“Four could probably do it,” Hardman said. “Me and three others. We pick ’em up out on Mass Avenue and then trade off on the tail job. We can use phones to stay in touch. But you ain’t got no idea where she’s gonna go?”
“None.”
“Need a moving van then.”
“Why?” I said.
“You get four colored boys pulling up before some house in a white neighborhood and getting out of two cars and moving up to that house and you got law. Especially if you have to rush out of there with two white girls. But with a moving van, us dressed in white coveralls, and maybe a pick-up truck for the wheel man — one of those fancy jobs that don’t carry much and are built like a sedan almost, it could work okay.”
“Can you get the three you need?” Padillo said.
Hardman looked down at the toe of his right shoe and polished it against the back of his left leg. “This ain’t gonna be no cheapie.”
“We’ll take care of the money,” I said.
“Might run you high — ten, fifteen thousand. That includes any — well, any accidents that might happen.”
“Make it fifteen thousand and if it costs any more we’ll take care of it,” Padillo said.
“Hardman looked at Betty. “What you think, honey?”
“You use Mush, Tulip and Nineball, it cost you that.”
“I was thinking of them.”
“We need Mush for something else,” Padillo said.
“We get Johnny Jay then,” Hardman said.
“We want to stay in touch with you from the time you pick Sylvia up until the time you’re done,” Padillo said. “Will phones work?”
“We set up a conference call and keep it goin till we’re done.”
“Operators listen in?” I asked.
“Ain’t the operators you have to worry about. Those mobile phones are seventy-five-man party lines. You get an hour’s worth of calls a month for six dollars. After that it’s about thirty cents for ten minutes and after that ten cents a minute.”
“Can you make a conference call?” Padillo said.
“Sure.”
“And keep it going for as long as you want?”
“You payin for it; you can talk for hours.”
“Then what we say can’t make any sense.”
“That shouldn’t be hard.”
“What about getting the phones installed?”
Hardman sighed. “I already got one in mine, so you can use my car. Mush got one in his. That takes care of two. We gonna have to get two more — one in the truck and one in the pickup. That’ll cost us a little. Have to get a man to juggle some orders at the telephone company, but I know the man to get hold of.” He paused and looked at his shoes again. “Have to get the trucks and get them painted, think up a name for the moving company, call it Acme or something like that. How about Four-Square?”
“Fine,” I said.
“How many you think’s gonna be in this place we gotta get Fredl and Missy here out of?” Hardman said.
“Two, maybe three,” Padillo said.
“They gonna put up a fuss?”
“You can count on it.”
“After we find out where it’s at, how soon we go in?”
“As soon as whoever brings her there leaves,” Padillo said.
“Where you want us to take em, once we get ’em out?”
“My place, Hard,” Betty said. “I get Doctor Lambert down to look at his wife.”
“You wanta meet these boys who gonna work with me?”
“What do you think?” Padillo asked.
“They might be wanting a little advance.”
“All right. Let’s meet tomorrow afternoon on Seventh Street. That okay?”
“Two o’clock Sunday?” Hardman said.
“Fine.”
“One thing,” I said to Hardman, “no hot cars.”
“You ain’t making it no easier.”
“No cops,” I said.
“I couldn’t see too good, but looks like a couple of them are camped outside right now,” Hardman said. “They for you or somebody else?”
“They just want to make sure Padillo gets home all right.”
“They don’t look like metros.”
“They aren’t; they’re FBI,” I said.
“They ain’t in on this, is they?”
“No. They’ll be out of the picture by Monday.”
“I sure don’t want no Federals,” Hardman said. “They nothin but bad times.”
“They’ll be out,” I said.
He turned to Sylvia. “Missy, you bein awful quiet over there.”
She smiled. “It’s going so fast. I suppose I’m really not used to it.”
“You be all right,” he said. “The Hard-man’ll take care of you.”
“There’s one other thing, Hardman,” Padillo said.
“What’s that?”
“Sylvia is going to drive out to the trade mission on Massachusetts, get out of her car, and go in. If they don’t bring her out in thirty minutes, I want you to go in and get her.”
“Uh-huh,” Hardman said. “Now that’s where the power is?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s where all those African ofays are?”
“Yes.”
“Price have to go up on that.” He held up a big hand. “Not me now. I go in after her and all. But the other three might get a little dicey unless there’s a bonus.”
“There’ll be one, if you have to go in.”
“They got a back way out of that place — alley entrance maybe?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “You’d better check it out.”
“I’ll do that tomorrow,” he said.
“Like another drink?” I asked.
He looked at his watch. “It’s two-thirty now. I gotta start roundin up these folks. We best be goin.” They rose and I got up and brought them their coats.
“Nice meetin you, Missy,” Hardman said to Sylvia.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t you worry about nothin.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Hardman and Betty were at the door when the big man turned. “What you gonna use Mush for, baby?” he asked Padillo.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“He wants to learn that sidestep thing you did on him real bad.”
“I’ll teach it to him.”
“How those three friends of yours workin out?”
“About like I expected.”
“Mush gonna be round them?”
“Probably.”
“He be a good man for that.”
“That’s what I thought,” Padillo said.
Hardman turned to me. “We’ll get Fredl out okay, Mac.”
“I believe it.”
“See you Sunday about two. Hell, it’s already Sunday.” They left quickly.
I walked over to the bar and poured a drink for myself. “Care for a nightcap?”
“If that’s a hint, I’ll take it,” Padillo said. I poured him one.
“Sylvia?”
“No thank you.”
I handed Padillo his drink and said: “You cut it a little thin, didn’t you?”
“On the half-hour thing?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think so. They’ll move fast, once Sylvia gets in. They should have her out within fifteen minutes. If it’s more than a half-hour, then they’ll be thinking of doing something else.”
“I was just thinking about your two friends waiting patiently in that car downstairs,” I said. “If Hardman had been sent by your mythical Portuguese, he could have taken the elevator up, done you in leisurely, had a couple of drinks, and then gone home to bed. If they’re protection, they don’t add up to much.”
“Did you get a good look at them?” he asked.
“No.”
“They won’t be the same ones who were at the bar earlier. We lost them in Georgetown.”
“We went out a back door,” Sylvia said.
“Who are they?”
“I’d like to make sure.” He finished his drink and stood up. “You care to join me?”