Part 49 (1/2)
He dropped the paper on the floor and looked up at me. ”I'm just being honest. The perfect solution for you is to have Raines turn out to be the brains behind the killing and Nance the actual shooter. That way you nail 'em both in one whack. You get even and you get the girl. It's the perfect ending.”
”Incredible,” I said. ”Those are great opinions.”
”You just figured out the price,” he told me.
”Yeah, business as usual,” I said, and there was a lot of acid in my tone.
”If it's business like last night,” Stick said. ”Count me in every time.” It was obvious that he had saic all he had to say about my personal problems.
”Thanks for sparing me your tales of conquest,” I said.
”Speaking of business, I got a little for you. Let's get to the number one problem, okay? I don't like to brag, anyway. I was up and at the Warehouse by eight. We got good news, we got bad news, and we got some in-between news.”
”Gimme the good news first,” I said.
”The good news is that Kite's finally got Nance in view. The bad news is that he didn't make contact until about three a.m. Otherwise he might have been a witness to your little party over there on the waterfront.”
”It'd be nice to know what he's been doing for the past two days,” I said.
”Kite's working on it. Also Charlie One Ear has some information on who owns what in town and Cowboy Lewis is hot on Cohen's trail this morning. So what got your day off to such a lousy start, besides the fact that your head's not screwed on right?”
”First of all, I hurt a very nice lady,” I said.
”What'd you do, turn her down?”
”Worse, I asked her to break the law.”
”Oh, is that all? Murder, bank robbery, what?”
”The bank's computer code and Cohen's bank account numbers,” I said.
He didn't bat an eye. I might have said I asked her to get me a gla.s.s of water, for all he seemed to care.
”Did she do it?”
I shook my head. ”The lady has more integrity than I have,” I said.
”Well, Lark hasn't got any such notions,” Stick said, with that strange smile of his. ”Here's the rest of the good news.” He reached into his s.h.i.+rt pocket, took out a slip of paper, and handed it to me. There were two numbers written on it. Lark had drawn a smiling face behind the second one.
”Are these the bank's computer access numbers?” I asked excitedly.
”And the numbers for the Tagliani account.”
”This is incredible! Are you sure they're correct?”
”I trust the lady all the way.”
”The lady's got one h.e.l.l of a memory,” I said.
”There's a little more to it than that. Guess who the computer operator at the bank is.”
”You're kidding!”
”She has a master's degree in mathematics and computer technology from Emory University. I may be in love. A dame looks like that with all those smarts, s.h.i.+t, I might even think about early retirement. ”
I was impressed with the information, but even more impressed that he had asked for it.
”How the h.e.l.l did you know I was after these numbers?” I asked him.
”Lark told me you went to Casablanca to meet DeeDee, so I figured you must be after something,” he said. ”It wasn't hard to figure out what it was. h.e.l.l, I can put one and one together and get two almost every time.”
”Now that I've got them, I'm not sure what to do with them,” I said.
”Have you forgotten I spent six months slaving over a computer when I joined the Freeze? I know what to do with them.”
”Can you access the code and get into the bank's main terminal?”
”I can hack into anything,” he said with a grin. ”I'm the magic man, remember?”
My palms got sweaty thinking about what we could come up with. For the first time since arriving in Dunetown, I felt we were getting close to something important. The information wouldn't stand up in court, but it could lead us straight to the bad seeds.
”You want to tell me what you want, specifically?”
”I'm not sure. But I am sure Cohen's the bagman and he deals only with Seaborn at the bank. DeeDee did tell me that. They're using the bank for a was.h.i.+ng machine, I know it. That bank account should tell us something.”
”I agree with you about Cohen. Lark says he usually makes cash deposits once a day. Big ones.”
”Does she know how much?”
”No, but she checked the daily deposit tape once out of curiosity and it was in six figures.”
”What! Jesus, Stick, we're on to something. Just maybe we can get them this time.”
I whistled through my teeth and we laughed and slapped each other on the back and acted like a couple of high school kids. If Lark was right, Cohen could be moving as much as half a million dollars a week or more through the Tagliani accounts.
”It had to be s.h.i.+elded in some way,” Stick said. ”That kind of money activity attracts the Lepers like a petunia attracts a hummingbird.”
I said, ”It also means Seaborn has to be involved.”
”So you want to go fis.h.i.+ng?”
”Yeah. What I'm really looking for is a Hollywood box, some kind of payoff account.”