The next day Max and Kelly Jo were both off work, so they decided to scout the casino again. Max put on a little fake mustache and wraparound sunglasses to go with his Panama hat and cargo shorts. Kelly Jo wore a long dress with sleeves, a summer hat with a huge brim, and cats- eye glasses. At 11:00 a.m. they came off the ferry through the tourist metal detectors, walked up the hill and straight into the casino entrance. It was the usual sort of interior: cashiers along one wall, slot machines all through the middle, blackjack, poker, and craps grouped in the back. No windows, no clocks, and so many surveillance cameras that they weren’t worth counting. The space was already jammed with people. They moved along like they were older than they really were, maybe just a touch confused. They stopped at a bar and ordered a drink.
“How many supervisors do you think?” Max asked.
“No more than usual. And no more than last time.”
“I know. And the security officers aren’t hiding.”
“And Cassady, the assistant manager, he’s not mob material. He’s just a regular old vanilla hospitality manager.”
Max sipped his beer. “So how is this place a money laundry?”
“If that’s not the job, what is the job?”
“We’re collecting the info to rob the rooms. We know that for a fact. But there’s nothing that anyone would put in a room safe that’s valuable enough to go to this much trouble. So that has to be the side hustle.”
“Or just more misdirection,” Kelly Jo said.
“Exactly.”
“And robbing the casino is a nonstarter.”
He nodded. “Gates at the cashiers’ windows. Private security right here on the island. Wouldn’t even need a minute hand to time off the armed-response team.”
“And if miracles on top of miracles you open the vault—”
“Can’t be done.”
“But if—that’s all I’m saying. You still can’t get off the island using the ferry,” Kelly Jo said.
“You’d get trapped in the kill box.”
“Or they’d hold the ferry until the police arrived.”
“So whatever the real game is, you have to take it off by boat,” Max said.
“Or helicopter.”
“And either way, there is no room for the so-called diversion crew that is supposed to pretend to rob the casino. They’d all have to be left behind.”
“Dead or in jail.”
“It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Not yet.”
They walked out of the casino and down toward the VIP marina. “Lots of places to land a helicopter,” she said. “Behind the hotel, right down in front, back by the cabins on the east side.”
“You could hover it over the top of the hotel, so long as you didn’t set down.”
A number of pleasure boats were moored in the marina. One unarmed security guard stood in a kiosk by the walkway. “There’s no real security down here,” Kelly Jo said.
“Management isn’t worried about the VIPs. Besides, the water is just too shallow for a large craft. The biggest boat out here, you might cram ten people aboard.”
They sat down on a bench overlooking the water. “What about hijacking the rental pontoon boat?”
Max shook his head. “Not fast enough. You’d be chased down by a speed boat.”
Four young men, drinks in hand, sauntered toward them, talking loudly about their afternoon plans. One of the men, his golf shirt partially untucked, elbowed his nearest friend and then pointed at Max and Kelly Jo. He dug into his pocket and came out with a wad of wrinkled cash. “Hey, lady, what do you want for that hat?”
His buddy put one hand over his face and started sniggering. The other two guys turned to see what was going on.
Kelly Jo smiled vacantly. “My hat’s not for sale, young man.”
Max cut in. “Have you got nothing better to do than bother a lady?”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” the young man said. “Twenty dollars. I’ll give you twenty dollars.”
One of the other guys stepped into the middle with his hands in surrender mode. “Sorry. Don’t pay any attention to him.” He turned to the guy holding the wad of cash. “You want to get us kicked out of here? Let’s go.”
“I’m just asking.”
They led him away, his other friend still laughing. They took the path down among the boats. Max shook his head. “Casino resorts.”
“Exactly,” Kelly Jo said. “Lots of employees, lots of drunks, lots of distracted people. Koenig’s bringing in his people on the ferry. On Saturday. This place will be jammed with visitors. If there’s enough confusion, most of his people could just blend back in.”
“So all you need is transportation for the people who are carrying the haul. Duffel bags of money? Six guys? Jewels? Less than that. What if he’s just tapping into the computer and moving money electronically? Two or three guys could just run down here to a boat like they’re afraid for their lives and voila! They’re gone.”
“So we don’t care about the casino.”
“No, we don’t,” Max said. “But we do need to know what’s happening on the island. We have to land Koenig’s gear—best spot we’ve found is at the east cabins. And we have to have a place to meet our partner.”
“There’s got to be a place at the back of the island. We just haven’t found it yet. Who’re you thinking about bringing in to help?”
“Anders lives near here. He knows weapons, cars, and he can drive a boat.”
“He’s not too smart.”
“But he can follow directions.”
“You’re right. And he’s easy to work with.”
“That’s because he’s got a crush on you.”
“Please—”
Max chuckled. “Don’t deny it.”
Kelly Jo stood up. “We done here?”
“You trying to change the subject?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do another count on the security guards around the building.”
At 1:00 p.m., Lulu and JB sat at a picnic table in the employees’ area by the landscapers’ garages, finishing their lunch. The other tables were empty, except for a group of maids seated at the only table under the shade tree. “Did you see Max and Kelly Jo earlier?” Lulu asked.
“Max isn’t working today.”
“Kelly Jo, either. They were dressed up—in disguises. I saw them walk by the front of the hotel going toward the marina.”
“Really? You sure it was them?”
“Definitely.”
“What were they doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think we’re fooling them?” JB asked.
“I’m pretty sure she’s buying the jealousy story I’m selling.”
“How so?”
“She lied about fucking Cassady to cover up for me.”
“True. And he went all defensive when I snapped at him for asking about you.”
“So there you have it,” Lulu said.
“The boss said they’re master manipulators. That we can’t believe anything about them.”
“Well, we’re master manipulators, aren’t we? The boss chose us to close the deal. So he must believe we can do it.”
“We can’t get overconfident. We need to keep them off balance until we’ve got all the valuables from the safes,” JB said.
“The codebook, you mean?”
“Well, yeah. But that’s the boss’s. I still want to empty as many of the other safes as we can.”
“To share?”
“To keep for ourselves. It’ll be a tidy little bonus. We can blame the loss on Max and Kelly Jo after we kill them.”
Lulu wrapped the remaining third of her sandwich in its wrapper. “Why do we have to kill them? That just seems like extra risk.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. You just have to help me wrangle them. Do your talking, make them feel comfortable. I’ll do the rest.”
“Okay, I can do that.”
&n
bsp; “That’s all I’m asking.” He crumpled up his sandwich wrapper and shoved it into his empty cup. “I’ve got to get back. Crier has been on the warpath lately.”
A few hours later, Max and Kelly Jo were on the ferry back to Bathsheba City, sitting out in the open at the front, hiding in plain sight. Even though a heavy bank of clouds was rolling in, most of the other passengers were on the upper deck. Tourists were taking pictures of the island and the Bathsheba City marina, where a crowd was already waiting to make the trip to the island. Max’s phone rang. It was Zeb, a criminal supply contractor they used when they didn’t use Billy. Weapons, information, criminal contacts—he was the one-stop shop.
“Hey, buddy, what’s up?”
“I did that checking,” Zeb said. “Appears Solomon Island is a Smithson laundry. Drugs, gambling, chop-shop money come in on different days in different amounts.”
“No way to know ahead of time?”
“Money is coming in all the time. What amount on what day? You’d have to be involved pretty high up.”
“Thanks.”
He put away his phone. “Things just got complicated.” He leaned over to Kelly Jo and whispered what he learned.
“So it may be as advertised,” Kelly Jo said.
“Maybe. I still don’t believe it. Too much effort. Too many ways to go wrong.”
“But we can’t count it out.”
“No, we can’t.”
They sat silently for the rest of the ferry ride. They were the first ones off the ferry and into the parking lot. As they crossed the asphalt to their car, Kelly Jo said, “What about Lulu and JB? Do you think they are who they appear to be?”
Max pressed the fob to unlock their Cadillac. “I don’t know. We know she’s a hustler, and he’s a computer guy, but the rest of it? If they aren’t who they seem to be, they know what they’re doing. Either way, we’re going to play along and not let our guard down.”
They got into the Cadillac and headed back toward the Treasure Cove Tourist Court. Max’s Koenig phone rang. He put it on speaker.
“Yeah?”
“How are you doing, my boy?”
“Just fine.”
“I hear from our mutual friends that you all have found out everything we need to know for the big day.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Do you know where we’ll bring our gear in?”
“Nothing’s ideal, but the best spot is at the old cabins on the east side.”
“When?”
“We want to avoid discovery, so this is last minute.”
“I agree, but not too last minute.”
“I’ll keep an eye out to make sure it’s safe. Then I’ll be in touch.”
“Good enough.” Koenig ended the call.
Kelly Jo pulled into the left turn lane at the traffic light. “So he really does need the gear.”
“He’s following his MO. Every group is compartmentalized. But it does look like he’s assembling a large team. He probably really is planning to use the casino robbery as a diversion. And Lulu and JB are probably really planning to rob the room safes. But the real score? We still don’t have any idea, so we’ve got to take every precaution.”
3
The Countdown
The next evening, Max and Kelly Jo were waiting for Anders in a Caffeination coffee shop at the strip mall near Bathsheba Community College. Most of the tables were taken up with students working on laptops, but they found a table back near the restroom. Anders raised a hand when he spotted them. He was a small, wiry man with a red-gray ponytail. He wore garage coveralls with the name Jones embroidered on the breast pocket.
He smiled as he pulled out a chair to sit down. “The mister and the missus. Good to hear from you. How you been?”
“It’s all good,” Kelly Jo said.
“Got a little something you might want to join in on,” Max said.
“I was hoping. Give me the outline.”
“Not sure how the money is going to go. We could guarantee ten grand or you could come in for a fifth share.”
“Which could be what?”
“Maybe as much as thirty-two thousand.”
“Now you’re talking.”
“No guarantees.”
“In this life? Nothing’s guaranteed except dying alone.”
“So you’re in?”
“I’ve never seen you set up a second-rate job.”
“There’s a lot of ifs in this one. We’re doing something out on Solomon Island that involves some other players. You’re part of our backup plan. We’re going to need a boat, a clean car, a storage locker, safe house, and heavy gear.”
“When?”
“Nine days, more or less. Right now we’re planning for the Saturday.”
“I can do that. What kind of gear we talking about?”
“Automatic rifles big enough to scare, heavy bulletproof vests in case we need to use them. Here’s a list. Plus the breakdown for the other items.”
“No problem. The expenses come out of the pot?”
“Always.” Max pushed an envelope of money across the table. “That should get you started.”
Anders glanced in the envelope. “I’m guessing you needed all this stuff lined up yesterday?”
Max nodded.
Anders turned to Kelly Jo. “Always a pleasure to see you.” He reached over the table to Max. They shook hands. “The phone number you gave me good?”
Max nodded.
“I’ll be in touch.”
They finished their coffees while they gave Anders a few minutes to drive away.
The next day, at the Ridgeway Avenue house, Hernandez backed into the garage with a truckload of constructions materials. Day laborers he’d hired from the Home Depot parking lot that morning were down in the basement building a room in the corner that contained the toilet and sink. They had already framed up the walls and were setting the electrical outlets in preparation for the drywall. He called down the stairs to them. Two men came up, grabbed a sheet of drywall, and carried it downstairs, where they pushed it up against the inside wall of the new room. Another man started screwing the drywall in place. As soon as he was done, a man with a saw cut out a spot for a window, while the first two men went upstairs for another sheet of drywall.
Raymond stood in the middle of the space, supervising. “It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it does have to be strong.”
His cellphone rang. “How’s it going?” Koenig asked.
“Speeding along. We’re not taping the drywall, so we’ll be painting tomorrow.”
“Excellent.”
“But what’s it for? What does it have to do with our plan?”
“You know I’m not going to tell you yet. Don’t think too hard about it. It’s just part of our insurance policy.” Koenig ended the call.
Raymond went upstairs into the kitchen. Hernandez stood at the sink, drinking a glass of water. “These guys are doing great.”
Hernandez set his glass on the counter. “What did I tell you? It’s easy to find good workers if you know where.”
Raymond glanced out into the living room. Everyone else was working in the basement. “So what’s your angle?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you’re not working for twenty-five grand.”
Hernandez stuck his thumbs into his belt. “You got something to say?”
“We could go in together. I’m not greedy. We could even kick more money down to the other guys, if that’s what you want.”
“You think there’s that much money that’s not the casino?”
“Has to be. There’s too many moving parts on this job for it to be pocket change.”
“How do I know this isn’t a test? That Koenig isn’t just wanting to know whether he needs to kill me instead of pay me?”
“You’ve worked on four jobs for the old man.”
Hernandez nodded.
“How many people ended up being paid?”
“Not very
many.”
“So you’re good at staying out of the way at the right time and also knowing where the real meet-up is going to take place,” Raymond said.
“Easy to do if you’re holding the score.”
“But you won’t be holding the score this time. I will.”
“So why do you want to help me?”
“Because you’re going to try to steal the score, just like me. I’m the closest to Koenig. I’m going to know all the details that he’s willing to share. But I need a partner to close the deal. I can’t be everywhere at once. And if Koenig gets shy with me, he’s going to have to rely on somebody. I’m betting that somebody is you. Between the two of us, we’ll know everything. That makes us natural partners.”
“Okay, hermano, if we’re partners, you tell me who we’re planning to hold in the cell we’re building in the basement.”
“I don’t know yet.”
“I see.”
“But as soon as I do know, you will. Just like anything else I find out. I share with you. You share with me. Partners.”
Hernandez nodded. “Okay, then. Partners.”
Over the next week, Cassady pestered Lulu and Kelly Jo for another threesome, this time at his apartment in town, but they kept making promises and excuses. Max and Kelly Jo continued to walk the island whenever they had the chance, but they didn’t notice anything that would help them figure out what was really happening on Saturday. JB continued being taciturn and argumentative, and Lulu kept up her charm offensive, neither set of behaviors causing Max or Kelly Jo to let down their guard.
Finally, on the Wednesday before the Saturday heist, as Max and Kelly Jo drove back to the tourist court after supper, Max took out the Koenig phone. “It’s time to land Koenig’s gear. It doesn’t make any sense to put it off any longer.”
“We could still run,” Kelly Jo said. “We don’t know what the job is. We don’t know how much danger we’re in.”
“We’re in the maximum amount of danger. That’s the amount we’re always in when we don’t know how much danger we’re in.”
“Like I said, we could still run.”
“Don’t you want to know what this job is about? JB doesn’t know. Lulu doesn’t know.”
The Casino Switcheroo Page 5