Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Fifty-eight

We all went back to the cabin and I called the number Joseph Kennedy had given me. I didn’t get him, but instead talked to some minion who said the money would be hand delivered to me within the hour.

“Seventy-five G’s?” Jerry asked. “Hand delivered?”

“That’s what he said.”

“You got the power, Mr. G.”

“Not me.”

“You made the call,” he pointed out. “That’s all it took to get seventy-five grand delivered to the door. I don’t know about your world, but in mine that’s power.”

“The man’s got a point,” Sammy said. “I’m impressed.”

“Well,” I said, “let’s see if the money shows up.”

A messenger-a real messenger, with a uniform that said so-delivered an eight-by-ten envelope to the door within the hour, and before my noon phone call was supposed to come in.

I opened the envelope and there were eight banded stacks of bills in there, ten thousand a stack except for the one that had five.

“See?” Jerry said to me. “Power.”

“By the way,” I said to Sammy, “I’ve got your money here, in the other room.” Taking five stacks out of the envelope I added, “You might as well take it now.”

“Hey,” he said, taking the money from me, “you don’t have to offer me fifty thousand dollars twice.”

“Especially since it’s already your money.”

Sammy was standing there, fifty thousand in his hands, when the phone rang.

“I’ll get it,” I said.

They watched me walk to the phone and lift the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Are you the go-between?” she asked.

“Hello, Caitlin.”

There was a pause, then, “How did you-what the-”

“I missed you the other morning, you left in such a hurry,” I said. “Of course, you did leave me a note.”

There was a long period of silence during which I became sure she had hung up, or pulled her phone out of the wall, but then a sexy chuckle tickled my ear.

“Eddie G,” she said, “you’re so smart.”

Behind her I heard a man start to speak, but she shushed him hard enough to make me deaf.

“Sounds like your boyfriend’s upset.”

“He’ll get over it,” she said. “You got our money?”

“I’ve got it,” I said.

“Seventy-five thousand?” Her voice got husky.

“Every penny,” I said, “but we’ve got to make sure of somethin’, Caitlin.”

“What’s that?”

“We’ve got to stay alive long enough to make the exchange.”

“Don’t worry about that,” she said.

“Oh, but I am worried,” I said, “more about you than myself.”

“That’s sweet.”

“If I’m readin’ the situation right, you’ve already lost one of your partners.”

She fell silent again.

“And I’m havin’ my own problems,” I added. “This is no big secret we have goin’ here, you know.”

She covered the phone and had an exchange with her boyfriend.

“There are too many people with guns runnin’ around, Caitlin,” I said. “This meeting place has to be a good one.”

“Agreed,” she finally said. “Do you remember where we met?”

Did I remember? We met at the Sands, in the lobby, where she was working behind the desk.

“Yes.”

“Meet me out where all the cars are.”

The parking lot?

“When?”

“Do you remember what time it was when you kissed me for the first time?”

Her code was a very personal one. Anyone listening wouldn’t be able to figure it out. This was probably overkill, but I continued to go along with it.

She came to my room to wake me up for my 6 A.M. wake-up call. So I must have kissed her at about six-oh-five.

“I remember.”

“Twelve hours later, plus four.”

It would be good and dark by 10 P.M. in the Sands parking lot. If you stayed away from the lights you could find some black corners to meet in.

“Okay,” I replied, “but when?”

I could hear her mind working, trying to come up with a way to tell me the day without actually saying it on the phone, but she was out of codes.

“Tomorrow night,” she said. “Don’t be late.”

“Don’t get killed,” I said, and she clicked off without comment.

“What was all that about?” Sammy asked.

I explained Caitlin’s attempt at communicating by code.

“So when are we meetin’?” Jerry asked.

“Tomorrow night at ten in the parking lot behind the Sands.”

“That’s pretty public.”

“There are some dark corners back there,” I said. “She only worked there for about a week, but she knows that.”

“And are we really gonna give her the money?”

“That’ll get us the roll of film-or prints of the roll-but it won’t guarantee we’ll get all the prints of the Kennedy picture.”

“Or mine,” Sammy said. “I mean, if this girl and her boyfriend are actin’ on their own and there are still others involved, there could be plenty of prints out there.”

“I guess there’s always that chance when you pay blackmail money,” I said.

“There’s only one way to make sure a blackmailer don’t come back,” Jerry said.

Sammy and I looked at him. We both knew what he meant by that.

“But you’ve got to make sure you get all the blackmailers,” I countered. “How do you do that?”

“You convince one of ’em to finger the others,” he said.

We all knew there was only one way to do that, too.

The phone rang at that moment. We all turned and stared.

“Answer it,” I said to Jerry.

“Maybe they’re gonna change the meet,” Jerry said, as he picked up the receiver.

“Hello? Yes. Hold on.” Jerry held the phone out to me. “It’s for you. Jack Entratter.”