The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas (21 page)

THIRTY-THREE

Listening to people enter a room without being able to see them was fast becoming a nasty habit for me. These particular individuals paced directly to the hole in the floor.

‘Christ, get Stacey,’ said a man’s voice. ‘And call security too.’

‘Has the safe been compromised?’ asked a second man.

‘I can’t tell yet. Just go get Stacey.’

Feet pounded towards the door and I risked peering out from beneath the kickboard until I could glimpse the legs and back of a man with his head buried inside the hole in the mosaic. His khaki trousers and blue knit sweater gave me a fair idea of who I was looking at, but when he pulled his ginger head out of the hole I knew for certain. The Fisher Twins were back from their golf game much sooner than I’d been led to expect.

The twin I could see looked even paler than normal and his many freckles stood out distinctly against his whitish skin. He seemed low on patience as well as iron, and he plunged his arm into the hole and yanked fruitlessly on the door to the safe.

He was still tugging away when two sets of legs appeared alongside him. I guessed the tan chinos and brown loafers belonged to the second twin. The nylon stockings and black, medium heels seemed likely to be Stacey’s.

‘Anything missing?’ asked the twin who was standing.

‘I don’t know. You have today’s code?’

‘On my PDA.’

The second twin crouched down beside his brother and reached inside his trouser pocket. He removed a compact electronic device and began to poke at it with a metal pointer.

‘Stacey, what’s going on?’ asked the first twin. ‘Has anyone been in here?’

Stacey shifted her weight between her feet. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Anything unusual happen?’

Her feet quick-stepped some more. ‘We had another fire drill.’

‘A scheduled fire drill?’

‘Gosh, I don’t know. I don’t think so.’

The twins shared a look.

‘Get Ricks up here.
Now
.’

Stacey scurried away, and the twins shook their identical heads at one another.

Watching them from beneath the desk, I was conscious that I’d made a couple of errors. In my hurry to dive for cover, I hadn’t seen where Sal had ended up, so I had no way of knowing if he was likely to be found anytime soon. On top of that, my own hiding spot was far from ideal. Yes, there was a danger I might be seen beneath the kickboard, but more to the point, I’d sought refuge in the exact spot where one of the buttons that opened the mosaic was to be found.

On the plus side, I hadn’t managed to crack the safe. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have been too thrilled by my professional shortcomings, but as the twins were about to discover that their safe hadn’t been compromised, I really hoped they might not feel the need to activate a full-blown security procedure.

‘I have the code,’ said the twin with the PDA.

‘Give it to me.’

He read the sequence aloud, and I felt a smile tug at my lips as I committed it to memory. Could it be that I might find myself with an opportunity to access the safe, after all?

I was still feeling dazed by the possibility when I glanced down at the graph on the pad in my hands. At least two of my numbers had been wrong. I couldn’t remember if that was my fault or if Sal had been careless with his record-keeping, but I felt mighty peeved all the same.

I guess I would have beaten myself up a little more if I hadn’t been distracted by the metallic clang of the safe door being thrown back against the sides of the concrete hole. Any second now, and the twins would be a lot more relaxed.

‘Goddammit!’ one of them screamed. ‘They got it. They took the damn list.’

Huh?

‘Are you shitting me?’

Oh, thank God. He had to be messing with his brother.

‘Do I look like I’m shitting you?’

Actually, he looked a lot like a man on the far side of angry. His jaw was clenched, his eyes were dark swirls and he slapped his palm down hard against the floor, like a wrestling judge counting off a bout. He stood and lashed out with his foot at the mosaic hatch. A half-second later, he let go of a howl of pain, clutched at his toes and hopped around in a circle.

Meanwhile, his brother stuck his own head into the hole. His arm moved feverishly in and out, until he’d placed several stacks of dollar notes beside the opening.

‘That’s all they took?’

‘It’s all they wanted.’

His brother dropped heavily into a club chair and hauled off his shoe to consider his foot. His mouth puckered with discomfort and I found myself wincing in a similar manner. It wasn’t sympathy pains – as he’d fallen into the chair, it had skidded sideways and I’d glimpsed the fingers of Sal’s hand.

The twin in the chair gingerly flexed his toes, sucking air through his teeth.

‘So what do we do?’ his brother asked.

‘I’m thinking.’

‘You have a back-up, right?’

‘Sure, but that’s not the issue. The list is out there now.’ He nodded towards the picture windows overlooking the Strip.

‘But it can’t bite us, yeah?’

The twin with the busted toes stared at his brother. ‘You think these people know how to apply that kind of information? They push too hard and the whole thing comes down.’

‘Maybe they’re smart. They were smart enough to get the list.’

The twin in the chair shook his head ruefully. ‘We need to close down on this fast. Where in hell is Ricks?’

‘Relax. He’ll be here.’

If anyone could relax, it certainly wasn’t me. I was struggling to understand the implications of what I was hearing. If the juice list had already been snatched, then I’d never had any chance of claiming my fee from Maurice. What’s more, I was stuck at the scene of the crime, my hiding-place was about as stupid as you could possibly imagine (unless you could conceive of a teeny man cowering behind a club chair where a seriously hacked-off casino impresario happened to be sitting), and if I didn’t somehow escape and pull together a serious amount of money in a handful of hours, I was destined to die a quite horrible death. Was that everything? Did I even want to turn my mind to what else could go wrong?

‘What’s happening?’

Ricks strolled into the room behind his question, flipping open a pocket notepad. The twins brought him up to speed while I peeked out from my hiding-space and watched him squat down beside the hole in the mosaic. He’d changed his clothes since I’d last seen him – he had on a dark blue blazer over a white shirt and pressed grey trousers – but his eyes retained the glazed look of a man low on sleep, and when he raised a hand to his silver-thread beard, he stifled a yawn.

‘No cops, right?’ he muttered.

‘No cops.’

Ricks nodded once, as though recalibrating his approach. ‘I’m going to need names for the people who might want the list.’

The twin in the club chair made a gargling noise that suggested he didn’t rate the idea. ‘You want that I pass you the damn telephone directory? Come on, Ricks, you know what was on that document.’

‘Some of it,’ Ricks said, and I thought I could almost detect a hint of regret in his voice.

‘So you know what we’re dealing with. I want this thing shut down. I want it stomped on.’

Ricks turned sideways and held the twin’s eye. ‘I’ll have to speak with your staff.
All
of your staff. One of my team will review the fire alarm. Another guy will run the security tapes.’

‘That’s going to take time.’

‘Sure is.’ He pointed his pen at the lid of the mosaic. ‘You touch anything?’

The twin shifted uncomfortably. ‘How do you think we knew the list was gone?’

‘We’ll run it for prints anyhow. And I’ll have somebody sweep the room.’

‘You did that last week.’

Ricks straightened, his knee joints popping. ‘That was for bugs. I want to be sure that whoever did this is gone.’

The twin stiffened in his chair, eyes wary. His brother glanced over his shoulder, as if he feared he might be in the presence of a ghost.

‘You think they’re still here?’

‘It’s possible.’

‘I figured they left already.’

‘Could be. But my guess is the job was carried out during the alarm evacuation. When was the last time you checked the safe?’

‘Two days ago,’ said the one who was scared of ghosts.

‘Time?’

He was about to answer when he was interrupted by a sharp, unexpected trill. Cold panic flushed through me. The chirping was coming from right beside me. To be exact, it was coming from my record bag. The awful truth was, I’d forgotten to set Victoria’s mobile to silent. And now the damn thing was ringing.

Of all the asinine mistakes I’d made in my life, this one really topped the list. I lurched for my bag and plunged my hand inside, groping desperately for the stupid contraption. It twittered and vibrated gaily, and still I couldn’t find it.

At last, my fingers touched upon the treacherous hunk of plastic, but the telephone slipped from my sweaty palm like a bar of wet soap and shot out from beneath the desk. I thrust an arm out after it, only to stub my fingers on the toe of Ricks’ shoe.

I gazed slowly up and Ricks gazed slowly down. He clucked his tongue and said, ‘Why don’t you crawl on out and answer your cell? Must be an important call.’

I looked from the telephone, to Ricks, and back again. I didn’t dare look at the Fisher Twins. The telephone was chirping like a deranged cricket, skittering across the floor. I flipped it open and angled the screen towards me.
Withheld Number
. I raised the device to my ear.

‘Charlie? It’s Victoria. Good news. I just found Caitlin and she’s willing to talk with us. We’re on our way to the Fifty-Fifty. Where are you exactly?’

THIRTY-FOUR

My exact location was somewhere close to ‘thoroughly screwed’. I didn’t say as much to Victoria. Instead, I gambled and told her in a rather strained voice that it would be helpful if she and Caitlin could meet me on the theatre stage where Josh had performed his show.

‘The theatre? Are you sure that’s safe?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Charlie, are you all right? You sound a little strange.’

‘Never better,’ I told her, and snapped the phone closed.

I locked eyes with Ricks. There was a coldness and a stillness in his pupils. He was breathing heavily and his ears seemed to twitch, as though they were resonating with the angry thoughts banging around his mind.

I heard movement to my left and was in the process of turning when one of the twins introduced me to the toe of his right shoe, spinning my head around on my shoulders. My vertebrae made the sickening noise of a football rattle, which didn’t strike me as a good sign, and my sight had already blurred before the pain even registered in my temple. I yelped and clutched my hands to my head, trying to protect myself from a follow-up blow. The next two chipped at the base of my skull, as if he was aiming to split my head like a coconut. I tried to roll under the desk but he stomped on the small of my back, then grabbed me by the ankles and heaved me onto the edge of the mosaic.

‘That’s enough,’ Ricks said, but the twin didn’t agree.

A couple more digs were aimed at my kidneys. I wrapped my arms around my chest, curling in on myself. It maybe wasn’t the most heroic of reactions, but I found it impossible to think beyond the instinct.

‘Stealing from us again, huh, guy? What is it with you anyway?’

‘I didn’t steal,’ I yelled, as he kicked at my elbow. ‘Ouch. Stop it. It wasn’t me.’

‘Where’s the list? Where is it, you prick?’

My arm came loose and I snatched it back beneath my body, afraid that he might stomp on my fingers.

‘Aarrgh. Will you listen to me? I don’t have your damn list. I couldn’t get inside your safe.’

The twin shaped to kick me again and I rolled away from the blow. The strike never came. Cautiously, I peered out from under my bicep. The twin was standing on one leg with his foot in the air.

‘What’s that you say?’

‘It wasn’t me. I couldn’t crack your safe.’

‘Oh, sure.’ His face darkened and his foot ratcheted backwards.

‘It’s true,’ I told him. ‘You can search me. I don’t have it.’

The twin watched over me for a moment. I could tell he was tempted to strike me again, but maybe his foot needed a rest.

‘Do it,’ he said to Ricks. ‘Search the prick. Find out if he’s lying.’

Needless to say, after I’d staggered upright, Ricks didn’t find the juice list inside my record bag or on my person or even beneath my Sinatra mask. He did find plenty of evidence to suggest that I’d been tampering with the safe, but there was nothing to prove that I’d been the one to get inside it. Well, nothing other than the fact that the juice list was gone.

One of the items Ricks found among my things was Josh’s wallet, and he flipped it open and checked its contents. As soon as he saw the name printed on the credit cards, he treated me to a suspicious glare and a wag of his head.

‘I found it,’ I told him.

‘Where?’

My face shrugged. ‘His pocket.’

‘You want to explain that?’

‘It was from before he disappeared. The two things are wholly unconnected. I give you my word.’

Ricks snarled, as though he didn’t rate my word very highly, and meanwhile he tucked Josh’s wallet into the inside pocket of his blazer. He pushed my record bag and the Sinatra mask to one side and twirled his finger in the air, gesturing for me to turn. I summoned up my strength and did as he asked, spreading my palms on the surface of the desk. Ricks patted me down until he found my own wallet and the pack of Circus Circus playing cards that I’d taken from Jared’s apartment. When he was satisfied that there was nothing unusual about either of them, he returned them to me.

‘I know who took the list,’ I said.

I leaned against the desk and rubbed at the back of my neck. It felt uncommonly warm, as though I’d ripped a good many muscles. I couldn’t turn it all the way to the right, and if I tried to turn it to the left I feared I’d pass out from the pain. At least it distracted me from the wet gash on my temple, and the way my ribs felt as though they were puncturing my lung each time I breathed. And it sure put my earlier nosebleed into context.

‘Go on,’ said the twin in the club chair. He was still rubbing his toes from his battle with the mosaic hatch. I was almost sorry he hadn’t been the one to start kicking me. I could only guess what injuries he might have sustained.

‘I think it was Josh Masters.’

The twins looked at Ricks. Ricks stroked his beard, turning over my response.

‘What makes you say that?’

‘He was the one who told me about the list.’ I raised a hand to my temple and winced, as though processing the thought was more painful than the ache in my forehead. ‘When we were planning the roulette fix,’ I gasped. ‘He told me where it could be found.’

‘That all?’ asked the twin in the chair.

I met his gaze, which wasn’t easy considering I was seeing two of him. Or was that his brother?

‘He disappeared, didn’t he? He ran when you turned up to his show. He must have thought you were onto him.’

He quit rubbing his toes and sniffed his fingers, recoiling from the smell.

‘You have our money?’

‘Not yet.’

‘So let me get this straight. You figured the smart play was to rip us off?’

‘I was getting desperate.’

‘No shit.’

‘What about your lady pal?’ Ricks cut in. ‘She here too?’

I shook my head. ‘That was her on the phone. I came here alone.’

‘Yeah? Then how’d you open the mosaic?’ He gauged the distance over to the second desk. ‘You’re kind of wiry, but your arms ain’t that long.’

‘I used a Band-Aid to stick down one of the buttons. You saw the box in my bag, right?’

Ricks walked around the rear of the desk I was propped against, checking behind and beneath it. He did the same with the second desk, then moved on past the twin with the up-tempo feet and approached the fireplace. He crouched down and peered up at the chimney, as if he suspected my back-up was Santa Claus. When he didn’t find anyone, he approached the rear of the club chair the twin was sitting in.

‘Listen,’ I said, trying to keep the urgency from my voice. ‘I think I’ve figured out where the juice list is. Where Josh is, too.’

Ricks was still moving towards the space behind the chair. I really didn’t want him to find Sal. It would only complicate matters if he did.

‘Did you hear what I said?’

He smiled benignly and looked down behind the chair. I braced myself for his reaction, not knowing what explanation I could possibly offer. He frowned and bent at the knees and straightened a moment later with something in his hand.

‘This yours?’ he asked, and held up my pencil.

I nodded.

‘You really came here alone?’

‘Cross my heart.’ I gulped. ‘And if you’ll only let me, I really think I can find Josh for you too.’