the X. You’ll have to get one of our cousins from around here to help you make contact. We need to put the mark in play by Sunday. Once we run the tat, we don’t want to give him any time to think.”
They moved to the ornate elevator and went down to inspect the floor below.
“I’m gonna put the big conference room down here for when we run the fire sale,” Paper Collar John said grinning, and Beano nodded.
John handed him some airline tickets. “I had these messengered over from the hotel. You and Victoria are booked to Miami at six tonight. You gotta buy your tickets to the Bahamas from there. The Customs Shed at Sabre Bay closes at five and the last flight gets in at four-thirty, so you’ll have to go over to the island tomorrow afternoon. Duffy’s already there with Dakota. They took a peek at the casino, and they think the tat’s gonna work fine in the main room, ground level. There’s a High-roller room on ten, but they didn’t want to run the risk of staying in there too long, so they didn’t try to case it.”
“Okay, good,” Beano said, as they moved out of the twenty-fourth floor, got in the elevator, and descended to street level.
“I’ll be staying at the Stanford Court, so you can reach me there,” John continued as they rode down. “I’ll keep you up on how I’m doing. Don’t worry; even though it’s short notice, one way or another, I’ll be dressed and ready when the ball drops.”
Because Beano always liked to have a second way out of any location, he checked the ground-level fire door on the east side of the building as a possible “blow-off” escape route. He disarmed the alarm with his pocket knife before he opened the door. Then he swung it wide … and found himself looking straight at Texaco Phillips! The big ex-linebacker was leaning against a pole, holding a newspaper, pretending to be reading while he watched the front entrance. He looked directly over at Beano, but no recognition registered on his huge, flat face.
“Hi,” Beano said, smiling.
“Hi,” Texaco said back.
“Just checking the fire doors.” Beano made a big show of carefully checking the latch. He worked the mechanism once. “That’s a big okey-dokey,” he said to the mechanism happily, then closed the door. He turned with panic on his face and looked at John and Victoria. “We’re fucked,” he said.
“We’re what?” Victoria said.
“That steroid jockey that Joe Rina keeps for a pet. He’s right out there.”
“Texaco Phillips?” Victoria asked, amazed.
Beano nodded. “He’s out there, watching the front entrance. This jerk-off is actually hiding behind a newspaper like some character from a Bogart movie.”
“Whatta we gonna do?” John asked, worried.
“Upstairs,” Beano said.
They moved quickly back to the elevators and punched the button. Victoria was holding Roger. Sweat was forming on Beano’s face and neck, as he waited for the elevator. The panic he often felt about Joseph Rina now enveloped him. When he’d seen Texaco Phillips, adrenaline hit his heart like a shot of cold piss. He could barely catch his breath. When the elevator arrived, he pushed twenty-five and they rode up in the plush antique-mirrored car. Nobody said anything. Beano tried to get his unreasonable panic under control. How could he possibly run a complex game against Joe Rina if the mere sight of his dumb, ugly bodyguard threw him into such distress?
When the elevator door opened on twenty-five they got out and moved into the office and locked the lobby door. Beano was badly shaken.
“Are you okay?” John finally asked, noticing the trembling.
“I’m fine,” Beano lied.
“How could he be here?” Victoria asked. “We didn’t tell anybody but Dakota we were coming out here.”
“Dakota didn’t finger us,” Beano said immediately.
“How do you know? Just because you’ve still got a thing for her? Maybe she’s mad at you.”
“It’s not Dakota,” he said again, and this time his voice was angry, exacerbated by the adrenaline coursing through his body. His tone said that the subject was closed. “It’s something else.”
“You don’t know that,” Victoria pressed. “Somebody had to tell him. That moron isn’t telepathic; I deposed him. He needs instructions to get his pants on.”
“Dakota and Duffy don’t even know about this building,” John said softly. “I didn’t tell them about it yet, so Texaco didn’t get it from them.” It was unassailable logic and Beano was grateful that it shut her up.
He turned to John. “Maybe he just spotted you. Have