“You wish to hear my plan, Ilya?”
“I know I say do not tell me. I have a change of mind about some things. Now I wish you to tell how you get rid of the car and get our money. Do not tell me more than that.”
“Okay, Ilya,” he said. “I shall be at the house of Farley at seven o’clock to help truck driver to take away the car. I shall give to truck driver fifty dollars to call me when he get the car to junkyard of Gregori. If he do not call me, I shall know that police have him and stolen car he is towing. Then we take our money and our diamonds and fly to San Francisco and never come back.”
She said, “But maybe yesterday or today Farley has found the car or found our money and made call to police and they are there to wait for you.”
“If I do not phone you at seven-thirty that all is okay, you take taxi to airport and fly to San Francisco with diamonds. And God bless you. Please have good life. I shall never tell the police nothing about you. Never.”
“You take big risk, Cosmo.”
“Yes, but I think is okay. I think Farley and Olive do not look in garage or under house. All they look for is drugs. Nothing else.”
“How you can be sure that Farley and Olive will not be there at the house when you go there at seven o’clock, Cosmo?”
“Now you ask question you say you not wish to know.”
“You are correct. Do not tell me.”
The unanswered question had a simple answer. Cosmo was going to phone Farley to arrange a business meeting and then arrive at Farley’s at six P.M., carrying a canvas bag. In the bag he would have his gun, a roll of duct tape and a kitchen knife that he had sharpened when Ilya had gone to the liquor store for cigarettes. If Farley and Olive were at home, he would knock, be admitted on the pretext of paying the blackmail money, take them prisoner at gunpoint and tape their wrists and their mouths. Then cut their throats. Just another addict murder, the police would think. Probably a drug deal gone bad.
If for some reason Farley and Olive could not be home at the appointed hour, there was an alternate plan that involved the spare key to the junkyard. They would be lured there tomorrow by a call from Gregori about buying more key cards. Cosmo would ambush them there and dispose of their bodies somewhere in east Los Angeles. Just another addict murder.
As for the car, if the tow driver phoned his cell, telling him that the towing had been accomplished, Cosmo would go to Gregori’s junkyard on Monday morning and tell Gregori he’d changed his mind about repairing the car and ask him to crush the Mazda for scrap. For one thousand dollars cash Cosmo was sure that Gregori would ask no questions and do it.
He could not see a flaw in his plan. It was foolproof. He wished that Ilya would permit him to tell her about all of it. She would be impressed by how much thought he had put into it. The only thing that worried him was that Dmitri might be so angry Cosmo hadn’t called him that he would think he was being betrayed and maybe send Russian thugs looking for him.
His hands were shaking at 5:15 P.M. while driving to Farley’s house. He decided to make the two crucial calls that would possibly decide his fate. The first was to the cell number that Dmitri said was the only one he should use after the job was done.
It rang five times, and then, “Yes.”
“Dmitri, it is me.”
“I know who,” Dmitri said. “I am think-ink that you had run away from me. That will be a stupid think to do.”
“No, no, Dmitri. We are being quiet for two, three days.”
“Do not tell me more. When do I see you for all of our business? You have thinks for me.”
“There is more I must complete, Dmitri. Maybe I come to you tonight.”
“I like that,” Dmitri said.
“Maybe I must wait for Monday morning.”
“I do not like that.”
“There are two peoples -”
“Enough!” Dmitri said, interrupting him. “I do not want to hear about your business. If you do not call me tonight, I shall be here on Monday. If I do not see you on Monday, you are very stupid person.”
“Thank you, Dmitri,” Cosmo said. “I shall be correct in my business with you.”
After hanging up, Cosmo made the second crucial call, to Farley Ramsdale’s cell number, but got only his voice mail. It was the first time this had ever happened. The addict never slept and was always open for business deals. It staggered him. He would try again in thirty minutes. He still had the alternate plan for Farley and Olive, but this did not bode well. He had all of the killing tools with him and he was ready.
Where in the hell was Olive? She knew they were almost down to their last dollar and had to work the mailboxes or maybe try again to pass some of the bogus money they still had. Or just go to a RadioShack or Best Buy and try to boost a DVD player to sell at the cybercafé. Things were that desperate!
But where was the stupid bitch? All Farley knew was she went out searching the goddamn neighborhood for that crazy Mabel’s fucking cat! He was about to go out looking for her, when he got a cell call from Little Bart.
When he recognized the voice he said, “Whadda you want?”
“I felt bad the way things were left between us,” Little Bart said.
“So you’re calling to say you wanna send me flowers?”
“I wanna do a deal with you.”
“What kinda deal?”
“I want you to deliver a couple of brand-new computers to a real nice house on the west side of Laurel Canyon.”
“Deliver them how?”
“In your car.”
“Why don’t you deliver them?”
“I lost my driver’s license on a DUI.”
“That’s the only reason?”
“And I hurt my back and can’t carry them.”
“They ain’t very heavy. Tell you what, how about I deliver in your car?”
“They impounded my car when they popped me.”
“Uh-huh. So how much do I get for this delivery?”
“Fifty bucks.”
“Good-bye, Bart,” Farley said.
“No, wait! A hundred bucks. It’ll take you a half hour, tops.”
“One fifty.”
“Farley, I’m not making much on this. They aren’t the very best top-of-the-line computers.”
“I don’t risk my ass delivering hot computers that you’re too chickenshit to deliver for less than one twenty-five.”
“Okay, deal.”
“When?”
“Can you meet me at Hollywood and Fairfax in twenty minutes? I’ll be standing on the corner and I’ll walk and you follow me to where you pick up and deliver. The merchandise is in a garage there. Then when you got it, I’ll ride with you to the drop-off address.”
“Why will you walk to the pickup location instead of riding with me?”
“I can’t be anywhere near this pickup. I can’t explain.”
“And you’ll have the money?”
“Half. I’ll give you the other half when the job’s done.”
“Can you make it later? I can’t find that goddamn bitch of mine.”
“You don’t need her.”
“Who the hell you think does the heavy lifting?” Farley said. “And she goes in first in case there’s anything chancy going on.”
“We can’t wait for her. Twenty minutes, Farley,” Bart said.
Farley looked all over the street but still no Olive. He made a quick stop at Mabel’s and found the old witch reading tarot cards in which Olive believed with all her heart.
Farley peered through the rusted screen. “Hey, Mabel, you seen Olive?”
“Yes, she’s out looking for Tillie. I think Tillie might be pregnant. She’s acting peculiar and roaming around as though she’s looking for a nest. She was once a feral cat, you know. I took her in and tamed her.”
Farley said, “Yeah, I’m sure you got a Humane Society award. If you see Olive, tell her I had to do a quick job and she should wait for me at home.”
“All right, Farley,” Mabel said. “It might interest you to know that the cards don’t look good for you,” she added. “Maybe you should stay home too.”