It Was a Very Bad Year

SEVENTY-ONE

Morning came and we had twenty-four hours left to find Irwin and prove that he was responsible for Wayne’s death. Also that he was involved in the kidnapping.

I took Jerry and the folder we had found to Jack Entratter’s office at the Sands. We told him how we had come by it, and what we thought it meant.

‘So,’ Entratter said, ‘it’s not finished. Even if Irwin didn’t plan the kidnapping, it’s obvious he was involved and has to pay. Frank isn’t gonna let anyone get off scot free.’

‘He ain’t gettin’ off free,’ Jerry said. ‘Mr G. and me are gonna find him.’

‘And we need to do it in the next twenty-four hours,’ I said, ‘or Jerry and I will be behind bars.’

‘Well,’ Entratter said, ‘you ain’t gonna find him sittin’ here. Let me know if there’s anythin’ I can do to help.’

‘Keep your lawyer on call, Jack,’ I said. ‘He may have to get us outta jail.’

‘You got it.’

We left Entratter’s office, took the elevator down to the hotel lobby, where I stopped dead.

‘What is it, Mr G.?’

I stared at him for a moment, then said, ‘I don’t know where to go next, Jerry.’

‘We could go sit on his storage unit,’ Jerry said.

‘Danny’s already got a guy on it,’ I said. ‘What’s the point of the three of us there?’

‘So is there any place else we can look?’

‘I figured with all the stops we made we would have gotten a call by now,’ I said. ‘We’ve got less than a day.’

‘You really think Hargrove would be that much of a dick?’

‘Oh yeah,’ I said, ‘I do.’

‘Maybe we should do some more drivin’ around, then,’ Jerry said.

A bellman came walking over.

‘Mr Gianelli, hotel operator’s got a call for you. They won’t hang up until we find you.’

‘OK, thanks,’ I said. ‘I’ll get it on a house phone.’

‘Yes, sir.’

I took Jerry over to a bank of phones and picked one up.

‘Operator, it’s Eddie Gianelli. You have a call for me?’

‘Yes, sir, I’ll put it through.’

I waited only a few seconds and then a girl said, ‘Eddie? It’s Darla.’

‘Hey, Darla,’ I said, raising my eyebrows at Jerry. ‘We were just talkin’ about you.’

‘Good things I hope, love,’ she said.

‘Only the best. You got somethin’ for me?’

‘I’ve got a location where your guy might be hidin’ out,’ she said.

‘Where’d you get this info?’

‘I put the word out on the street, same as you. One of my people got back to me.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘So where is this place?’

‘Out in the desert.’

‘The desert’s a big place, hon.’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘the exact location is gonna cost ya, Eddie.’

‘You’ll get paid, Darla,’ I said. ‘You know you can trust me.’

‘We just have to agree on a price, Eddie,’ she said. ‘Then I’ll trust you for it.’

‘How about two hundred?’ I asked.

‘How about two thousand?’ she asked. ‘Is this important to ya?’

Important enough that I didn’t really want to haggle, but I was probably going to have to do business with her in the future.

‘Five hundred, Darla.’

‘A thousand and you got a deal.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘A grand. Now give.’

‘He’s at the Sunshine Ranch.’

‘That’s just outside of Indian Springs, right?’

‘That’s the one.’

One of the things the casinos had to supply for their clients was women, which meant we had to know where the women were. And if they weren’t on the street, they were in the ranches out in the desert. Many had been closed down as public nuisances in 1951, but the ones that continued to operate had a ‘special’ relationship with the law.

‘Darla, is he there now?’

‘I been hangin’ on the phone for you a while, Eddie,’ she said, ‘but when I made the call, he was still there. That’s why I wouldn’t hang up till I talked to ya.’

‘And you’re positive this is a place he goes?’

‘He goes there a lot, Eddie,’ she said. ‘He owns it.’

Well, maybe that explained where Irwin got some of his girls for his stag films.

‘Baby, if he’s there you earned every penny,’ I assured her.

‘I’ll be waitin’, lover.’

I hung up.

‘What’s near Indian Springs?’ Jerry asked.

‘The Sunshine Ranch,’ I said. ‘It’s a brothel. A cathouse.’

‘Whores?’

‘Lots of ’em.’

‘And that’s where Irwin is?’

‘He was when she made the call.’

‘How far away is that?’ he asked.

‘Maybe an hour.’

We stood there and stared at each other for a few moments. The same thing was going through our heads. Call Hargrove and walk away, or drive out there and get Irwin ourselves?

‘Let’s do it,’ Jerry said, and I nodded.