Beauchamps’s roll added up to three thousand dollars, and he’d carried six hundred in his wallet.
“What we got would just about get us to Ohio,” Deese said. He took a turn around the room, breathing hard again, the anger and frustration climbing all over him. “That won’t work.”
“Farther than Ohio. Between us, we got almost sixty thousand,” Cole said to Deese. “Let’s split it. You take twenty, twenty-five. Geenie and I get the rest, because there are two of us. And most of it was mine to begin with anyway. You got a late-model truck you can sell it down in Miami, or somewhere, probably get another fifteen and go hide out in Puerto Rico until things cool off. You can live a long time down there on forty K.”
“Maybe you can, but I can’t,” Deese said. “We got something else going for us: we know where there’s five million dollars in cash. Harrelson’s.”
“No. We know where there’s a rumor of five million dollars cash,” Cole said.
“There’ll be something, with him being a big-time gambler, and we need it now,” Deese said. “There are too many cops around for us to hide here and work out another plan. Even if we get out of Harrelson’s with a few hundred thousand, we’re way ahead of where we are now. I agree with you on one thing: we gotta get out of here. Get out of Vegas.”
Cole looked at Cox. “What do you think?”
“You’re the criminals, not me,” she said. Then to Cole: “If you and me had thirty-five or forty thousand dollars, even back where you come from if we had to rent a house or an apartment, it’d only get us six months. Wedoneed more money.”
Cole looked at Deese. “All right. Lay low until it’s time to go, hit Harrelson tonight, and run.”
“What if Harrelson isn’t there tonight?” Cox asked.
“If we stay cool, if we don’t leave the house, then I don’t know how they’d find us. We’ve hardly seen any of the neighbors around here,” Cole said. “We could hunker down for a day or two.”
“What about that Joan chick?” Deese asked. Joan was the agent who rented them the houses.
“She’s only seen me and Cole,” Cox said. “Her husband’s a poker dealer here in town. Even if she suspected something, they’re the kind of people who know when they should be looking the other way.”
Cole bobbed his head. “Okay. We take the risk.” He looked at his watch. “We’ll go at nine. I’m going to watch the news, see if we’re on it.”
“I’m going to call back to New Orleans, see if I can figure out what the fuck is going on,” Deese said.
“Another risk, the cops are all over the phones now,” Cole said.
“The phone’s clean, a throwaway,” Deese said. “And I need to know.”
—
DEESE WENTinto the back bedroom to make the call and Cole and Cox drifted down the hallway to stand outside the door and listen, which they could easily do because Deese spent most of his time shouting.
The call went to a burner phone owned by a man named Larry Buck, who handed the phone to Roger Smith, who was standing next to him, because Buck was always standing next to himwhen Smith was out on the town. They didn’t use names on the phone.
“It’s the goddamn truth and you know it! You must have talked to that motherfucker. He wouldn’t walk around the block without checking with you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. I don’t. I haven’t heard a word. I sent him there with four boxes of money. Six hundred K. He must’ve decided to keep it, unless... Hey, ask that chick, whatever her name is, who pulled the gun first? I don’t think our guy would, he was just a deliveryman, he only had a gun because he was carrying all that cash, he’s not a shooter.”
“Don’t tell me that, you motherfucker, you sent that fuckin’ island beaner after my ass and he killed my brother. When I get my hands on him, I’m gonna eat his fuckin’ liver with fava beans and Ritz crackers. You got that? You tell him that. Then I’m gonna come after your liver, you pasty-white, lying piece of faggot shit.”
“Listen, listen, I’ll try to get in touch, find out what happened,” Smith finally shouted back. “If he didn’t leave the money behind, then he’s still got it and you still need it, right? Him giving you the money would prove that I’m telling the truth, right? I wouldn’t have sent the money at all, if he was coming there to shoot you, for Christ’s sakes.”
“You get me that money, I’ll think about it,” Deese said. “I’m still gonna eat his liver, but get me the money, I’ll let you keep yours.”
—
WHEN THEY WEREDONE, Deese walked out of the bedroom and found Cox and Cole, leaning against the wall, advertising the fact that they’d been listening.
“We’re not going after any money with you,” Cole said. “If you go after that money, they’ll kill your ass. That’s nothing but a setup.”
“Those fuckers,” Deeds said. He had the burner phone in his hand and threw it at a couch. It bounced once and fell on the floor. “If it ain’t a setup, it’d sure be some easy cash. It’d be the way to go. Better than Harrelson.”
“Would you give us some of it?” Cox asked.
