Стюарт Вудс - Contraband

Dino handed her the paper. “You’ve been served, now get up and go sit in that chair.” He pointed at one across the room.

Robbie got up, brushed herself off, and smoothed her skirt, then she went and sat in the chair. She produced a compact, checked her makeup, and applied lipstick. “Go ahead,” she said to Dino. “You’re not going to find anything.”

Two detectives had followed Dino into the room. “All right, fellas,” Dino said, “get to work.”

Stone held up a hand. “Stop!” he said.

Everybody stopped and looked at him. “No need to search,” he said, “just move the coffee table.”

“What are you talking about?” Dino asked.

Stone pointed. “Coffee table,” he said. “Move it. It will take at least two men.”

“Move it where?” a detective asked.

“Away from the sofa.”

The two detectives each took an end and moved the table away from the sofa.

“Max?” Stone said, taking one end of the carpet.

“Right,” she replied, grabbing the other end.

They pulled it back to reveal the door. Max opened the door to reveal the box, then stepped back. “It’s unlocked,” she said.

Dino reached down, pulled the lid open, then stood back and stared. “Holy shit,” he said.

The detectives had handcuffed Robbie and stowed her in a waiting squad car outside. Stone and Max were sitting down in her living room, while Dino took stacks of cash and set them on the coffee table.

“How much do you reckon?” Stone asked.

“I don’t know: eight or nine hundred grand, I guess.”

Max was repairing her makeup. “Wow!” she said, half to herself, “that Robbie moves fast.”

“I told you so,” Stone said.

“You didn’t lie,” Max replied.

“Dino, how long to get a ballistics report on the latest .38 snub-nosed?”

“It’s being hand-carried downtown, along with Robbie, as we speak,” Dino said. “Shouldn’t take long.”

“Assuming it checks out, then...”

“Then, with a little encouragement by way of her sentence, Robbie will give us the Italian gentlemen. Then she’ll be doing her act in a women’s prison upstate for the murders of Randy Hedger and Estelle Parkinson.”

Max laughed. “I’m sure the girls will be happy to see her,” she said.