Brett Halliday - Win Some, Lose Some

The phone table was on Pam’s side of the bed. Her shoulder muscles knotted. He could tell it was Downey, and the time had come.

“All right. Yes, twenty minutes. Yes. Don’t worry about that. We’re all psyched up.” Putting the phone down, she said, “Get dressed.”

They met at a drive-in movie. It was porno night, two of the new generation of porno pictures, with a grammatical script and personable actors who gave every appearance of enjoying what they were doing. Interesting, complicated things kept taking place on the oversized screen, and when Downey’s car appeared at the lighted ticket window, Werner almost missed it. They waited to be sure nobody had followed him in, then threaded their way among the darkened cars with the entwined couples and got in with him. This was his working vehicle, with metal mesh separating the front and back seats and no inside handles on the rear doors. They had already had one conference in this car, and it made Werner uncomfortable, reminding him forcibly of one of the things that could very well happen.

“The Goddamn perverts,” Downey snarled, looking up at the screen. “Showing this dirty stuff, and not a thing in the world we can do about it. We can’t lay a finger on them. The Supreme Court said so. I’ll tell you one thing,” he said, turning, “people are fucking in these cars.”

“Maybe we can find a John Wayne movie the next time,” Werner said.

“You realize people can see that screen from the expressway? By Christ, I’m going to come in here some dark night with a chain saw-”

Werner felt the back of Pam’s hand pressed warningly against his leg. He decided there was no point in quarreling. Downey wasn’t too bright, but they were stuck with him.

She said, “We didn’t come here to talk about free expression on the screen, did we, Jack? Call the meeting to order.”

Downey swung all the way around. He had left the sound outlet hooked to the post. On the screen behind him, three lovely young women continued to work in silence.

“It’s tonight,” he announced. “And we couldn’t ask for a better location. Man, it couldn’t be more ideal. This is going to be so easy.”

“Not like the last time,” Werner couldn’t help saying.

“Wernie,” Downey said after a slight pause, “could something be bugging you? Let’s talk about it.”

Werner moved his hand so it gripped Pam’s. Her fingers lay inert in his to show that she didn’t think this conversation was necessary.

“As far as Eddie Maye goes,” Werner said, “I guess you were right. We seem to be in the clear. A three-inch story in the paper, and nothing else. One more unsolved homicide for the end-of-the-year stats.”

“And it’s going to stay unsolved all the way,” Downey said. “My partner on it is a real retard. All he likes is to drink beer and watch games on TV. An unsolved gangland homicide, Werner. We don’t care if they only kill each other.”

“I accept that, and I know you can jinx a thing if you get too negative about it. But let’s suppose for a minute. What if some little unexpected thing goes wrong, like that gun Eddie had when he was supposed to be so meek and mild. Knock on wood. I mean, what if? Won’t they ask themselves, even your partner if he can tear himself away from the tube for a minute, whether we’re the same people who did it to Eddie? And that’s so very much more heavy.”

Somewhat to Werner’s surprise, Downey didn’t start yelling. “I’m glad you brought this up, Werner,” he said seriously. “Remember-we don’t officially know that was a kidnapping for ransom. Speaking as a cop now. But there’s always that outside chance that the two things would be connected. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a plus. I don’t want to insult you or anything, but this is your first time at bat in the majors. If it comes down to where you have to shoot the mother or somebody else, now I can count on you to perform. You won’t check or hold back. Because it’s your ass, right? And one of the things I was starting to tell you, it looks so open and shut I’m going to be right there with you on it.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Pam said.

“When you got in that trouble in the garage,” Downey continued, “I could have turned my back and let you get out of it by your own self. Wading into the middle of a gunfight wasn’t a part of my deal. But it didn’t occur to me not to. When Pam goofed at the house and let Eddie see us, I’m the one who took care of it, didn’t I? We’re getting a fantastic break tonight. Unbelievable. And if you’re a believer in luck, Werner-we all are-you can’t walk away from a break like that, or the luck will be rotten the rest of your life, and you’ll die young. O.K.? O.K., Pam?”

“O.K. But can we get going, please? All that stuff up there is making it hard to concentrate.”

Downey shot a quick glance over his shoulder. “Say a carload of nuns came driving along and saw that? Do you see what I mean? Consenting adults is one thing-”

“Jack.”

He turned back. “Just don’t look, or cover your eyes. The big thing I’ve been trying to do is get a bug in on Canada. But he’s bug-shy from way back, and he’s got some advanced sweeping equipment. When he goes places, he goes with a driver mostly. And he don’t keep to a schedule, a pattern, you know? He learned that a long time ago. So I had what I think was an intelligent idea for a change. He’s got a piece of business coming up with Phil Gold, the Highway Commissioner, I happen to know, and they’re going to have to get together. So I took time off and went up to Tallahassee and tapped in on Gold’s personal phone. I’ve been flying up every day to listen to the tapes, and today we hit oil. Canada. He didn’t give his name, but I know the bastard’s voice. Started off with a certain amount of this-and-that about politics for camouflage. Then he said he was going to be at the hot plant tonight at around eleven. The hot plant. Does that ring any bell with you? It didn’t with me at first, either, and then all of a sudden I got it. That’s what they call the asphalt thing on a construction site. The big machine that mixes up the asphalt. Now at eleven at night, naturally it wouldn’t be working. But if anybody saw one of their cars, it wouldn’t be out of line. The Highway Commissioner, he could be pulling an inspection. Canada owns the company, he has a perfect right to be there.”

“Where?” Werner said.

“That big Homestead interchange, two four-lanes coming in and crossing, with the cloverleafs. So what I did, I got in the department chopper and told the guy to drop me down on Homestead Air Base. Chasing a lead on Eddie Maye was the idea. And I had a chance to study the site from four hundred feet. It’s perfect all around. Perfect for Canada to meet somebody, and perfect for us to grab him.”

He was trying to stay cool, but he had trouble keeping the excitement out of his voice. “I’m going out on a limb and predict that Larry’s going to be driving himself, no driver. Never mind if he brings somebody, we can handle it. But from the way they talked on the phone, this is really under the table. He’ll make damn sure nobody’s behind him, but that won’t apply to us because we’ll be there already. There’s a side road three-quarters of a mile away where we can leave the car. A chain-link fence to get through, but that’s no problem. I’ve got a good pair of bolt-cutters.”

“A night watchman?” Werner asked.

“Now you’re using your head,” Downey said approvingly. “Sure, but if Canada set this up for a hundred percent privacy, won’t he tell the guy to go into town and buy himself a few beers? He’s the big boss, he can do how he pleases. We’ll ease in very slow. If anybody’s there, I know you’ll be willing to let me handle it.”