money. He says, use hay-baling wire, it's good. Guy's right off the farm. Look how he tried to intimidate, use that old protection shit. Like he was trying to get caught.'
'You know where he is?'
'Sure, he's at his hotel. He walks up to Wolfie's, walks back. Only place he's gone.'
'You got a tap on his room phone?'
'His Honor the judge said no. So all we got is the Pen Register. He calls her we'll know it.'
'What about the boat-lifter?'
'He hasn't been home.'
'He check out?'
'No, he just hasn't been around. We had a guy owes us one go in and ask for him.'
'Why don't you take a look in his room?'
'His Honor the judge said no.'
'What about the boat-lifter's car?'
'Nowhere around. You can't miss that kind of car, but it's no place we've heard, Dade, Broward or Palm Beach.'
'What bothers you the most?'
'About what?'
'The whole thing. How it looks.'
'Is the guy this dumb? That's what I keep asking,' Torres said. 'You say he was a cop, he was a gypsy. Then a rent-a-cop, four bucks an hour. He's got a license for a three-fifty-seven, that's pretty interesting. But does he know how to work extortion or is he dreaming?'
'What else?'
'I don't believe he knows what he's doing.'
'Thank you, Jesus--you hope and pray. Please let him fuck up, quick. What if nothing happens?'
'The Major says after three days we bring in the Bureau. Let the college boys run it. Send the letter to Washington, they analyze it sideways, upside down and tell us it's a Smith-Corona on steno notebook paper, done with a black ribbon. Oh, is that right? Hey, thanks. Let's go, boys, get out there and find that fucking Smith-Corona. The guy moves, Joe, or he's full of shit and he doesn't.'
'Maybe waits till some other time.'
'I got three days, that's all.'
'He contacts her again. Then what?'
'She makes the delivery, we go with her.'
'With the six hundred thousand?'
'There's no other way.'
'You can cut up paper.'
'What did the note say, Joe? You try any tricks you will die. We have to believe that. If we say, 'Oh, he's full of shit, don't believe it,' and it turns out the guy's crazy and he whacks her? We don't look so good. The woman, she looks terrible. Maybe the way it has to be, the way it turns out, he has to see the money before we can touch him. It has to look real. You know that. Long as we don't let the movie star or the money out of our sight. Then it's up to him, how good he is. But nobody's that good and can sound so fucking dumb.'
'You ever see one of her movies?'
'I probably did, I don't remember. I know her name and she looks kind a familiar, that's all. Was she a big star?'
'No, but she was good. I mean she was good.'
'I like to see her sometime.'
'What about the money? Where's she getting it? Six hundred thousand in cash?'
'You kidding? Miami banks, they got that lying around in boxes. Same ones the dope guys used.'
LaBrava didn't say anything for a moment. 'She tell you she could get the money?'
'I asked her, I said I don't want to get personal, but are you able to put up that much? She said yes. She said since we know who it is she doesn't consider it much of a risk. Also, considering the fact the guy's a dummy.'
'She said that?'
'Words, you know, like that. She seems pretty sure Richard's going to fuck up.'
'But first she has to come up with the money,' LaBrava said.
'Where she gets it,' Torres said, 'she could have it under her bed, it's none of my business.'
'You're gonna copy the serial numbers.'
'Photograph the bills. I assume at the bank, I don't know yet. But if the guy gets away with them, they're gone.'
LaBrava was silent. He sipped his beer, looked out the window at the sky over the ocean, all that space in fading light; it was pure out there, nothing going on. Dirty ideas came about indoors. Now Torres looked out the window. He saw no answers there and turned back to LaBrava.
'What bothers you the most?'
'Same thing you're wondering. Is he that dumb?'
'I have to believe it.'
'Or does he want you to think he's dumb?'
'He doesn't have to try very hard.'
'But what if he's not the guy in charge?'
Torres had to think about that one. He said, 'Who, the boat-lifter?'
'Cundo's been around a few days looking things over,' LaBrava said. 'The note's delivered, he drops out of sight. He gives you Richard to watch. Maybe to keep you busy while he operates.'
'I wish we could check him out, see what he did in Cuba.'
'He did time. According to David Vega by way of Guilli and Paco Boza.'
'You got more informants than I do.'
'I don't bust them.'
'Maybe you can find out some more about the boat-lifter, what he did.'
'Maybe all you have to do,' LaBrava said, 'is pick up Richard. Are you smarter than he is?'
'Jesus, I hope so.'
'Put on a show, like you got hard evidence. Then tell him you'll trade off for the boat-lifter. Richard loves to make deals with policemen. Pick up the boat-lifter and put 'em in a room together. The one that comes out alive gets ten to twenty-five.'
'Yeah, or they both walk.'
'It's an idea.'
Torres said, 'You know what I get, listen to you say something like that? What I feel?'
'Tell me.'
'You don't seem too worried about the movie star, her best interest.'
LaBrava didn't say anything.
'I don't want those guys for 'Attempted,' I want them with the garbage bag in their hand. So what I have to do, I have to keep my eyes on her and on the garbage bag. Never let them out of my sight. That's the only thing I have to worry about. I don't want her to lose her life on account of me and I don't want to look bad,' Torres said. 'In that order.'
Chapter 20
IT WAS LIKE one of her movies.
It came into his mind at different times now because of what Buck Torres had said. 'You don't seem too worried about the movie star.'
He had to think about that, see if it was true. If it was true then it was because he was getting the two Jean Shaws mixed up. The real one and the one on the screen. He had never worried about the one on the screen
