Ed McBain - Cinderella

The man with Charlie Nubbs was called Jimmy Largura. Ernesto thought he was Latino at first, he looked Latino. Turned out he was Italian, though. Jimmy Largura. Though Charlie Nubbs referred to him every now and then as Jimmy Legs. Jimmy Legs this, Jimmy Legs that. Jimmy Legs was now telling them how a speedboat, one of those cigarettes like the black one out there, would run out to meet the bigger boat this Friday night, take the shipment. It would be nice if Ernesto here could guarantee say the purchase of at least half a dozen keys, come up with say four-fifty for six keys, that would take a big load off their minds, knowing six keys were already committed.

“We could perhaps go to six keys,” Ernesto said. “But not at the price you’re talking.”

“That’s a fair price,” Charlie Nubbs said. “For ninety-pure? That’s a very fair price. Ain’t that a fair price, Jimmy?”

“For ninety-pure?” Jimmy said. “You gotta be kidding. It’s a steal. For ninety-pure, it’s a steal.”

“If it’s really ninety,” Ernesto said.

“Even if it’s only eighty- five ,” Charlie Nubbs said.

“Or even eighty,” Jimmy said. “It’s a bargain even at eighty.”

“I can get ninety-percent pure for forty K,” Ernesto said, lying.

But he was thinking if he could come up with a good deal for Amaros... then if they couldn’t find the girl, which he was thinking might turn out to be the case, Amaros wouldn’t be so angry. If Ernesto could get him, say, six keys of ninety-pure at forty a key, that was very low.

If these men were that stupid.

“If that’s how much you’re talking,” Jimmy said, “there’s no sense talking. Forty K? You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding, please.”

“Forty sounds right,” Ernesto said.

“Say you paid seventy-five for it...” Jimmy said.

“That’s too high,” Ernesto said.

“I’m only sayin’ suppose you paid seventy-five...”

Ernesto was shaking his head.

“ Suppose , okay?” Jimmy said. “It won’t kill you to suppose for a minute. You want another drink? Or you want to order some lunch?”

“Let’s have another round,” Charlie Nubbs said, and signaled to the waiter for drinks all around the table.

“I’m saying suppose you went in for seventy-five a key,” Jimmy said. “You give it a full hit, you already double your price. With ninety-pure it can stand a full hit, you know that. You could even step on it more, if you felt like it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t advise that,” Charlie Nubbs said. “You step on it too hard...”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Jimmy said. “So say just a full hit, okay? You pay seventy-five...”

The waiter was approaching the table. Jimmy immediately changed the subject.

“The one out there with the blue sails,” he said, “that’s got to run you at least seventy-five thousand, don’t you think?”

“Maybe even more,” Charlie Nubbs said.

The waiter put down the fresh drinks and asked if they’d care to see menus now. They told him to give them a few more minutes. The moment the waiter was gone, Jimmy lowered his voice again.

“Say seventy-five a key,” he said, “and you take six keys, you commit for six, okay. That comes to four hundred and fifty, you give the shit a full hit, you walk away with twice that. Nine hundred K. That ain’t bad on my block.”

Ernesto was thinking that in today’s market, seventy-five was in fact a fair price if the shit really was ninety-percent pure. But he wasn’t looking for fair , he was looking for a bargain. If he went to Amaros with a bargain, maybe he wouldn’t be too angry that they hadn’t found the girl.

“Forty is a fair price,” he said.

“Come on,” Charlie Nubbs said.

“You’re kidding,” Jimmy Legs said.

“Forty, forty-five tops ,” Ernesto said. He turned to Domingo. “Cuarenta o cuaranta y cinco esta bien, no? Por noventa por ciento de pureza ?”

Domingo nodded. “Sí, por supuesto ,” he said.

“How does seventy sound to you?” Charlie Nubbs asked Jimmy.

“No, no, we can’t do it for that, that’s out of the question. Look,” he said, “let’s finish our drinks and go, okay? No hard feelings.”

He smiled to let them know he really meant there’d be no hard feelings.

What was going on here was the same kind of bargaining that went on in any business negotiation, except that the business here happened to be narcotics. Both Jimmy Legs and Charlie Nubbs knew exactly how many keys were coming in on that boat this Friday night, never mind the bullshit about the shipments varying. Twenty keys were coming in and they had agreed to pay a million flat for the twenty. That was fifty thousand a key. If they could get four hundred and fifty thousand for only six keys, that meant they’d be getting the remaining fourteen keys for only five-fifty, which came to something like thirty-nine, forty a key, which was dirt cheap.

Jimmy was sure the spics knew the going price for cocaine that was ninety-percent pure, which this actually was. Either they knew or they were amateurs. He knew for sure that they were jerking him around when they offered forty. Seventy-five was a good price, it really was. Well, not a good price — nobody was giving anything away at seventy-five — but a fair price. He and Charlie were getting a very good deal on the twenty keys because the South Americans they were dealing with were new people trying to establish a foothold in Florida. Fifty thousand a key was, in fact, a damn good deal. But in this business it was cash on the barrelhead, mister, and they were having a tough time coming up with the million. So they wouldn’t have minded laying off some of it on the spics. Not at forty a key, though. That was ridiculous.

Ernesto and Domingo both knew that forty was ridiculous. That was why Ernesto had immediately modified this to “forty, forty-five,” which was also ridiculous. A fair price was seventy-five. But Ernesto figured the wops were telling the truth (always a bad failing) when they said they wouldn’t mind laying some of the deal off on somebody else, which meant they weren’t about to lay it off at cost but were trying to make a little bit above cost for putting the deal together and so on. The question was how much they had agreed to pay for the dope. If they were paying sixty a key, for example, which is what it sounded like if they were asking seventy-five, then there was no way Ernesto was going to get a bargain here. He’d either have to find the girl or risk Amaros’s anger. Amaros might even hang him from the ceiling if he didn’t find the girl. He was thinking Ai, muchacho , it would be nice to get this shit for fifty a key, make Amaros very happy.

He didn’t have a chance of getting it for fifty; fifty was what they were paying for it. But he didn’t know that. Anyway, nobody was leaving just yet.

The waiter brought menus.

The men ordered.

Domingo kept eyeing the two women at the nearby table, both of whom were all dressed up for their Tuesday lunch.

“So what do you say?” Charlie Nubbs asked.

“I told you,” Ernesto said. “The highest I can go is forty-five. And even that, I’d have to check back with Miami.”

“Then we can’t talk business,” Jimmy said. “’Cause the lowest we can go is seventy.”

Ernesto noticed that a few minutes ago Jimmy had considered seventy out of the question. They were making progress.

“This snapper is delicious,” Charlie Nubbs said.

“Yeah, they get it fresh every morning in this place,” Jimmy said.

“You get good fish over in Miami, too, don’t you?” Charlie said.