Dead Money Run (19 page)

“It sounds like a pretty slick deal if you ask me,” I said.

“Well, it does, except for one thing,” said Reynolds. “It never provided for the eventuality that there might be a real robbery and the company would be out the laundered money. You see Malloy, since the money paid to the Indians was considered dead money, the Outfit couldn’t use it until it was cleaned. The scam was perfect until you and your two partners came along and took the laundered money.”

“Who said we did,” I said.

“Come, come, Mister Malloy. We know you did, but that is beside the point.”

“What is the point, Reynolds?” I asked.

“You took something else that was not supposed to leave the casino.”

“And just what was that
?” I said.

For about a ten second beat, Reynolds just looked at me. Finally he said, “That information is classified, Mister Rey
nolds.”

“So where did my sister figure into this deal?
”

While I waited for Reynolds’s answer, I watched him pick
at his nails and rub his hands, one on top of the other. I knew whatever he said would be a lie.

“Susan was one of my very best agents
. On the day she disappeared I met with her and tried to get her to pull back, but she would have none of it. She had a lead into the company with one of the higher ups. She said that she could break them. I…I just don’t know what happened. Things seemed to be going well, almost too well. When we lost contact, the next thing we knew she was found dead in one of the rooms at the casino in Jacksonville Beach. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“So what do you want from us?”

Now it was Miles’s turn to talk.

“We want you to do
is what you seem to do best.”

“And what is that
?” I asked.

“Rob the casino on Cumberland Island
again.”

“You got to be kidding,” said Hilary.

“Dead serious Miss Kelly,” said Reynolds. “The anniversary of the heist is coming up and what better way to celebrate than pulling off another robbery.”

Sit
ting there thinking about it, I actually thought it was a good idea. The Outfit would go nuts and Sonny’s day in the sun would be over. The big question is, why tell us if the deal is so important and what do we get if we decide to do it?” I asked.

“
That’s two questions,” said Reynolds.

“I’ll take two answers,” I said.

“Why, keep the money of course,” said Reynolds. “We are only interested in getting rid of Sonny and finding what we think is in your possession that belongs to, let me simply say, another party.”

Another lie.

“What is it that we are supposed to have,” I asked.

“You mean you don’t know?” said Reynolds.

“Why would I lie to you? If we had it, we would be glad to give it to you,” I said. Now it was my turn to lie.

Reynolds just looked at me and didn’t answer the que
stion.

Finally I said, “
What do you have in the way of recon on the casino and how much money are you talking about? How many men do they have on security? Has their counting system changed? What about the Outfit, could they thinking along the same lines? It would be cool if we got there at the same time as they did to rob the same casino.”

I watched Reynold
s’s eyes dilate as my observation hit a cord.

“I’m working on getting that very information as we speak. I should have it in a few days and will be in touch.”

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll let you know then if we will do it or not. How do I reach you?”

“We’ll find you,” said Reynolds.

After the meeting was over, Reynolds and Miles left. Hilary wanted to wait until they were gone before leaving the restaurant.

“What do you think of that?”
said Hilary.

“I think it’s a set up,
” I said, “but not a bad idea. Did you see how Reynolds’s eyes lighted up when I mentioned hitting the casino at the same time as Cap’s boys? All in all, it’s still a setup.”

“The question is, what are we going to do about it?” Hil
ary asked.

“Why
, rob the casino, of course,” I said.

“I knew you would say that.”

“I forgot to tell you one other little detail from my conversation with Goodman. When I asked for a description of Max Reynolds, he told me that Max Reynolds has the name ‘Lenore’, tattooed on his right wrist. The Reynolds we just met had nothing on his right wrist but a watch.”

“He
y
, Zeke, I’m not interested how he died. Anybody know who might have killed him?”

“No Boss. The only thing
that might be of use was some security cameras.”

As Angel listened, he wrinkled his forehead and drummed his fingers on the top of his desk.
Talking to Zeke was like talking to a game show host.

“Okay
, Zeke, I got it. Take some pictures and clean out the security cameras around the place.”

“You want me to call the cops?”

“Zeke, we’re the criminals in this gig. What the hell do I want cops for? Just get the stuff and head for home.”

To get the information you had to first give
Zeke the question. After a few more minutes he punched in another call. On the fourth ring a man’s voice picked up and said, “Yeah, Angel. What’s the news?”

“Nothing good
, Sonny. I just got off the telephone with Zeke Leonard and it seems our boy Roseman was found this morning with his brains splattered all over the back wall of his office.”

“And I
’m supposed to care about this because, why?”

“
Well, Roseman’s no loss,” said Angel. “But the file he was keeping on everything, including our operation, is gone.”

Angel
listened as Sonny Cap raised his voice to a whole new level. Holding the telephone away from his ear, Angel fought the urge to hang up.

“What the fuck are you telling me
, Angel? You saying this fuck, Roseman, had a file on our operation and you knew about it and didn’t do anything about that? Is that what I’m hearing?”

Right now Angel wanted a drink while he could still swallow.
Angel had given Roseman the file.

“Yeah,” he said.

“You miserable shit. I put you in charge of the clubs. I give you carte blanche and this is the way you thank me? Huh?”

“Sonny, it’s not like that. It’s…”

“Shut up, Angel. Just shut up. I need to think.”

Sitting there listening to the bucket of
shit Angel was feeding him was driving him crazy, but Sonny was smart enough to know that he had to play things out. The Outfit was not happy. They not only were down thirty million big ones, but the whole casino money laundering gig was at stake. The Outfit could weather the storm, but Sonny would last about as long as dew on a hot day. He didn’t need to do anything rash. It all started when Angel introduced him to that Kandi babe. She was the most exciting thing he had ever seen. He had to have her. His old man always told him he thought with his dick. Well, this time his dick got him in trouble and everyone else along with him. He had to do something. If his father got wind of this news, Sonny knew he would be through. Right now, the only one who knew was Angel. Something had to be done about that.

“Okay
, Angel. Let me think a few things over. I can’t do anything now and I don’t want you to do anything until I get back with you, you hearing me, Angel? Nothing.”

“Yeah
, Boss, I hear you.”

After hanging up the telephone Angel knew that whene
ver Sonny got suddenly calm after a blow up, he had better duck. It was time to put his escape route into motion.

He had told his wife
, Marilyn, if the worst ever happened she was to go to her mother’s with the kids. He had given her the number on the secret Nassau account and the banker’s name who she could call to get money wired to her. He told her not to take more than ten thousand at any one time. Otherwise the Feds would pick it up. Once he found a safe place he would send for them.

Angel
had about three million in Nassau. It should be enough for the family to live in comfort for a long time. Marilyn just had to use a few brains which she didn’t have a lot of.

Walking over to a wall with a picture of him and Ma
ynard Jackson taken during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Angel swung the picture like it was a cabinet door and reached for the dial on the safe in the wall. Spinning the dial quickly, he was concentrating so hard he failed to hear the door to his office open and a figure step into the room. After opening the safe, Angel held a bag in his left hand and started stuffing money into it. He figured he had around two hundred grand in the safe, enough to get him out of the country. Taking the two passports he had in the safe, he put them in the bag as well. Shutting the door to the safe, he spun the dial and swung the picture closed. When he turned around he wasn’t expecting his visitor so soon.

“Jack…What the hell are you doing here?”

Jack Bellay alias Four Fingers Jack, was Sonny’s clean up man when all else failed. Jack was the avenue of last resort, as Sonny liked to say. Angel had even used Jack himself a few times.

“How you doin’
, Angel? Long time, no see.”

“Hi, Jack. What are you doing here?”

“You asked that already, Angel, but that’s a fair question.”

Jack
Bellay reminded Angel of a coyote in his appearance. He had narrow eyes and a long nose and a mouth the size of a bee’s ass. His father told him to never trust a man with a small mouth.

Bellay
got the name Four Fingers when somebody questioned his word. Bellay issued a challenge and when asked what the bet was, Jack held up his little finger and said it was his finger versus the other guy’s finger. Jack won the bet. When the loser didn’t want to ante up, Jack shot him in the head and cut off the loser’s little finger. He wore it around his neck in a small stainless steel tube.

“I he
ar you been talking with Sonny,” said Bellay.

Angel co
uld feel the heat rise in his face.

“Look, Jack, I did what I could. How was I to know that fuck, Roseman, was going to keep a file on the Outfit and the casino operation?”

Waving his hand as if he were swatting a fly, Bellay said, “Hey, Angel, I understand, but you see, in addition to being down Roseman and the file you gave him, we are short one lawyer in town. It seems this Roseman had the file copied and had mailed it to his lawyer to take to the cops in case anything happened to Roseman, but the simple putz of a lawyer called Sonny instead and offered the file to Sonny for a hundred grand. So the lawyer is gone and he took his secretary with him after cleaning out his trust account. What do you think of that Angel?”

“Town has enough lawyers already,” said Angel.

“Yeah. Losing a lawyer now and then is not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned, if you know what I mean, Angel.”

“Sure
, Jack. I understand.”

“I don’t think you do
, Angel, but that’s not for me to decide today. What I want to know is who in your family do you want to give us?”

For a few moments
Angel thought he was hearing things. It took a few seconds for him to get his bearings. Walking over to his desk, he set the sack of money down and took a seat. He had a thirty-eight taped to the side of his desk. It was loaded and all he had to do was reach for it and fire it through the desk, but firing from a sitting position would only hit Bellay in his knees. Angel had to clear the gun from under the desk. He would have to move fast.

“I’m not sure
I understand you, Jack?”

“Okay, I can understand that. Let me try this on you. The Outfit
had two choices to make as the result of your perceived incompetence. Choice one was to kill Sonny, but he really didn’t have a dog in this hunt. Next choice was you. You gave the file to Roseman and now they want it back. That, they gave to me to do. They can’t let someone in the organization fuck up and not pay the piper. So the decision was made that you, as the result of this fuck up, have to pay us a bounty. Now, who do you want to give up? The choice for you is really very simple. I either kill you or someone in your family. Now who do you think that should be? The choice is yours.”

Suddenly Angel stood up and holding the thirty-eight
in his right hand. “You no good dirty bastard…I’m going to …”

Angel never cleared the thirty-eight
to a firing position before a hole appeared in his forehead blowing everything out the back of his head. Slumping back in his chair his fingers continued twitching as they held the gun.

Getting up like he was walking to
get a drink of water, Bellay put the end of a small twenty-two to the side of Angel’s head and pulled the trigger. He then took out his cellphone and took a picture of Angel sitting in his chair. Placing both the pistols back in their respective holsters, Jack said, “I think you made a good decision Angel. I would have hated to kill your old lady.”