them down on the condo's dining room table.
“I don’t need to tell him,” Nick replied, exchanging grins with Gus as the two sat across from each other. “He trusts my judgment. Come to think of it, Danger and Deke trust my judgment too. Why, oh why, can’t you?”
