Backflash. Part 2

"The same," Parker said, and someone knocked with a double rap. "Make it two," he said, and crossed to open the door.

Dan Wycza was a huge bald man with a handsome, playful face and heavy shoulders that he automatically shifted to an angle when he walked through doorways. He looked out at the world with amused mistrust, as though everybody he saw was an opponent in the wrestling ring who maybe couldn't be counted on to stick to the script. There was a rumor he was dead for a while, but then he'd popped up again. He was also known to be a health nut, which wouldn't keep him from accepting a gla.s.s of bourbon. He came in now, squared his shoulders, nodded a h.e.l.lo to Parker and said, "Mike. Long time."

"Tyler," Carlow said, and brought Parker and Wycza their drinks.

"I spent that money," Wycza said. Before drinking, he looked at Parker: "We gonna get some more?"

"Maybe. Sit down, let me describe it."

There were two chairs in the room. Parker sat on the windowsill and said, "It's cash. It's all in one place for several hours. I've got an inside man to give me the details. But there are maybe problems."

Carlow said, "Is the inside man one of the problems?"

"Don't know yet. Don't have him figured out. My woman's checking into him, his background, see what his story is."

Wycza said, "What does he say his story is?"

"Retired from state government, New York. Consultant to governments. Gave me his card."

Wycza smiled in disbelief. "He has a card?"

"He's legit, his whole life long. Got a reputation you could hang your overcoat on."

Carlow said, "So why's he giving you this score?"

"That's the question. But if it turns out he's all right, there's still problems, and the first one is, it's a boat."

Carlow said, "On the ocean?" The question he meant was: What do you want with a driver?

"On a river," Parker told him. "A gambling casino boat, a trial period, no gambling on credit, all cash, they take the cash off every six hours."

"Not easy to leave a boat," Wycza suggested, "if all at once you want to."

"That's part of the problem."

Carlow said, "How much cash?"

"The boat isn't running yet," Parker said. "So n.o.body knows what the take is. But a Friday night, five hours between ten P.M. and three A.M., it should be enough. I don't think the money's the problem, I think the boat's the problem."

Wycza said, "The boat isn't on that river now?"

"It's heading there. It used to be in Biloxi."

Wycza grinned and said, "The Spirit of Biloxi?"

"It's going to be the Spirit of the Hudson now. You know the boat?"

"You're giving me a chance to get my money back," Wycza said. "But, you know, they do heavy security on that boat. I did an automatic case when I was aboard, decided not to try it. They got rent-a-cops in brown everywhere you look. Cash goes straight down through a slot into some safe room down below. When you cash in your chips, they got a vacuum tube with little metal-like rockets in it, to send up just your money."

Parker said, "How about security when you're getting aboard?"

"Airport," Wycza told him. "You go through a metal detector. No X-ray, but they eyeball bags."

"So no way to bring weapons aboard," Carlow said. "Unless..." He looked at Wycza. "Could you bring your own boat alongside?"

"Not without being seen. The dining rooms and other stuff is along the outside of the boat, gambling rooms inside. No windows when you gamble, windows all over the place when you eat a meal or have a drink or just sit around."

"So that's the second problem," Parker said. "Guns. And the third problem is, getting the stuff off the boat."

"And us," Wycza said.

"That's the fourth problem," Parker said.

Carlow said, "The money's easy. Throw it overboard, in plastic. You got a boat trailing. That's me. I do boats as good as I do cars."

Doubtful, Wycza said, "They light up that boat pretty good."

"A distraction at the front end," Parker suggested. "Maybe a fire. n.o.body likes fire on a boat."

Wycza said, "I don't like fire on a boat. And I also don't jump in a river in the dark and wait for Mike to come by and pick me up. Nothing against you, Mike."

"I don't want people," Carlow told him. "Not with a boat. Plastic packages I can hook aboard and take off the other way."

"We don't have this money yet," Parker reminded him. "To get it, we need a way to get guns aboard. We need a way to get into the room where they keep the money."

Wycza said, "This source of yours. Can he give us blueprints?"

"When I told him I'd think about it," Parker said, "he gave me a whole package of stuff. Blueprints, schedules, staffing, I got it all."

Carlow said, "What does it say about guards? I'm wondering, are we guards, is that how we get the guns on board?"

"You mean, hijack some guards," Wycza said, "take their place. That's possible, it's been done sometimes."

"I don't think so," Parker said. "You've got two security teams. Those rent-a-cops you saw when you were on the boat, they're hired by the private company owns the boat. They're regulars, they know each other. Down in the money room, the guards and the money counters are hired by the state government, they're a different bunch entirely. The way it's gonna work, a state bus picks them up, on a regular route, takes them to the boat all in a bunch, takes them home again the same way. They bring food from home, they don't get food on the boat. They're locked in at the start of their tour, unlocked again at the end when the money on their shift comes off the boat, surrounded by the money room crew plus armored car company guards."

Carlow said, "Maybe it isn't a boat job, maybe it's an armored car job."

"My inside man can only help me with the boat," Parker said. "In Albany, that's where the money comes off, it's like a three-block run from the dock to the bank, all city streets, heavily guarded."

"Forget I said anything," Carlow said. "Anybody else want another?"

They did. Carlow distributed more ice and more bourbon, sat back down and said, "We can't do a switch with the guards, the outer guards, the rent-a-cops. It wouldn't help us. Anyway, the big thing is, how do we get into the money room."

"Parker's fire," Wycza said. "Set the f.u.c.king boat on fire, they'll open that door in a hurry."

"I don't want to be on a burning boat," Parker said. "That wasn't the idea, about the fire, I just meant something small, to keep everybody looking forward when we do something at the back."

"Three questions we got," Carlow said. "How do we get on, with the guns? How do we get into the money room? How do we get off again?"

Wycza said, "Who can carry a gun onto the boat? Legit, I mean. The guards. Anybody else?"

"A cop," Parker said. "An off-duty cop, he could be carrying, they'd probably leave him alone."

"Maybe," Wycza said. "Or maybe they'd be very polite, thank you, sir, if you don't mind, sir, we'll just check this weapon for you until you leave the boat, sir. They're not gonna let people carry guns unless there's a reason."

"Bodyguards," Carlow suggested, and turned to Wycza to say, "Does this boat have entertainment? Shows? Would celebrities come aboard?"

"They got shows," Wycza said, "but not what you'd call headliners. Not people you been reading about in the National Enquirer."

"Bodyguards," Parker said. "There might be something there. Wait, let me think." He turned his head to look out the window at tan Denver.

Wycza said to Carlow, "You been racin much?"

"I totaled a Lotus at a track in Tennessee," Carlow told him. "Broke my G.o.ddam leg again, too. I need a stake to build a new car."

"I gotta quit wrestlin for a while," Wycza said. "I get tired of bein beat up by blonds. In capes, a lot of them."

Parker turned back. "Either of you know a guy named Lou Sternberg?"

Wycza frowned, then shook his head. Carlow said, "Maybe. One of us?"

"Yes."

"Lives some funny place."

"London."

"That's it."

Wycza said, "An Englishman?"

Parker told him, "American, but he lives over there. Only he never works there, he always comes to the States when he needs a bankroll."

"He was on a bank thing I drove," Carlow said. "In Iowa. Jeez, seven, eight years ago. I came in late, the guy they had first got grabbed on a parole violation, so I didn't get to know the rest of the string very much. Just the guy, Mackey, that brought me in."

"Ed Mackey," Wycza said. "Him we all know. Him and Brenda."

Carlow said to Parker, "What about Sternberg?"

"Remember what he looks like? How he talks?"

"Sure. Heavyset, sour most of the time, talks like a professor."

"Can you see him," Parker said, "as a state legislator? One of the anti-gambling crowd, coming for an inspection."

Wycza laughed. "And we're his f.u.c.king bodyguards! " he said.

Carlow said. "An a.s.semblyman, with bodyguards? Are you sure?"

"He's had death threats," Wycza explained. "Cause he's such an uncompromising guy. So he's got us to guard him."

"Armed to the teeth," Parker said.

7.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"I'm looking for Lou Sternberg."

"Oh, I'm sorry, he's gone out. May I tell him who rang?"

"Ed Lynch."

"Does he know the subject, Mr. Lynch?"

"Not yet, not until I tell him."

"Does he know you, Mr. Lynch?"

"We were in the art business together one time. Buying and selling art."

"Oh, I believe he's mentioned that. It wasn't a very profitable business, was it, Mr. Lynch?"

"No profit at all."

"And are you still in the art business, Mr. Lynch?"

"No, I gave that up."

"Probably just as well. What business are you in now, Mr. Lynch?"

"Politics... h.e.l.lo?"

"You surprise me, Mr. Lynch."

"Things change."

"So I see. May I ask- Forgive me, but I know Mr. Sternberg will ask me, so I should know the answers."

"That's okay. I thought he might like to run for state a.s.semblyman."

"Mr. Sternberg?"