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FOURTEEN
We ditched the VW about a half-mile from where I&039;d left my car We walked in silence, Lou all sullen I dropped him at his motorcycle and sent him back to Orlando with some instructions I needed hiet hold of you?" he asked
I gave him Ma&039;s number and waved bye The Harley thundered away like the end of the world I found a phone at an Exxon station Time to put Benny&039;s information to use
I dialed Ji but sounded sleepy I apologized for ruining his nap
"Hookman, what&039;s the latest?"
Alot a lead, Jimmy"
"What is it?"
"I don&039;t want to talk about it on the phone"
"Nobody ever does"
"It&039;s important"
"Okay, Charlie-boy Make the drive I&039;ll be waiting"
The drive froolf course coe of Orlando where Jimmy lived, took just a hair over two hours I wanted this to be over quick If Stan were on ice in the warehouse Benny had told rab Stan out of there- dead or alive
Wedgeas an up-and-co white houses that all looked more or less the saood schools, safe and clean A place where the residents didn&039;t have to worry about guys like me and Jimmy I parked in the driveway behind his Cadillac
I knocked, and he letfat tub of goo
"Hey, Charlie, co roo The Wizard of Oz on video It was near the beginning of the film, and the house had just landed on the witch "That&039;s my son, Jiave lued his eyes back to the tube
"The tin man&039;s my favorite," I said
"I like the monkeys," said the kid
"The what?"
"The monkeys"
"What for?"
"They fly"
"They only fly when the witch tells them to How about the lion?"
"He can&039;t fly"
"There&039;s , kid"
"You look like shit, Charlie," said Ji out, no sleep
"Coot coffee"
I followed Jimmy into the kitchen and slumped at his table He pouredJi said 100 Italian For a second it was like ere two buddies,But I forgot all that when Jiet down to business
"I ht knohere Stan is"
Jiar has Stan, Benny had an idea where they ht have stashed him"
"Where&039;s Benny now?"
"He&039;s not in the picture anymore," I said
He knew better than to ask more about it I told him about the warehouse in Bithlo Jimmy nodded, said he knew the place That oods in and out of the city I didn&039;t know too much about that end of the operation, but I&039;d heard there arehouses and storage sheds all over the city full of hot televisions, car radios, leather jackets, tires, compact discs and booze
"Charlie"
"Yeah?"
Ji "All that stuff you said about sticking by Stan That&039;s all true, so I&039; to help you, okay? But there&039;sto help you"
"What?"
"Larry Cartwright"
Another of Stan&039;s lieutenants "What about Larry Cartwright?"
"He&039;s dead"
"How?"
"What&039;s it matter? I called his house, his office, and his cell phone like maybe five hundred tiar&039;s tri the fat I don&039;t feel as safe as I did last time we talked"
Good I hated to be a hardass, but trouble for Jimmy meant he was ot to face up to the fact that Stan "
I was painfully aware of that possibility but didn&039;t say anything
"There&039;s so you don&039;t know about" Jimmy lowered his voice and leaned forward For afrom the other room "The stash"
"What the hell&039;s the stash?"
"Money," said Jimmy "Soidea what you&039;re talking about"
"Forgive s Orlando is a juicy territory We were raking in money hand over fist, so much we didn&039;t knohat to do with it Well, we can&039;t have the Feds and the IRS and everyone breathing down our backs all the tiht? We can only launder the money so fast, and we could onlypeople suspicious So Stan just started stockpiling the cash He didn&039;t kno to get rid of it or launder it any faster"
"How long&039;s this been going on?"
"Four,in suitcases and trunks and trucks"
I shook on&039;s horde iot to do with finding Stan?"
"I&039;ht not be findable In which case we got to look out for ourselves" Ji rooot fa stack of cash could set us up in the Bahamas, Spain, Australia"
I chewedabout it "We look for Stan Maybe we find so at a tih"
"Nohat?" I asked
"I think I knoay to get us close to that warehouse I got to ot any medical tape? Maybe some iodine?"
"You okay?"
"Just a scrape"