Naked Greed

49

On Sunday evening Stone was enjoying an after-dinner cognac with Dino and Viv when his cell rang.

“Hello?”

“Stone, it’s Dan Harrigan.”

“Good evening, Dan.”

Dino perked up. “I want to speak to him.”

“You can speak to him tomorrow morning,” Viv said sternly.

Stone put the phone on speaker and set it on the coffee table. “Go ahead, Dan.”

“I got some new stuff: Gene Ryan took a plane from Newark to Fort Lauderdale this afternoon. We were supposed to be tipped if he even made a reservation, so he must have used another name. A woman, a clerical worker in the department, spotted him getting off the plane in Lauderdale. She was taking it back to Newark after a few days off.”

“Okay, then what?”

“Then he was gone. I guess he’s still there.”

“Does this mean anything?”

“He might be on the run, or think he is.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand that. On the run from what?”

“Al Parisi caught a bullet in the head late Friday night, so did his girlfriend.”

“Is Ryan a suspect?”

“He’s a person of interest. The Jersey cops want to talk to him.”

“And you think he might have run, thinking that?”

“Maybe.”

“Then why would he wait until Sunday afternoon to get a plane out?”

“Good question. I posed it myself, and they didn’t have an answer.”

“Any suspects besides Ryan?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’ll try and follow.”

“Apparently, Parisi was playing in an, ah, informal poker game when it got robbed, and one of the players, a liquor dealer named Sean Finn, thought Parisi might have set it up. Then while Finn, Parisi, and some other upstanding citizens of New Jersey were having lunch to discuss the matter, one of Finn’s liquor stores got held up by two guys wearing elaborate disguises. They took the week’s receipts for three stores that Finn was due to pick up and bank.”

“And Finn thought Parisi was responsible for that, as well as the poker game?”

“Yeah. Finn has an alibi for Friday night, though. He was in bed with a woman, not his wife, and she backed him up. Of course, he could have farmed out the hit.”

“Well, the Finn theory pretty much takes Ryan out of the picture as a suspect, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but if Finn was right about Parisi, then Ryan might have been one of the guys who knocked over the liquor store.”

“Is he wanted for that?”

“Not enough evidence. If he ever comes back from Florida, though, the locals will want to talk to him.”

“Anything else, Dan?”

“Not right now. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Good night, then.” Stone hung up. “Did you get all that, Dino?”

“What a lot of garbage,” Dino said disgustedly.

Charlie, Gene, and Vinny were polishing off their steaks in Fort Lauderdale. “So here’s the deal,” Charlie said. “The target is a betting parlor, a rich one, but they got raided last night — somebody didn’t get paid off — and they’re moving it to another location. We need to let it get established there before we take it. The raid will put a dent in their take for a week or so, until word of their new address gets around.”

“So we came down here for nothing?” Ryan asked.

“No, I’ve got something else we can do right away. It’s a little bank west of here that’s flush with cash on certain days, and I got word that Tuesday is one of them.”

“Banks are tough, Charlie,” Ryan said.

“This one’s a pushover. I know because I knocked it over a while back.”

“What did you get?”

“Over three hundred grand. There might even be more there Tuesday.”

“Tell us the plan,” Ryan said.

“We go in the front with shotguns — masks and coveralls — and go straight for the vault, don’t even bother with the tellers. We go out the back door, where I’ll have a van waiting, and we’re outta there. We change cars and meet at your motel.”

“It can’t be that simple,” Ryan said.

“You know how burglars work?”

“I’ve caught a lot of them in my time,” Ryan said, “when I was on the force.”

“They hit a place, then they give the owners a little while to replace everything with their insurance money, then they hit it again.”

“Yeah, that happens a lot.”

“Same thing here. I’ve got word from inside that after I hit the place, they installed two more cameras and added one guard.”

“How many guards did they have before?”

“One.”

“And you don’t care about the cameras?”

“They had cameras before. Everybody was covered from the head down.”

“What’s the split?”

“My backer gets half, I get a quarter, you two split the rest.”

“That’s not a lot for us.”

“This is just a stopgap — it’ll put some money in your pocket while we’re waiting for the horse parlor to get cranked up again. And you get some extra time on the beach. I pick up the motel rooms.”

“Vinny, what do you think?”

“I’m in, if you are.”

“Okay, Charlie, we’re in.”

Charlie ordered another bottle of wine.

Frank Riggs, né Russo, received Charlie in his office. “I heard what happened with the betting parlor,” he said.

“Don’t worry, Frank, we’ll wait a week, then we’ll take it. Meantime, we’ll do the bank again. I hear it’s ripe for the picking, and I’ll give you a quarter of the take, even though you don’t have to do anything for it this time.”

“When are you going to do it?”

“Tomorrow afternoon, one o’clock.”

“Have they beefed up their security?”

“Same as before, plus they’ve got two new cameras and one more guard — that’s it. We can handle it, no problem.”

“And you’ve got Gene Ryan and Al Parisi?”

“Al caught a bullet over the weekend. Gene brought a reliable guy with him.”

“Give me a couple minutes, okay?”

“Sure, Frank, take your time.”

Frank got up and walked down the hall to his partner’s office. “Charlie’s back. He wants to do the bank again, tomorrow at one.”

“What about the horse parlor?”

“It got raided, so it’s postponed for a week. Charlie’s brought in two guys from Jersey.”

“I thought we were going to do the horse parlor, then dump Charlie. It’s time. I hear he’s loose of the lip, spends too much money.” He thought about it for a minute while Frank waited. “Have you got a sentimental attachment to Charlie? I know you two worked together for a while.”

“Not a bit,” Frank said. “When we’re done, we’re done.”

“Tell him it’s a go, then.”

“Okay.” Frank walked back to his office. “It’s a go,” he said. “A quarter of the take is good.”

“Thanks, Frank.” They shook hands and Charlie left.

Down the hall, Frank’s partner picked up the phone. “Hey, it’s me. I’ve got a tip for you. Remember the bank west of here? It’s going to be hit again tomorrow afternoon at one, same guys. Right. And listen, in return for the tip, we’d like it if you made a clean sweep — no loose ends. Can you handle that? Great, handle it, then.”