He tried to stand, but I blocked him and he dropped back heavily into his seat. “You can’t foul the juke, Terrier. If you do and it traces back to me-”
“I’m not going to foul it. I’m going to make sure it goes off without a hitch. Give me an address.”
“I don’t have one, but I can give you a number.”
He pulled it up off his computer. “Password protected and encrypted. Better than a floor safe in the corner.”
He read the number off. I memorized it and said, “They’re packing.”
“So far as I know, yeah.”
“So what happens when they find out you’re not going to give them anything more than a dime on the dollar, Stan?”
His eyes danced with amusement. “It’ll work out.”
“A guy named Harsh might be eager to use his piece. You shouldn’t have lied to them on what you were going to be able to move.” I got up and opened the door. “Hey, you have any piano babies or Toby mugs?”
“What? Porcelain?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“I don’t deal with that kind of crap.”
“Who does?”
He thought about it for a second. “Try Rocko Milligan.”
I left, got in my car, and headed north on Route 231. I called Harsh’s number. When he answered I said, “This is Butch. Meet me at the Rail Cross Diner on Commack Road.”
“This doesn’t sound like Butch.”
“I’ve got a cold. Twenty minutes.”
“Who is this?” Harsh asked.
“Come find out.”
“How will I know you?”
“I’ll be the one calling out, ‘Harsh, you asshole, your jewelry-store score is on the fucking skids.’ Twenty minutes, right?”
34
Harsh showed up on time. I was having a cup of coffee and relaxing in a back booth. It wasn’t hard for him to guess I was the one who’d called him. It was a small joint and I was the only one sitting alone.
He was a little older than Butch, maybe twenty-three or -four. Buzz-cut blondie wearing a tight white T-shirt under a loose jean jacket. He had wraparound shades on. Everybody and their shades. It must be a retro thing, guys falling back on what was hip in the seventies. They were all watching too many DVDs, trying to pick up on classic style. He scanned the place, spotted me, and took his time stepping over.
It looked like he was carrying a.38 in his jacket pocket. Right off, that meant he wasn’t a pro. I could’ve been a cop. He could get a couple of years just for having a piece on him. You never packed unless you knew what you were packing for.
He stood before me and I said, “I’m Terrier Rand.”
“I’ve heard of you. Your people have been in the news. I don’t like that.”
“You don’t like that?”
“I don’t like being seen with guys who might have reporters following them.”
That was actually pretty smart of him. I reassessed Harsh a bit. He sat and the waitress zipped over and he waved her away. He took off his shades. His eyes were youthful but he was trying to keep them mean. I guessed that he’d been in the game since he was young, had pulled a couple of jobs that had gone well, and then he’d impatiently struck off on his own. That’s the only reason I could imagine that he’d taken on a punk like Butch.
“You know my sister?” I asked.
“Yeah, I know her.”
“How well?”
“Not too well. I never touched her if that’s what you mean.”
It wasn’t, but I decided to take it at face value. I pulled an envelope out of my pocket and put it in front of him.
He didn’t make any move toward it. That was another good sign that he wasn’t a complete moron.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Three grand. You’re going to pay off Butch and cut him out of this jewelry-store score. Take a thousand for yourself and give him the rest. Tell him it’s his cut for helping out as much as he did and that you’ll hire him on for the next job.”
He studied me coldly. “Why would I do any of that?” he said, neither affirming nor denying anything.
“Because he’s going to be unable to assist you. Find another man.”
Harsh let out a slow grin. There was more than a hint of cultivated savagery to it. “You, I suppose?”
“No. I don’t want in. I don’t want to know anything about it. I already know too much. Because Butch talked out of turn. He approached me thinking I’d jump on board. It was a mistake. Not an unforgivable one, but bad enough. He also wrote Stan Herbert’s name on a pizza box and left it out in the open for anybody to see.”
“And you know Stan.”
I nodded. “And I know Stan. Whatever he promised you, you won’t get more than ten percent of the ice’s worth in cash.”
“He said twenty-five.”
“It’ll never happen.”
Harsh started running other schemes in his head. His eyes flashed with possibilities, trying to find a way to squeeze more money out of the deal. I could see he already had other scores in the works as he started mentally shuffling through them, wondering about other fences, other people he could talk with.
“Why were you working Butch’s place?” he asked.
“Finding out what I could. Is it your heist? You put it together?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you wind up with Butch on your string?”
Harsh wasn’t sure how much he should tell me. I drank my coffee. I looked out the window onto Commack Road. He would e201?ither trust me a little further or not. There was nothing I could do to force his hand.
Finally he decided he didn’t have much to lose by discussing things with me. “I asked Mr. Thompson for a man who might be willing to help out on a job here and there.”
“And he actually suggested Butch?”
“Yeah.”
Danny should’ve either stepped up and offered one of his own men or kept out of the score altogether. But he wanted to have a thumb in every pie without putting in any time or effort, even if it only ruined the pie. “You should have known better right off.”
“I did, but I didn’t know how plugged in Butch might be with the Thompson crew.”
“He picks them up from the airport.”
“I know that now. I wasn’t comfortable kicking him off the job. He’s good enough to do what I need him to do.”
“You hope. What’s Danny’s cut of the action?”
Harsh looked away, a little bothered having to talk numbers. “Mr. Thompson gets fifteen percent of our net.”
“His father used to take ten.”
“His father is dead. And there’s no time to find another man.”
“You’ve still got a couple days,” I said. “I can even provide you with some names if you like. Either way, you’ve got no choice.”
“I don’t like being braced.”
