“I’m sorry.” Beano winced. “Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A tight hole is a secret oil well. You’re supposed to tell the F.E.R.C. if you get positive results, but we agreed not to.” He looked at Tommy. “We proved the field. Our delineation well came in. It was huge. This oil find is incredible! Fentress County Petroleum and Gas is in big financial trouble. They don’t know we proved the field, they’re going to go out of business, and their stock is falling. We’re trying to get a controlling interest before the bank takes them over. Once the bank grabs the company we’re out of luck, because there’ll be an army of bank examiners and—”
Tommy held up his hand to silence Beano. “So you two assholes come to my casino in the Bahamas and steal money to buy this oil company, using crooked dice?” Tommy said, getting his next basic fact.
“It was his idea,” Beano carped, looking at Duffy. “Harry used to do close-hand magic. He discovered the cellophane gas. He said we could do it, it’s just we couldn’t get enough money from the casino to buy the company before you shut us down.”
“How can I believe all of this?” Tommy said, beginning to get interested.
“We’ve got the oil core drilling samples. They’re at the service company warehouse,” Beano said. “Donovan Martin, who owns the platform drilling company, has got ‘em.”
Tommy picked up the stock certificates from the floor and table, then gathered up the seismic graphs, the drawings, and the glossy printed brochure. “Let’s go see,” he finally said. “If this is all true … you guys just got yourselves a new partner.”
TWENTY - TWO
GOING WITH THE FLOW
VICTORIA HAD BEEN CROUCHING IN THE FRONT SEAT OF Beano’s blue and white Winnebago, deep in the parking lot of the Fresno Mud Flat Marina. She had a brand-new Nikon long-lens camera on her lap and a copy of that day’s Fresno Herald on the dash in front of her as Beano had instructed. She’d been sitting there for almost two hours, thinking about the last several days.
Her mind was a mixture of conflicting thoughts and emotions. She wasn’t at all sure what she was doing there, but at the same time, she knew this was where she belonged. She was glad to be avenging Carol’s death and to be a part of the plot to bring the Rina brothers down, but she resented her minor role in the adventure. So far, all she’d done was stand in the parking lot of the Sabre Bay Club waiting for the phone to ring so that she could give Duffy’s phony credit rating, and now she was waiting in Beano’s Winnebago with the new long-lens camera, waiting for Tommy to show up while Beano and Duffy told the tale in the houseboat. She could see how it worked now. The inside men were the important players in the con, there was no doubt about it. Everybody else was a shill or a lugger and performed a minor role. She was not used to the sidelines, and it bothered her. She understood that Tommy would recognize her if he saw her, but that fact didn’t help. She had always been in control of everything in her life, from her pep squad in high school to moot court in law school. She had been the quarterback on the fifty or so felony cases she tried in the D.A.’s office. She was not good at holding other people’s coats and was determined not to let that be her role in this situation.
Still, she had to admit that, so far, it had been the most invigorating experience of her life. She had enjoyed chasing the ambulance in the Bahamas more than she dared admit. She had relived it in her mind countless times, all the way up to the moment she pulled up alongside and yanked the wheel, spinning the van sideways and then slamming it into the speeding ambulance. There was something very freeing about the loss of control, like letting fresh air into a stuffy room. She knew the pictures she was supposed to take now would be critical later, and she was looking forward to her confrontation in two days with Joe Rina. It would be a chance to finally score a few points on that elegant piece of shit. As these thoughts were going through her mind, a black Lincoln limousine pulled into the parking