all fenced off and everything. But you could still go through a whole block without stepping on the sidewalk if you had to.
Solly walked right in the front door. There was a guy at a curved desk made out of some kind of dark marble. He was wearing a blue jacket with “WynterGreene” embroidered in gold letters on the pocket over his heart.
“Mr. Vizner,” he said, smiling.
“Anthony, meet my nephew. Jerome, this is Anthony. He’s in charge of making sure everything around here works the way it’s supposed to.”
The guy in the jacket got a little red in the face, Solly giving him a compliment like that.
“I’m pleased to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand.
The guy in the jacket seemed a little confused, but he finally shook hands with me.
“Gets those manners from his mother,” Solly said, like I’d done something weird.
We walked over to the elevator cars. Three of them were already standing open. Solly made a move with his hand. I got in; he was right behind me.
“This time of night, you want an attended car, you have to signal for one,” he said.
The car stopped on 13. I followed Solly out. We walked on a thick dark carpet until we got to a door with “13F” on a little panel next to it. Solly opened the door with a key.
Inside, it was like a showroom, all brand-new stuff.
“Have a seat,” Solly told me.
I found a chair—I guess it was a chair, because it was only big enough for one person. Solly sat on this little couch-thing.
“Solomon Vizner, that’s me. They know I travel a lot. I tip good. Always pay the maintenance on time; they take it right out of my bank account.”
“What’s maintenance?”
“To keep the place up. The concierge—the guy at the front desk. The guy who shovels the sidewalk, the guy who takes out the garbage, the guy who vacuums the hallways … there’s the taxes, too. Naturally. And if something breaks, they have to fix it.”
“The landlord—”
“I’m the landlord, Sugar. Kind of, anyway. See, I own this unit. That’s what they call them in this place, units.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty good place. I got in when it first opened, almost fifteen years ago. Could’ve sold it for double that a little while back. Now … it’s still worth more than I paid, but that ride’s probably over. Not that I care—I got no reason to sell.”
“But you don’t really live here?”
“Nah. Who could do business in a place like this? They got cameras all around, and if you don’t live here, you have to sign this guest book. Can you see anyone coming to visit me doing that?”
He was right. I couldn’t even see Solly in this place, never mind some of the guys he puts jobs together for. I felt like he wasn’t just showing the place to me, he was showing me respect, too.
“Anyone takes a look in here, it’s like some maid just got finished, right?” he said. “But so what? The building, they give you that service. For extra, of course. That’s a racket. I hire my own. You remember Ken?”
“Yeah,” I said. He was that Irish guy I used to know. Well, maybe not know, exactly. But I looked up to him. Everybody did.
“He’s gone on, God rest the crazy mick bastard’s soul. Ken, he was a good man. Once did a longer stretch than you just wrapped up, never even nibbled at the cheese.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“No. Ken, he was a piece of rebar.”
“You mean tough?”
“Sure, tough. But that’s not what I mean. You pour too much concrete without you got rebar in it, it won’t hold together. That was Ken, see? You have him in on a job, he’s the one who holds it together, even when things go bad. He was doing that, doing just that, when he cashed out.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Armored car. You don’t see much of those anymore, except when there’s an inside man. But this was a straight takedown. Perfect timing. Like a Swiss watch. Only, a squad car just stumbles across it. Shouldn’t’ve happened—we had their patrol route down to the minute. But there they were.
“We had two getaway cars. One was okay, on the far side of the money truck. The other one—the one Ken was supposed to take—it was on the wrong side. The cop car was already past it when they spotted the play. Probably went right to the radio. If Ken ran to the car he was