Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Sixty-two

I pulled Jerry aside.

“The kid’s the one who knows where his brother and the others are, so why don’t you take the girl outside.”

“Gotcha,” he said. “She ain’t no good to us if she don’t know where nobody is.”

We went back to the table. Jerry grabbed Caitlin by the arm and said, “Up. Yer comin’ with me.”

“Where?”

“Never mind.” He pulled her to her feet and propelled her toward the door.

“Eddie-” she said, but I kept my back to her as Jerry opened the door and shoved her out.

“What’s goin’ on?” Tony demanded.

“You have a chance to make a lot of money, Tony,” I said, “and it’s up to you if you want to share it with Caitlin or not.”

Tony suddenly grinned and said, “She’s a hot piece of tail.”

“Yes, she is,” I said, speaking from experience. “It’ll take a lotta cash to keep her hot, too.”

“What do I gotta do?” he asked.

“You know damn well,” I said.

He nodded.

“Take out your wallet.”

He hauled a cracked leather wallet from his back pocket and dropped it on the table. I went through it until I found his driver’s license, which identified him as Anthony Peaks.

“Your brother have the same last name?”

“Of course.”

“Same address?”

“No,” he said. “We don’t live together.”

“So this whole scheme to sell these photos was your brother’s big idea?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“How did he get ahold of them?”

“Search me,” he said, with a shrug. “All I know is he got ’em. He said some big shot was gonna pay a lot of money for ’em.”

“So when did you and Caitlin and her boyfriend decide to get in touch with Sammy Davis Jr.?”

“That was Ernie’s idea, like she said,” Tony answered, “but it was Caitlin who recognized the picture. She reads a lot of those Hollywood magazines. She saw what was in one of the pictures and Walter knew that the nigger would pay big money for it.”

I slapped him on the back of the head, hoping he was still sore there from Jerry’s blow.

“Hey!”

“Watch your mouth!”

“What’d I say?”

“Sammy Davis is a friend of mine,” I said. “Watch what you say.”

He looked totally puzzled.

I realized he had no idea that what he’d said might be out of line.

“Your brother let you in on which big shot was gonna pay?”

“Naw, but it must be somebody big if he wasn’t worried about this ni-uh, the Sammy Davis picture.”

If Tony had no inkling that the President was involved, I wasn’t going to tell him.

“So your brother has all the other prints?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Does he know this one is missing?”

“He took it back from Ernie when he killed him,” Tony said, “but Caitlin had made a copy.”

“Okay, Tony, here’s the big question,” I said. “Where do I find your brother?”

“Him and the others …” he started, but then he trailed off.

“How many others?”

“He’s got two buddies, Denny and Paul.”

“And they killed Ernie and the others in that warehouse?” I threw in the others because we weren’t supposed to know who killed them.

“Naw, we don’t know who those other guys were or how they got there.”

“I want those photos, Tony, and the negatives.”

“Walter’s got ’em.”

“I figured that,” I said. “So all you’ve got to do now is tell me where Walter and his buddies are.”

Tony licked his lips and looked down at the two envelopes full of money.

“I get one of these envelopes if I tell?”

“That’s right.”

“Which one?”

I touched the one that had twenty-five thousand in it and moved it forward a bit.

“This one.”

He wet his lower lip again, and I thought he was going to drool.

“I want ’em both.”

“No.”

“Then two.”

“No.”

“My brother says he can get half a million for the pictures he wants,” he said, a crafty glint coming into his eye. “I figure I’m saving somebody that much money by tellin’ you. That’s gotta be worth seventy-five grand.”

It wasn’t my money, but for some reason I didn’t want to give in.

I moved the one envelope back and pushed the other forward.

“Okay, that one.”

Now he was thinking fifty grand and the girl. I felt sorry for him, because if he kept Caitlin with him she’d find a way to pry the money away from him.

“Come on, Tony,” I said. “Where are they?”

“Walter’s gettin’ ready to send some of the pictures to the newspapers,” he said. “He says he’s tired of bein’ jerked around.”

“Well, it was you and Caitlin and her boyfriend who started jerkin’ him around,” I pointed out. “I’m sure he doesn’t appreciate havin’ to look for the three of you. If he finds you what do you think he’ll do?”

“He’ll kill me and Caitlin both.”

“So if I give you this money, and make sure Walter goes to jail,” I said, “you and Caitlin will be free and clear.”

He thought that over.

“All you’ve got to do is tell me where to find him,” I prodded.

Finally, I could see by the expression on his face and his body language that he’d come to a decision.

“I don’t really … know where they are … exactly.”

“What?”

“I don’t know where he is, I swear,” he said, quickly, “but I got a phone number.”

If I gave the phone number to Joe Kennedy he could probably have it traced, but if Tony was right and his brother was getting ready to release the photo something had to be done right away.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s get you a phone.”