there was a hole in her idea. This was kind of fun.
He said, 'Well, shit, Woody can stop payment any time right after.'
Robin said, 'Not if he's dead, he can't.'
Skip said, 'Uh-huh, and if you don't see giving Donnell his share . . . I suppose there's a big explosion of some kind and the two of them are found underneath the rubble.'
Robin said, 'Hey, there's an idea.'
Skip looked down the road, thinking about it. 'The cops find out we took a check off him for a million seven. . . . It has to be made out to one of us and we put it in a bank. You don't just cash a million seven. They're gonna find it out.'
Why was she grinning at him?
'The check isn't made out to either of us,' Robin said. 'It's pay to the order of--you ready? Nicole Robinette.'
It took Skip a moment. 'That's you, huh? Your book name.'
'Woody doesn't know it yet,' Robin said, 'but he's buying theatrical rights to all four of my novels, herein referred to as the 'Fire Series.' Diamond Fire, Emerald Fire--'
'Jesus Christ,' Skip said.
'Gold Fire and Silver Fire. I'm meeting a lawyer,' Robin said, looking at her watch, 'guy I used to know. He's coming to his office on Saturday as a special favor. I typed up a Purchase Agreement and Assignment of Rights, pretty much boilerplate, from standard contracts I picked up when I worked in New York. He'll look them over, make sure they're okay.'
Skip said, 'This guy owe you one?'
'I'm going to pay him,' Robin said, 'if he asks. Maybe he will, I don't know.'
'I bet you make sure he doesn't.'
'Anyway, we get Woody's signature on the contracts, so it looks legit, for after. Okay, we deposit his check in Nicole Robinette's account and then--listen to this--I write checks payable to you and me in our own names, and a couple of the names we used when we were underground. Like good old Scott Wolf will get a check. What do you think?'
'I liked being Scotty Wolf,' Skip said, 'he was a nice guy. That other one I used--the hell was it? Derrick Powell--when I was living in New Mexico. But, shit, those I.D.s're old, they've expired.'
'For a million seven,' Robin said, 'I'll bet we can think of ways to get them renewed, or make up new ones. I'll have to reactivate Diane Young and Betsy Bender.'
Skip said, 'Man, I remember Betsy Bender, with her 'fro. That motel in L.A. off Sunset. I wouldn't mind bending her again right now.' He softened his eyes at Robin, waiting to give her a nice grin.
But she wasn't looking. Robin got up from the arm of the couch sounding like she was thinking out loud, telling him she was going to have to make up contracts between the fake names and Nicole Robinette. For different services the fake names provided. Otherwise the bank would report the deposit to the IRS and Nicole would owe . . . Christ, at least five hundred thousand dollars. Or she'd make up invoices or some goddamn thing, from the fake names to Nicole.
Skip watched her turn and head for the phone now, by her mom's canopied bed.
'I almost forgot. I have to call Donnell.'
Skip said, 'How do you like it?'
Robin dialed before she looked over. 'How do I like what?'
'Being in the straight world.'
Mr. Woody, seeming almost of sound mind but wet-eyed drunk, hooked onto the word 'codicil' from somewhere in his past life, telling Donnell that's what it was, a codicil, like an addendum. You didn't scribble a codicil, it was a legal document and ought to be typewritten.
So they had to look through the cabinets in the library for the typewriter: found a favorite flashlight the man had misplaced; found tapes of monster movies, from when he was on that kick; came across the black athletic bag that had been put there by Mankowski, Mr. Woody wanting to know what was in it and Donnell telling him it was just stuff in there, nothing important. He put the typewriter on the desk and started copying what he'd written yesterday in longhand--about the man leaving him at least two million if and when he ever died--taking forever, looking for each letter as he poked the keys. So the man said to let him type it. He sat down and fussed, abused the typewriter, reading with his wet eyes as he typed, but damn if he didn't get it done. Finished, pulled the sheet out of the typewriter and signed it. There it was, scrawled right at the bottom in big loops, Woodrow Ricks.
Donnell picked up the sheet of paper and kissed it, the man not looking, stumbling away from the desk, starting to take his clothes off for his afternoon swim.
The phone rang.
Donnell slipped that lovely codicil into a desk drawer, picked up the phone and heard Robin's voice say, 'Hi, it's me. How you doing?' He told her he couldn't talk now. But she was in a hurry and said she needed a favor, asking him if he could get somebody to do a job. He told her just a minute and put his hand over the phone.
'Mr. Woody, you take off your clothes at the swimming pool. Go on now. I be right there.'
The man shuffled out and Donnell kept his hand on the phone a while longer thinking, Shit, the man could fall in the pool and drown and it would be too soon. The lawyer had to get the codicil first and put it in the will. Then the man could fall in the pool and drown or drink himself to death or hit his head on the toilet. . . .
So he hurried talking to Robin and agreed, okay, to get somebody, yeah, uh-huh, saying he understood when Robin said, 'We want to take him out, but not all the way,' and let her tell him why it wouldn't be good to have Skip do the job, risk his getting busted. Not at this point, blow the deal. Donnell had questions he didn't ask. He told her he'd see. Robin said he had to do more than see, he had to get somebody. She said this was crucial and Donnell said all right, he'd do it, but right now had to do something else. Hung up and ran down the hall to the swimming pool.
The man was already in the water, a scene of peace and contentment, floating naked on the rubber raft, fat little hands flapping at the water, barely moving him. . . . See? Everything was fine. Beautiful.
The man's voice raised to call. 'Donnell?'
'I'm right here.'
'I want Arthur Prysock instead of Ezio Pinza.'
'I don't blame you.'
'For a change.'
'Yes sir, you got it.'
' 'On the Street Where You Live.' '
'One of my favorites too, Mr. Woody.'
What was wrong with this street where he lived, this house? Sit and wait for the man one day to take his last drink, throw up and die. What was the hurry to have a lot of money if he wasn't going anywhere? He believed he could trust Robin to give him his million out of the check, scare her ass not to think otherwise. This Skippy he'd have to see about. Best now to keep it moving, get it over with and done. Million seven, all the different kind of money accounts and shit the man had, he wouldn't even miss it. . . .
Sleeping on his rubber boat, Arthur Prysock running his voice up and down the street, belting the shit out of that old tune. Donnell brought the phone from the bar to the table and dialed a number.
He said, 'Juicy, tell me what you been doing,' and listened to this young dude growl and breathe animal sounds into the phone, in a bad mood after visiting the pink room up in Homicide, sitting hours in that closet while they asked him the same shit.
Donnell said, 'You out of work, you out of finances. I have a man for you needs to be vamped on. Tell me what you charge to bust his leg, put him in the hospital about a month.'
Juicy said, 'I'm tired.'
Donnell said, 'Take you two minutes from the time he gets out of his Cadillac. Polack name Mankowski, not near big as you.'
Juicy said, 'Mankowski, shit, I know that name, that man's a cop.'
Donnell straightened him out. The man was suspended, didn't have a badge or a gun no more, was out of business.
