‘Days,’ he said. ‘Nobody’s been here for days.’
Just to be sure, we did a search of the house. Everything was covered with a layer of dust.
‘It looks to me like your boy went underground after he left you and Jerry. Maybe he didn’t want Jerry to find him, again.’
We went to the bedroom.
‘There are clothes here, but not enough,’ Danny said. ‘And no suitcase.’
‘So he packed and left.’
‘Looks like. There’s no money around, no bank books. Everybody leaves extra cash in the house.’
‘In the cookie jar?’
We went to the kitchen and looked. Nothing.
‘Now what?’ Danny asked.
‘His bank,’ I said.
‘You know where he banks?’
‘I know where he has a safety deposit box.’
‘Might not be the same one where he has an account, though. And even if he does, why would they tell us anything?’
‘We just need to know if the account’s been closed.’
He thought a minute.
‘I suppose I could run some kind of scam on a teller-’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘When we were there to pick up the pictures he went to a teller, a pretty girl. She didn’t like him.’
‘That’s it, then,’ Danny said. ‘All I have to do is play her. You just have to point her out.’
‘Let’s go, then.’
I went into the bank with him just long enough to point out the girl, then I went outside to wait.
‘OK,’ he said, when he came out. ‘He closed his account.’
‘She just told you that?’
‘I turned on the charm,’ he said, with a grin. ‘Showed her the ol’ profile.’
‘And?’
‘And she hates Irwin,’ Danny said. ‘He was a pig, and gave her the creeps. Was always saying he wanted to take her picture. She’s smart, she knew what that meant.’
‘But not too smart to fall for your line?’
‘What line? I told her who I was, that I was looking for him for a client.’
‘The truth worked?’
‘The truth works a lot,’ he said, with a smile. ‘It’s just not always as much fun.’
‘So he closed his office, left his house, closed out his bank account. Any idea how much he had in there?’
‘No. She said she couldn’t tell me that. I let her have one.’
‘Yeah, OK. You think he left town?’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘If he killed Wayne, he better have left town. If he had Wayne killed, he may still be around. If he’s looking to fuck you up, he might want to stay around to watch.’
‘He’s the only one who would have called the cops on me,’ I said. ‘It’s got to be him.’
‘Then he’s around,’ Danny said. ‘And since it didn’t work, he may try something else.’
‘I’ll be on the lookout.’
‘Call me if you need anything,’ he said.
‘I will.’
‘And I’ll keep my ears open. Maybe I can locate Irwin.’
‘I’d appreciate it.’
‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ he said.
We shook hands at the cars, and drove our separate ways.
THIRTY-TWO
I went home, but didn’t want to be there if the cops, or somebody else, came looking, so I dressed for work — dark suit, light blue shirt, black tie — and then drove to the Sands.
I wasn’t scheduled for a shift till that night, but that was OK. I still had some telephone work to do. I took the elevator to the business offices floor and claimed an empty desk. I dialed Jerry’s home number, hoping he wasn’t out breaking somebody’s arms or legs.
‘Hey, Mr G.,’ he said, when he heard my voice. ‘You ain’t callin’ to check on Billy’s IOU, are ya?’
‘Not my job, Jerry,’ I assured him. ‘How’s the kid doing?’
‘He went to Atlantic City, Mr G., and lost some more dough on that system of his.’
‘System players, Jerry,’ I said. ‘There’s not much you can do about it.’
‘Really? Lately I been thinkin’ I been bustin’ the wrong heads. What’s goin’ on there?’
‘Well, I’ll tell you. .’ And I did. Jerry remembered Detective Hargrove very well, and listened in silence until I finished my tale.
‘I agree with the dick, Mr G.,’ he said. ‘Irwin is still around.’
‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘Anything happening there? I’m thinking he might’ve sent somebody to Brooklyn to jam you up.’
‘Nope, nothin’ here,’ he said. ‘I ain’t bein’ watched, either. I’d know.’
‘OK, so he’s still afraid of you.’
‘I guess,’ Jerry said, ‘I shoulda done somethin’ before I left to scare him off ya. Sorry, Mr G.’
‘Not your fault, Jerry,’ I said. ‘I’m just glad you’re OK.’
‘So what are you gonna do?’
‘Watch my ass,’ I said, ‘and see if I can find Irwin before he tries anything else.’
‘You gotta be careful, Mr G.,’ he said. ‘That Irwin guy ain’t got the balls for murder, but it don’t take balls to hire it done.’
‘That’s what I figure, too,’ I said.
‘Make sure Bardini watches your back.’
‘He will.’
‘Call me if ya need somethin’.’
‘You’re the first one on my list, Jerry.’
I hung up, thought about going into Entratter’s office, but decided instead to simply call him.
‘What can I do for you, Eddie?’
‘You got a number for Frank, Jack?’ I asked. ‘I assume he’s still shooting?’
‘Yeah, they’ll be at it for a while,’ Entratter said. ‘Sure, kid, give ’im a call. He’ll like hearin’ from you.’
He gave me the number, which I wrote down. I broke the connection, and then dialed. It was the Biltmore Hotel, and I had to leave a message, which I did. Just my name and number. It had been a week since JFK’s assassination, and I figured if I didn’t check in with Frank now it’d look bad for me. Besides, I genuinely wanted to see if he was OK.
I had a small phone book of my own that I’d started carrying, ever since I’d needed to call Dino while Jerry and I were in LA. Dean wouldn’t be staying in a hotel while shooting Robin and the 7 Hoods, because he always lived in Beverly Hills. I ended up talking to his wife, Jeannie, who I had met several times.
‘He’s on the set, Eddie,’ she said. ‘He won’t be back till this evening. Can I give him a message?’
‘I was gonna check in with him about how Frank was doing with this JFK thing. I left a message for Frank at his hotel, but thought I might get a more truthful response from Dean.’
‘Frank took it hard, Eddie, especially since they wouldn’t let him attend the funeral. Plus, it was Peter’s wife who told him he couldn’t come.’
Ouch, I thought. That was adding insult to injury. Peter was still number one on Frank’s shit list since the fiasco with JFK staying at Bing’s house instead of Frank’s. The odd thing was, Frank had no anger toward Bing, and actually had Bing replace Peter on the 7 Hoods shoot.
‘I’ll try Dean again later, Jeannie,’ I said. ‘I’ll be working tonight.’
‘OK, Eddie. Come and see us some time, huh?’
‘You bet.’ I’d have to go to Beverly Hills to see her, because she rarely accompanied her husband to Las Vegas.
I hung up, tapped the phone with my index finger, then made several more calls before standing up and leaving the room. I’d dropped Irwin’s name on a few of my local contacts, in the hopes that one of them might spot him, or hear something. At the moment there was nothing else I could do. Eventually, I might go and talk to Entratter. Maybe he’d be able to help locate Irwin through some of his contacts, if mine didn’t pan out. My people were on the street, though, vendors, doormen, valets, the locals who saw everything that happened in Vegas, heard everything. If anybody was going to help me locate Irwin, it would be one of them, or Danny.
THIRTY-THREE
During the night — a busy one, since it was a Friday — Entratter came down to the casino floor and showed up at my pit.
‘What kind of a night are we havin’?’ he asked, as I came around to greet him.
‘Good,’ I said. ‘A couple of high rollers came in for the weekend.’