Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Sixty-one

I took the envelope from my pocket. We approached each other and exchanged envelopes. Hastily, she tore hers open and counted.

“You’re way short!” she said, angrily. We had split the money into two envelopes. Jerry was carrying one of them.

I took the photo from the envelope she had given me and reluctantly looked at it, then checked for the negative, holding it up to the light above us to make sure it was the right one. It was. I could see how Sammy would be embarrassed by it.

“You cheater!” she snapped. “Tony, Tony!” she shouted and looked about wildly.

Suddenly, a man came into view, but he wasn’t moving on his own, he was being pushed from behind.

“He cheated us-” she started, but then she saw Jerry behind her boyfriend. “What-”

“He jumped me,” Tony said. “I didn’t have a chance.”

No, he didn’t. He was barely out of his teens. Jerry towered above him and was more than twice his weight.

“You have a gun!” she shouted at him.

“He had a gun,” Jerry said, and held it up for her to see. It looked old and rusted. “If he’d tried to pull the trigger this thing would have exploded in his hand.”

“I didn’t do nothin’,” the boy said. “It was all her idea-”

“Shut up!” Jerry said, slapping the back of his head.

I reached out and snatched the money from Caitlin’s hand.

“Hey!”

“Plans have changed, Caitlin,” I said. “This is your partner? This kid?”

She dummied up.

“I can make her talk, Mr. G.,” Jerry said.

She looked at Jerry and her eyes got wide.

“She’ll talk, Jerry,” I said. “Let’s go inside, where we can be more comfortable.”

We took them into the Sands to the security office, where Larry Bigbee, the second in command, gave us a room so we could talk in private-rooms where they usually took cheaters for questioning. There were no two-way mirrors, though. This wasn’t the police department.

Jerry pulled me aside before we started. “Mr. G., I been grilled enough time by cops to know we should probably split them up.”

“We will,” I said. “Let’s just get her to say a little bit first. It’ll prime the boy.”

We went inside. I put the two envelopes of money on the table, with the greenbacks kind of spilling out. They both sat with their eyes glued to the cash.

“Caitlin, come on, why would a smart girl like you hook up with a loser like this kid.”

“Hey-” the kid said, but Jerry smacked the back of his head again.

“I had to have another partner,” Caitlin said. “Ernie, my boyfriend-it was his idea, and they killed him.”

“The guy in the warehouse,” I said.

“He went there to trade with you,” she said, “but they got to him first.”

“Who’s they?”

She pointed at Tony.

“His brother and his boys,” she said.

“His brother?”

“Walter. The whole thing with the pictures was his idea.”

“Which picture?”

“The one Walter thought was worth half a mil,” she said.

“Have you ever seen that picture?”

“No,” she said. “Walter won’t show it to anybody.”

“So he’s the only one who knows what’s on it?”

“Yeah.”

“But your boyfriend Ernie, he recognized this photo?” I touched the photo in my pocket. “And decided to make some money on the side?”

“The half a mil was gonna be cut up,” she said, “and we were only in for a small piece. So yeah, we figured we’d get some money from that Sammy Davis guy.”

“So Ernie set the meet-up with me, but Walter got to him first and killed him.”

“Yeah.”

“So you took over.”

“We were just tryin’ to make some extra money,” she said. “That’s all. They didn’t have to kill him.”

“Where did you get this one?” Jerry asked. He grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth.

“He was always hangin’ around the gang,” she said. “His brother let him hang around, but not do anythin’. And he had eyes for me right from the start.”

“His brother,” I said. “How did he get ahold of the film in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” she said, jerking her thumb at Tony. “You’ll have to ask him.”

I looked at Jerry. Almost time to split them up.

“Gimme my money!” she said, suddenly making a grab for it.

“I’ll give you this envelope, and this envelope only,” I said, holding it up. “Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“That ain’t fair-” the boy, Tony, started, but Jerry smacked him.

The girl shouted, “Shut up!” She looked at me. “What do I have to do for it?”

“Tell me where to find the others.”

“That’s easy,” she said, pointing at Tony. “He knows where they are.”

I looked at Tony, who suddenly realized he had something to sell.

“That’s right,” he said, “I know where they are. But I ain’t tellin’ … unless you give me the money, not her.”

“How about I just break your neck?” Jerry asked.

“No!” Caitlin said. “That’s not fair.”

She meant giving him the money, not breaking his neck.

But the decision was mine.