“Doe
s
anyone else know about the possibility that Malloy might hit the Indian casino on Cumberland Island again?” asked the voice on the phone
“No,” said Stanton.
“It would be interesting if we leaked it to the Tribal Police and let them pick them up for us. Are you still targeting the grab by Malloy for the anniversary of his heist?”
“
Yes,” said Stanton.
“It would be interesting to have the Indian
s there when he hits the place.”
“
Yeah it would,” said Stanton. “But we would have to go down to make the pick-up and when we did, we could deal with Malloy and his dolly on our terms.
“That Indian cop still thinks your name is Reynolds, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“We have tracked them to St. Mary’s, so they are in place. I think you need to be in the area when they make the grab. Call the Indian cop and give him a heads up.
Time we got this show on the road.”
“Very well Sabrina.”
“Office
r
Ramiro, please.”
William
Two-Tree was not looking forward to working with this white police detective. He was too lazy for his purposes, but working with him was a ‘must do’ according to the rules. Stopping these robberies was Two-Tree’s only real interest. The death of a few white eyes was nothing to him. Still, Officer Reynolds from the Federal Government was insistent that the Detective be called and be given the heads up, as the man had put it.
“Detective Ramiro speaking.”
“Sal, this is William Two-Tree over at the Tribal Police, you got a minute?”
Ramiro
hesitated, gathering his thoughts.
“What do you need
, Two-Tree?”
“Might have a lead
on those killings and I would like you to work with me on it. I think it would get you the killers of the Marks’s and the other killings you have on file.”
“What do I have to do?”
Get off your fat ass and get over here, thought Two-Tree.
“I got a call from a contact that I have in
Atlanta saying there’s going to be another robbery at our Casino on Cumberland Island by the same people as before.”
When Ramiro heard about the robbery he sat up straight in his chair.
“What are you saying, Two-Tree? That this Malloy is going to hit your Casino a second time?”
“That’s what
my contact said. Now, since it is our Casino and our jurisdiction, the Feds want our Department to be the lead on this. I thought you might want to be in on it. You might solve some of those homicide files on your desk.”
Ramiro
figured there had to be an angle in this. Why would this Indian be interested in helping him? It did not fit. The Indians almost never wanted the locals in their business.
“What do I have to do?”
“Nothing, really. Just observe and stay alert. Might even get to use that big gun you wear on your hip.”
A
t
this point, solving my sister’s murder seemed like wishful thinking. The case was ice cold. One thing I was sure about, her murder had something to do with the Indian casinos.
From the start of my quest,
I had counted on one of the button guys the Outfit had been sending rolling over and giving up the information I needed. So far there was nothing. Then I expected the Outfit would have made a move on me by someone other than their farm team. When that hadn’t happened, that meant they weren’t involved at the higher levels in the organization. That left Sonny Cap, but I could not see how that would lead to anything concerning my sister.
Then there was
the Stanton and Miles team and what to do about them. I found it hard to believe they cared anything about the money laundering operation. It had to be something else. Hightower’s operation fit into the puzzle somewhere, I just did not know where at this point. I had to deal with the business at hand and that was the money. At the end of the day, it all ended up there.
Walking back to the room, I set some timelines. At ten o’clock tomorrow night we were going to leave. I hoped to be out of the Casino and on the road no later two o’clock.
Since the Casino was a twenty-four hour operation, 365 days out of the year, no one would be suspicious of a maid and a groundskeeper walking around the place early in the morning. Crusher was going to stay out of sight with the air rifle and watch for anyone who might give us any grief. Once we got in the casino, the rest was a piece of cake. When I got to the room, Hilary and Crusher were waiting for me.
“What, someone die?” I said.
“No yet,” said Hilary. “But that’s just today’s report.”
I could see lines of worry on their faces. Hilary and Crusher had been very loyal and they had a right to know
what I actually planned. I didn’t want them to know until we got to the Casino. I believed in the old rule that what you didn’t know would never hurt you. In the case of this deal, that might not hold true.
I
n
the Eighteen Eighties, Thomas M. Carnegie, brother of Andrew Carnegie, bought land on Cumberland for a winter retreat. He built his retreat on the same site where former owners of the Island built a big home they named Dungeness. Benny told me that when Carnegie built his home he kept a lot of the old mansion’s foundation rooms. The Indians, when they built the casino, they did the same thing. The sub-foundation was a labyrinth of rooms and hallways. A person could hide all the gold in Fort Knox in the foundation under the Golden Slipper and it would never be found.
M
y plan was to pack the money up and store it in the old area in a dry cavern and then leave. As far as the Casino was concerned the money was gone and that would trigger the payoff from the insurance company. Sonny would have his head in a noose. Later, I could come back and get the money during the off season.
Like all plans, they have their twists and turns and this one was not going to play out any different.
Whe
n
I woke up Saturday morning, I was up early. I wanted to call the real Reynolds in Atlanta and give him our schedule.
“I want to be sure that we are clear Reynolds on the saf
ety and security of Hilary and Crusher. They will be free to go.”
“You have my word Lou. All we want is to shut down the insurance scam and to put a stop to the
Hightowers caper.”
“What about the money?” I asked.
“What money? As far as we are concerned, that is beyond our jurisdiction,” said Reynolds.
“In other words, you are leaving that up to the locals.”
“Exactamundo Mister Malloy. Just don’t get caught and good luck.”
Well if there was a day to sell my soul, this was it. I had made a commitment to become part of something I didn’t have any idea what I was getting into. All I had was one man’s word and for me that was something I never had done before.
It was eight o’clock in the morning and I had a lot to do. I had to go and check on the truck and Crusher was going with me. When he showed up outside the room, he was unusually quiet.
“You okay
, Crusher?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just trying, you k
now, to figure out what I’m gonna do if this doesn’t work out.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, there’s Bunny. I haven’t talked to her in a few days. I don’t know if everything there is okay. If something happens to me, I don’t know what she will do.”
I got it now. He was asking the same things I would have asked if I had been in his shoes.
“Crusher, there are some things that you will soon learn that will make everything we are doing a little clearer. The thing you need to remember is that we are a team-you, Hilary and me. As a team, we watch out for each other, just like you and I did when we were in prison together. You have to trust me on this.”
Crusher was a big man. He stood at least four inches tal
ler than me, but it was like talking to an overgrown kid at a playground. Crusher looked at me and I could see a need for understanding.
“Thanks
, Lou. I knew you would appreciate my issues.”
“I’m with you
, Crusher. Now let’s get this thing done.”
When we got to the truck, it was
right where we left it, still full of fuel and ready to go.
“We leave tonight
,” I said. “If you want to call Bunny go ahead.”
“No,” said Crusher. “She doesn’t need to know. If I called it would just create more problems. Let’s just hope we don’t take a hit on this. Not sure I could handle it.”
When we got back to the room, Hilary was eating a pizza and watching a baseball game.
“Who’s playing?” I asked.
“Braves. They’re beating the tar out of Boston, which is a surprise.”
“
Any more of that left?” said Crusher.
“I ordered two extra-large with the works. They are on top of the little refrigerator.
The one on the right is Crusher’s. It has everything in it.”
Crusher had moved into our room to do everything but sleep. There was a small table with two chairs in the small kitchen area
. He had one of the pizza boxes open and was hunched over it eating a piece of pizza. I was so tired I couldn’t eat.
I wasn’t sure how long I had slept, but it was long enough. When I woke up, Crusher was s
tretched out on one of the couches in our room and Hilary was curled up on the bed next to me. I got up real slow, because I didn’t want to wake her, but I didn’t make it. I felt her hand on my arm. She was looking right at me.
“We going to be alright on this
, Lou?”
“Yeah, I think
so,” I said. “You put that laxative where it would do some good?”
“In his pizza,” said Hilary. “He’ll never know what hit him.”
I thought about that and said, “Hopefully I didn’t eat any of it.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” said Hilary. “Lou, t
hese are really bad people. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out, but I don’t want to go to jail. I couldn’t take it being in prison.”
I looked away
briefly before answering her.
“Nobody is going to go to jail because there is no crime being committed. The only thing we have to worry about is Sonny and his gang. They are the only ones who give a damn. H
ightower has other fish to fry and as far as the cops, they don’t know anything about it.”
“Lou, I think I’m in love with you. I would follow you to
moon if I had to. You are the most exciting man I have ever met.”
“Hilary
, just so you know. The feeling is mutual. But if for any reason things don’t go as I hope they will, remember where the money is at that wildlife area. It’s been there for fifteen years. Don’t go near it if anything happens. I have about three hundred thousand in the money belt that I will leave with you when we head out to the casino. Pay Crusher fifty thousand and use the rest for yourself until I get back with you. This is plan ‘B’. Remember that?”
“Yes Lou, I will remember. Plan ‘B’.”
At nine, we started to get dressed. The ten deer bags I had bought I figured if they could hold a two hundred pound deer, they should work with money in them. Then, just for some extra protection, I bought a Berretta automatic hand gun with a double banana clip fitted with a suppressor. In addition, we had the two MAC-10’s, the two air pistols and the air rifle with enough tranquilizer darts to wipe out the deer and hog population on Cumberland. Hilary wanted to know what I planned to do with them and I told her I wanted to avoid killing anyone if it could be helped.
“
Are you getting soft in your old age, Malloy?”
“Not really,” I said. “You have your thirty-eight and I have my Glock and the little twenty-two peashooter. Crusher is going to
carry the Berretta, so I think we are set.”
“What about that Colt Python you nabbed off that guy at the Marks’s house?”
“So you know about that?”
“Not my job to worry about it. Just asking, that’s all.”
Before we left, Crusher said he was having stomach trouble.
“You’re
lucky you have a stomach as much garbage you put in it.”, I said.
“Yeah. I hope that’s all I have to worry about tonight.”
“Me too, Crusher, me too.”
Chapter 69
“W
e
lost them,” said the tech to Sabrina.
“You sure?”
“The lead is dead. Last contact they were in St. Mary’s.”
“Okay, keep the plan in place. We have to assume they are moving
tomorrow night as planned.”