Robert Randisi - Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Jerry pulled me aside before we started. “Mr. G., I been grilled enough time by cops to know we should probably split them up.”

“We will,” I said. “Let’s just get her to say a little bit first. It’ll prime the boy.”

We went inside. I put the two envelopes of money on the table, with the greenbacks kind of spilling out. They both sat with their eyes glued to the cash.

“Caitlin, come on, why would a smart girl like you hook up with a loser like this kid.”

“Hey-” the kid said, but Jerry smacked the back of his head again.

“I had to have another partner,” Caitlin said. “Ernie, my boyfriend-it was his idea, and they killed him.”

“The guy in the warehouse,” I said.

“He went there to trade with you,” she said, “but they got to him first.”

“Who’s they?”

She pointed at Tony.

“His brother and his boys,” she said.

“His brother?”

“Walter. The whole thing with the pictures was his idea.”

“Which picture?”

“The one Walter thought was worth half a mil,” she said.

“Have you ever seen that picture?”

“No,” she said. “Walter won’t show it to anybody.”

“So he’s the only one who knows what’s on it?”

“Yeah.”

“But your boyfriend Ernie, he recognized this photo?” I touched the photo in my pocket. “And decided to make some money on the side?”

“The half a mil was gonna be cut up,” she said, “and we were only in for a small piece. So yeah, we figured we’d get some money from that Sammy Davis guy.”

“So Ernie set the meet-up with me, but Walter got to him first and killed him.”

“Yeah.”

“So you took over.”

“We were just tryin’ to make some extra money,” she said. “That’s all. They didn’t have to kill him.”

“Where did you get this one?” Jerry asked. He grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth.

“He was always hangin’ around the gang,” she said. “His brother let him hang around, but not do anythin’. And he had eyes for me right from the start.”

“His brother,” I said. “How did he get ahold of the film in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” she said, jerking her thumb at Tony. “You’ll have to ask him.”

I looked at Jerry. Almost time to split them up.

“Gimme my money!” she said, suddenly making a grab for it.

“I’ll give you this envelope, and this envelope only,” I said, holding it up. “Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“That ain’t fair-” the boy, Tony, started, but Jerry smacked him.

The girl shouted, “Shut up!” She looked at me. “What do I have to do for it?”

“Tell me where to find the others.”

“That’s easy,” she said, pointing at Tony. “He knows where they are.”

I looked at Tony, who suddenly realized he had something to sell.

“That’s right,” he said, “I know where they are. But I ain’t tellin’ … unless you give me the money, not her.”

“How about I just break your neck?” Jerry asked.

“No!” Caitlin said. “That’s not fair.”

She meant giving him the money, not breaking his neck.

But the decision was mine.

I pulled Jerry aside.

“The kid’s the one who knows where his brother and the others are, so why don’t you take the girl outside.”

“Gotcha,” he said. “She ain’t no good to us if she don’t know where nobody is.”

We went back to the table. Jerry grabbed Caitlin by the arm and said, “Up. Yer comin’ with me.”

“Where?”

“Never mind.” He pulled her to her feet and propelled her toward the door.

“Eddie-” she said, but I kept my back to her as Jerry opened the door and shoved her out.

“What’s goin’ on?” Tony demanded.

“You have a chance to make a lot of money, Tony,” I said, “and it’s up to you if you want to share it with Caitlin or not.”

Tony suddenly grinned and said, “She’s a hot piece of tail.”

“Yes, she is,” I said, speaking from experience. “It’ll take a lotta cash to keep her hot, too.”

“What do I gotta do?” he asked.

“You know damn well,” I said.

He nodded.

“Take out your wallet.”

He hauled a cracked leather wallet from his back pocket and dropped it on the table. I went through it until I found his driver’s license, which identified him as Anthony Peaks.

“Your brother have the same last name?”

“Of course.”

“Same address?”

“No,” he said. “We don’t live together.”

“So this whole scheme to sell these photos was your brother’s big idea?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“How did he get ahold of them?”

“Search me,” he said, with a shrug. “All I know is he got ’em. He said some big shot was gonna pay a lot of money for ’em.”

“So when did you and Caitlin and her boyfriend decide to get in touch with Sammy Davis Jr.?”

“That was Ernie’s idea, like she said,” Tony answered, “but it was Caitlin who recognized the picture. She reads a lot of those Hollywood magazines. She saw what was in one of the pictures and Walter knew that the nigger would pay big money for it.”

I slapped him on the back of the head, hoping he was still sore there from Jerry’s blow.

“Hey!”

“Watch your mouth!”

“What’d I say?”

“Sammy Davis is a friend of mine,” I said. “Watch what you say.”

He looked totally puzzled.

I realized he had no idea that what he’d said might be out of line.

“Your brother let you in on which big shot was gonna pay?”

“Naw, but it must be somebody big if he wasn’t worried about this ni-uh, the Sammy Davis picture.”

If Tony had no inkling that the President was involved, I wasn’t going to tell him.

“So your brother has all the other prints?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Does he know this one is missing?”

“He took it back from Ernie when he killed him,” Tony said, “but Caitlin had made a copy.”

“Okay, Tony, here’s the big question,” I said. “Where do I find your brother?”

“Him and the others …” he started, but then he trailed off.

“How many others?”

“He’s got two buddies, Denny and Paul.”

“And they killed Ernie and the others in that warehouse?” I threw in the others because we weren’t supposed to know who killed them.

“Naw, we don’t know who those other guys were or how they got there.”

“I want those photos, Tony, and the negatives.”

“Walter’s got ’em.”

“I figured that,” I said. “So all you’ve got to do now is tell me where Walter and his buddies are.”

Tony licked his lips and looked down at the two envelopes full of money.

“I get one of these envelopes if I tell?”

“That’s right.”

“Which one?”

I touched the one that had twenty-five thousand in it and moved it forward a bit.

“This one.”

He wet his lower lip again, and I thought he was going to drool.

“I want ’em both.”

“No.”

“Then two.”

“No.”

“My brother says he can get half a million for the pictures he wants,” he said, a crafty glint coming into his eye. “I figure I’m saving somebody that much money by tellin’ you. That’s gotta be worth seventy-five grand.”

It wasn’t my money, but for some reason I didn’t want to give in.

I moved the one envelope back and pushed the other forward.

“Okay, that one.”

Now he was thinking fifty grand and the girl. I felt sorry for him, because if he kept Caitlin with him she’d find a way to pry the money away from him.