LaBrava listened to each word.
'We take him inside the truck over there. I'm going to tell you something,' Torres said. 'It was a shock to him. He wasn't acting, it was a shock.'
'Is he dumb?' LaBrava said.
Torres hesitated. 'He's not smart enough to fake it.'
'You have to be smart to be an actor?'
'Joe, he wasn't faking it. He sees the old guy, he couldn't believe it.'
'He identified him?'
'Sure. His Uncle Miney. Surprised. 'What is Uncle Miney doing here?' '
'So you sat down with him in the little room, the closet, and got intimate.'
'He says he had no idea the old man was down here. Swears he didn't see him. The desk clerk at Richie's hotel puts the old man in the lobby a couple hours or more the evening of the day before yesterday. But he can't put Richie with him. He can put a little Latin dude with him...'
'Like a boat-lifter?'
'Like maybe a boat-lifter, guy with wavy hair and an earring. But he can't put Richie with him.'
'You ask Richie if anybody he knows saw the old man?'
'Sure. He says no. Let's say the Latin dude is the boat-lifter. Okay, I can put him with the old man, but I can't put him with Richie. I want to, man, but I can't.'
'You know Johnbull, drives for Central?'
'Guy, he's always pissed off about something?'
'That one. He can put Richie with the boat-lifter. Find out if Johnbull saw the boat-lifter's Trans Am at the hotel the same time the desk clerk saw the Latin dude and if they left together in the car.'
'No, they must've left in the old man's truck, because it was sitting at the Biscaya and the old man had the keys. We got latents, all over that truck. Okay now, if it's the boat-lifter, this guy Cundo Rey, we got to get his prints from Volusia County, where they had him on possession of a stolen motor vehicle. That would be pretty nice if we can put him in the truck. Richie swears he never saw it.'
'Maybe,' LaBrava said, 'but he knew the old man was looking for him. Talk to the guy, Joe Stella, at Star Security, Lantana, where Richie used to work. There's no way he can be clean. You're gonna find out he sent the boat-lifter to get rid of him. What do you think?'
'To kill him?'
'That's one way.'
'Richie was shocked, Joe. I'm not kidding.'
'How many floaters has he seen, gunshot? You can know a person's dead, but when you see him like that... You know what I mean.'
'Joe, the guy let us look in his room.'
LaBrava was aware of voices in the squad room for the first time, a telephone ringing.
'It was clean,' Torres said. 'Like he had the maid come in every hour.'
'He show you his gun?'
'And his license. He hands me the piece, says, 'Here, you want to check it?' '
'Looking you right in the eye.'
'He didn't do the old man, Joe.'
There was a silence again, until LaBrava said, 'You mind if I suggest something?'
'What?'
'Pick up a guy at the La Playa Hotel named David Vega, he's a Marielito, and ask him about the boat-lifter. See if you can find out if Cundo's got a gun and happened to buy any hollow-nose, steel-jacket thirty-eights. There's a guy at the hotel sells guns and ammo, anything you want.'
'How do you know that?'
'I took his picture. Holding a sawed-off shotgun.'
'Jesus Christ,' Torres said.
'I asked him, 'You don't care who sees your picture?' He's stoned most of the time. He said, no, it would be good for his business.'
'Jesus Christ,' Torres said.
'David Vega's the guy you want. If he gives you the gun seller, do whatever you feel like, but ask him about Cundo first. If you can't find David Vega look for a guy named Guilli, he deals out on the Pier.'
Torres said, 'How do you know all these guys?'
'They like to have their picture taken. But let's get back to Richie. Was he nervous anytime?'
'Once we got here he was cool. Or he acted surprised at everything.'
'Acted,' LaBrava said.
'Eyes open real wide. Who, me? They all do that. But I think he was waiting to see if I'm going to mention a note or the six hundred thousand or if he knows a movie star.'
'You didn't though.'
'I can play dumb too. But he knows we know. Last night and this morning he's walking around Collins Avenue, Lincoln Mall, he goes in a place, comes out the back, or all of a sudden he crosses the street against the light. Bullshit stuff. He follows girls a lot, makes the moves, then looks around, wants to make sure he has an audience. He does everything but wave at my guys. I'm finished talking to him about the old man, he says, 'There anything else you want to ask me about?' You see what I mean? He knows. He's telling us he knows.'
'You turn him loose?'
'What have I got? Man, if I brought in every suspect fits something like this I'd have to pick up half the neighborhood. I told him to stay close by.'
'It didn't bother him?'
'He gives me some you-all shit, he be obliged we get the scudder 'at done it.'
'Is he dumb?' LaBrava said.
'Guy's a showoff.'
'But is he dumb?'
'I think it could be what you said before. The boat-lifter's running it and Richie's the beard.'
'Put a clown suit on him,' LaBrava said, thoughtful, wondering. 'Got him in the trick bag and he doesn't know it. You think?'
'Could be.'
'If he's dumb enough,' LaBrava said. 'It keeps coming back to that.'
'And if the boat-lifter is smarter than he is.'
'Or if there's somebody else smarter than both of them,' LaBrava said. 'Have you thought of that?'
'Maybe I should talk to the movie star again,' Torres said. 'See who else's been in her life since she became a widow.'
'It wouldn't hurt,' LaBrava said.
Chapter 21
PACO BOZA CAME FOR HIS WHEELCHAIR, a happy guy. Lana was back with him. She hated Hialeah, it was like in the country and she was a big-city girl. She loved her photograph. She wanted LaBrava to send it someplace, some magazine, be a centerfold girl. It was early evening and they were out on the sidewalk, the street quiet, Paco wearing his straw hat cocked, about to take off in his wheelchair.
LaBrava said, 'You know the big blond guy.'
'The Silver Kid,' Paco said, 'of course.'
'I want somebody to deliver a note to him, at his hotel.'
'Sure.'
'And write it.'
'What does it say?'
