disconnected the battery. The case is safe but not what's in it. Look at this."
She unlatched the case and opened it. It was lined side to side with stacks of hundred-dollar bills bundled in cellophane and marked with a " 50 " in thick black ink. She watched as Leo's mouth dropped open and then a look of dismay crossed his face. They both knew that seeing a case full of cash of high denomination was not immediate cause for celebration. It was not the pot of gold at the end of every thief's rainbow. Rather, it was cause for concern and suspicion. Like a trial attorney who never asks a question of a witness that he doesn't already know the answer to, professional thieves never steal blind, taking something they do not know the consequences for stealing. Legal consequences are not the issue. The concern is over consequences of a more serious kind.
It was a good ten seconds before Leo managed to speak.
"Fuck…"
"Yeah…"
"Fuck…"
"I know…"
"You count this?"
Cassie nodded.
"I counted the bricks. There are fifty of them. If that fifty on each one means what it looks like it means, then you're looking at two-and-a-half million in cash. He didn't win this money, Leo. He came to Vegas with it."
"Hold on, hold on a minute. Let's think about this for a minute."
Cassie started unconsciously massaging her sore elbow.
"What is there to think about? They don't pay you at the cashier's cage in fifty-thousand-dollar bricks wrapped in plastic. He didn't win this money in Vegas. Period, Leo. He brought it with him. It's a payoff of some kind. Maybe drugs. Maybe something else. But we took it – I took it – before it was delivered. I mean this guy, the mark, he was just an errand boy. He didn't even have a key to the case on him. He was just going to deliver it and probably didn't even know what was in it himself."
"He didn't have a key?"
"Leo, have you heard anything I've said? I got knocked on my ass trying to open this with picks. Would I do that if I had the guy's key?"
"Sorry, sorry, I forgot, okay?"
"I took the guy's keys. He had a key that opened the cuffs but none to the briefcase."
Leo dropped into his chair as Cassie put her backpack on the desk and started digging through it. She took out four rubber-banded stacks of hundreds and put them down.
"This is what he won. A hundred and a quarter. And half of the info you got from the spotter or your partners was for shit."
She snaked her hand back into the bag. She brought out the wallet she had taken off the bed table in room 2014 and tossed it to him.
"Guy's name isn't Hernandez and he isn't from Texas."
Leo opened the wallet and looked at the Florida driver's license behind the plastic window.
"Manuel Hidalgo," he said. "Miami."
"He's got business cards in there. He's a lawyer for something called the Buena Suerte Group."
Leo shook his head in the negative but he did it too quickly. More like he was trying to shake the information off than deny knowledge of it. Cassie didn't say anything at first. She put her palms flat on the desk and leaned down, looking at him with a face that said she saw the move and wanted to know what he knew. Leo glanced out at his pool and Cassie followed his eyes. She could see the hose of the automatic vacuum moving slowly on the surface, the vacuum somewhere down below.
He looked back at her.
"I didn't know a fucking thing about this, Cass, I swear."
"I believe you about the money, Leo. What about Buena Suerte? Tell me what you know."
"It's big money. Cubans from Miami."
"Legit money?"
Leo hiked his shoulders in a gesture that suggested the answer could go either way.
"They're trying to buy the Cleo," he said.
Cassie dropped heavily into the chair opposite Leo.
"It was a payoff on the license. I stole a fucking payoff. "
"Let's just think about this."
"You keep saying that, Leo."
She laid her injured arm across her body.
"Well, what else are we going to do? We have to think this out."
"Who were these people you did this for? You wouldn't tell me before. But you have to tell me now."
Leo nodded but then stood up. He went to the sliding door and opened it, then moved out by the pool. He stood at the edge and looked down at the vacuum gliding silently along the bottom.