“There’s some money floating around the family,” Bruno said. “You won’t be poor.”
All of them, including Wright, Devlin, and Lucas, looked at the old man. Paul Curry’s forehead wrinkled and he said, “What? You’ve got money?”
Bruno used the end of his cane to wave at Wright and the others: “These are cops. We’ll talk about it some other time.”
Curry stared at him, then buried his face in his hands, stayed that way, then rubbed his face, looked up and said, “Deal.”
Lucas: “Where’s the dope?”
“What’s left of it is on the shelf in the kitchen closet. The money’s there, too.”
One of the search specialists said, “We got it.” They’d pulled on blue vinyl gloves and now they headed into the kitchen, trailed by Wright.
A half hourpassed as the searchers uncovered and documented the heroin and the cash. Wright, still in her dress and heels, went out to the SUV and returned with a box containing a small copy machine, on which one of the searchers and Devlin began copying the currency. The currency was wrapped with rubber bands, most hundred-dollar bills with some fifties and twenties, in five-thousand-dollar stacks. Wright asked Curry, “How much do you get for a kilo? You personally?”
“I get forty, more or less. Doug sells it to me for thirty. So I get to keep ten. By the time it gets to the small guys, they’re getting a hundred and fifty a gram, so that’s... what? A hundred and fifty K for a kilo on the street? But it’s gone through three more people by then.”
“Nice little profit all around,” Devlin said.
“Nobody’s getting rich except maybe Doug. We got a lot of expenses and we don’t get loads like these every day. I’m lucky to clear two hundred K in a year of work. In New York, that’s nothing,” Curry said. He looked at Devlin and the search specialist at work with the copy machine. “Why are they xeroxing all that cash? Why are they doing it here?”
“Because you’re going to deliver it to the guys at the car wash and get another brick of dope,” Lucas said.
“What?”
Wright explained it:Curry was going to get in his pickup and drive up to the car wash and buy another brick of heroin, his usual order, and deliver whatever money he needed to cover it. That money would be delivered to Sansone and then Sansone would be picked up with the cash in his pocket and would go to prison.
“We need to tie him to the dope, and the dope ties him to the murders.”
“Those guys in the garage... they’re sorta my friends,” Curry said.
Wright nodded and said, “I know.” She smiled at him. “Tough shit.”
Sophia Curry began crying and then Carol Bruno. They cried for a while and the copy machine kept grinding away in the background.
Curry said hecouldn’t show up with a pile of cash and check out with a kilo of heroin. He had to call ahead to see if it was even available.
“Then call,” Lucas said.
Curry said he had to use a burner phone that he kept hidden in his truck. If the people in the garage got a call from an unrecognized number, they simply wouldn’t answer. Lucas sent him out to get it, warning that the house was surrounded by FBI agents, and that if he tried to run, he wouldn’t get a block. Curry nodded miserably and went to the truck to get the phone. When he was back,Lucas, Wright, and Curry talked about what he’d say. When everyone was satisfied, Curry punched in the number, which was picked up on the second ring.
“Clean N Go.”
Curry said, “Hey, man. This is me.”
“Hey, you. How’s things?”
“Need to get a rapid wash. Got really dirty last night. What’s the situation there?”
“Not too busy. Which wash?”
“I’m thinking the gold.”
“Gold, it is. When you coming?”
“Five o’clock?”
“Make it five-thirty. We got a little line-up.”
