“Sit down, punk,” Ollie said.
Tigo looked surprised.
“Isaidsit the fuckdown.”
Tigo sat.
“Let me tell you what you’re gonna do for us,” Ollie said.
“OKAY, I got a better idea,” Wiggy was telling the two Mexicans. “We go in heavy, all three of us. Semi- automatics under our overcoats. We hold the mother-fuckers hostage.”
Villada looked at Ortiz.
“We go in early tomorrow morning. They got the whole fourth floor, ain’t nobody but us gonna know we’re in there holdin guns on them. We stay there till they come up with the cash.”
“The banks will be closed till Tuesday,” Ortiz said.
“It’s the long weekend,” Villada said, nodding agreement.
“Man, they stole a mill-nine from me, you think they put that in abank?These people are thieves, man. They got that moneystashed someplace, is what. All we got to do is ask that white-haired fuck to take us to wherever it is.”
“What aboutour money?” Ortiz asked.
“We’ll get that, too, don’t worry,” Wiggy said. “One thing I know for sure, you stick a piece in some dude’s face, he’s gonna give you every fuckin nickel he has.”
Actually, Wiggy didn’t give a rat’s ass about their money. Far as he was concerned, they could eat tacos and beans the rest of they fuckin lives. All he needed them for was the extra muscle they brought to the gig. He was already figuring they would be the ones who stayed behind to watch the others while him and Halloway went to retrieve the money that was rightfully his.
Ortiz was ahead of him.
“Who goes for the money?” he asked.
“Halloway. Their boss.”
“Who goeswith him?”
“Any one of us,” Wiggy said.
“I think it should be either me or Cesar,” Ortiz said.
“Sure, whoever,” Wiggy said, and grinned.
TIGO SAID NO, he would not go in with no wire on him.
Ollie said either he wore the wire or they would bust his ass for the Fire Lane Scam.
“What the fuck is the Fire Lane Scam?” Tigo asked.
“You drove the tow truck, remember?” Ollie said affably. In fact, he was actually smiling.
“What’s the Fire Lane Scam?” Carella asked.
“What I done when Tigo called me,” Ollie said, “was see what we had on him in the files. Aside from a bullshit marijuana violation two years ago …”
“I was acquitted.”
“I told you. Bullshit. In fact, I was just about to tell Detective Carella here that there didn’t seem to be anything else on you. So I figured you were clean.”
“I am.”
“Except for participating in a drug deal last Saturday night,” Carella said.
“You got only my word for that,” Tigo said, making a joke. In fact, he grinned at them as if expecting them to laugh.
Ollie didn’t laugh, but he grinned back.
“Your record said you were employed by King Auto Body when you were busted for the weed,” Ollie said. “So I cross-checked and found out why that name sounded familiar. I found a big, big arrest six months ago, Tigo. The Fire Lane Scam. For which Joey King—no relation to Larry—is doing a five-and-dime at Castleview. You know what I’m talking about now, Tigo?”
“No, I don’t.”
“You were driving a tow truck for him, right?”
“That’s right. I went out on calls for dead batteries, flat tires, lockouts, like that.”
“You also went out on calls for Berry Appliances, who were in on the scam with Joey.”
“I never heard of anything called Berry Appliances.”
“George and Michael Berry,” Ollie said. “They used to sell washing machines, refrigerators, stoves, all that shit. A shop on Twelfth and Moore, you remember it?”
“No.”
“Had a little alley running alongside the shop, remember the alley?”
