He made a deal with Shalgren. Get the money and bring it to Biloxi for an even split after expenses.
Shalgren was picked up. It took two days to break him. He had followed the wrong girl. He thought she didn’t seem the type, but she was young and blonde, and the unremarkable coincidence of two similar names in a huge hotel never occurred to him. He got hold of a woman who would do exactly as she was told. He staked her out close to the hotel. He got to her the second evening, taking money and room key. Shalgren’s woman, for her hundred dollar fee, checked out the luggage and turned it over to Shalgren at Penn Station. When he checked it over, he saw something was wrong.
After it was all over, and Shalgren had been given a six-year sentence, Argen had coffee with Willy Brock. Argen complained about the cases he was being assigned to lately.
“You want another one like the Matthews deal?”
“Not right away, Willy. You know, I keep thinking how sweet that would have been if Shalgren had clubbed the right girl, and hit her just a little harder. Nobody reports her missing. The name is a fake. She’d already checked out of the hotel. A real clean operation, with no loose ends. It seems kind of too bad.”
“Paul,” Willy said, “sometimes I think you got a criminal mind.”
Argen stared at him with exaggerated shock. “You just finding that out? That’s why we’re both good in this business.”
“Me too?”
Argen got up heavily. “Sure. So far you’re on the petty theft level, but with time and a little luck, maybe you’ll work your way up.”
“Maybe all the way to sergeant?”
“Even that.”
After Argen had left, Brock realized that once again his nearly new pack of cigarettes had disappeared from the table top.
