I hung up, called Hargrove at his office. He was there.
‘You’re running out of time, Eddie.’
‘What about the Rienzas?’ I asked. ‘How are they doin’ on time?’
‘Better than you,’ he said. ‘They’re out.’
‘What?’
‘Hit the streets hours ago.’
‘How did that happen?’
‘Their alibi checked out.’
‘You said yourself about alibis-’
‘Hey, if it checks out, it checks out,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing I can do about it. I had to cut them loose.’
‘That’s great.’
‘Watch your back,’ Hargrove said. ‘I think they were pretty mad at you.’
I hung up.
‘So?’ Jerry asked. ‘They’re out?’
‘Yup.’
‘Want a beer?’
‘Yup.’
He tossed me a can. I caught it one handed.
‘Now what?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know, Jerry,’ I said. ‘We got the word out on Irwin, and we got his storage unit covered. I seriously don’t know what else we can do. You got any suggestions?’
His eyes brightened and he said, ‘Get somethin’ to eat?’
SEVENTY-ONE
Morning came and we had twenty-four hours left to find Irwin and prove that he was responsible for Wayne’s death. Also that he was involved in the kidnapping.
I took Jerry and the folder we had found to Jack Entratter’s office at the Sands. We told him how we had come by it, and what we thought it meant.
‘So,’ Entratter said, ‘it’s not finished. Even if Irwin didn’t plan the kidnapping, it’s obvious he was involved and has to pay. Frank isn’t gonna let anyone get off scot free.’
‘He ain’t gettin’ off free,’ Jerry said. ‘Mr G. and me are gonna find him.’
‘And we need to do it in the next twenty-four hours,’ I said, ‘or Jerry and I will be behind bars.’
‘Well,’ Entratter said, ‘you ain’t gonna find him sittin’ here. Let me know if there’s anythin’ I can do to help.’
‘Keep your lawyer on call, Jack,’ I said. ‘He may have to get us outta jail.’
‘You got it.’
We left Entratter’s office, took the elevator down to the hotel lobby, where I stopped dead.
‘What is it, Mr G.?’
I stared at him for a moment, then said, ‘I don’t know where to go next, Jerry.’
‘We could go sit on his storage unit,’ Jerry said.
‘Danny’s already got a guy on it,’ I said. ‘What’s the point of the three of us there?’
‘So is there any place else we can look?’
‘I figured with all the stops we made we would have gotten a call by now,’ I said. ‘We’ve got less than a day.’
‘You really think Hargrove would be that much of a dick?’
‘Oh yeah,’ I said, ‘I do.’
‘Maybe we should do some more drivin’ around, then,’ Jerry said.
A bellman came walking over.
‘Mr Gianelli, hotel operator’s got a call for you. They won’t hang up until we find you.’
‘OK, thanks,’ I said. ‘I’ll get it on a house phone.’
‘Yes, sir.’
I took Jerry over to a bank of phones and picked one up.
‘Operator, it’s Eddie Gianelli. You have a call for me?’
‘Yes, sir, I’ll put it through.’
I waited only a few seconds and then a girl said, ‘Eddie? It’s Darla.’
‘Hey, Darla,’ I said, raising my eyebrows at Jerry. ‘We were just talkin’ about you.’
‘Good things I hope, love,’ she said.
‘Only the best. You got somethin’ for me?’
‘I’ve got a location where your guy might be hidin’ out,’ she said.
‘Where’d you get this info?’
‘I put the word out on the street, same as you. One of my people got back to me.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘So where is this place?’
‘Out in the desert.’
‘The desert’s a big place, hon.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘the exact location is gonna cost ya, Eddie.’
‘You’ll get paid, Darla,’ I said. ‘You know you can trust me.’
‘We just have to agree on a price, Eddie,’ she said. ‘Then I’ll trust you for it.’
‘How about two hundred?’ I asked.
‘How about two thousand?’ she asked. ‘Is this important to ya?’
Important enough that I didn’t really want to haggle, but I was probably going to have to do business with her in the future.
‘Five hundred, Darla.’
‘A thousand and you got a deal.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘A grand. Now give.’
‘He’s at the Sunshine Ranch.’
‘That’s just outside of Indian Springs, right?’
‘That’s the one.’
One of the things the casinos had to supply for their clients was women, which meant we had to know where the women were. And if they weren’t on the street, they were in the ranches out in the desert. Many had been closed down as public nuisances in 1951, but the ones that continued to operate had a ‘special’ relationship with the law.
‘Darla, is he there now?’
‘I been hangin’ on the phone for you a while, Eddie,’ she said, ‘but when I made the call, he was still there. That’s why I wouldn’t hang up till I talked to ya.’
‘And you’re positive this is a place he goes?’
‘He goes there a lot, Eddie,’ she said. ‘He owns it.’
Well, maybe that explained where Irwin got some of his girls for his stag films.
‘Baby, if he’s there you earned every penny,’ I assured her.
‘I’ll be waitin’, lover.’
I hung up.
‘What’s near Indian Springs?’ Jerry asked.
‘The Sunshine Ranch,’ I said. ‘It’s a brothel. A cathouse.’
‘Whores?’
‘Lots of ’em.’
‘And that’s where Irwin is?’
‘He was when she made the call.’
‘How far away is that?’ he asked.
‘Maybe an hour.’
We stood there and stared at each other for a few moments. The same thing was going through our heads. Call Hargrove and walk away, or drive out there and get Irwin ourselves?
‘Let’s do it,’ Jerry said, and I nodded.
SEVENTY-TWO
For a long time I’d been of the opinion that prostitution in Las Vegas should be legalized. Not so much the street trade, like Darla, but the girls who worked the hotels and ranches out in the desert. Once that was done, Las Vegas would become the place people could go to get anything they wanted.
We kicked up a lot of dust as most of the drive was on dirt roads. Eventually, we came within sight of a structure and I put my hand on Jerry’s arm. He braked and let the car idle.
‘That it?’ he asked.
‘Should be.’
‘Don’t look like much.’
‘Some of them actually look like a ranch,’ I said, ‘but this one. .’
This one looked like a worn out double-wide. There were a couple of cars parked out front.
‘Let’s back up some, just till we’re out of sight,’ I said. ‘Then we’ll walk the rest of the way.’
He put the Caddy in reverse. We only had to go about twenty yards. I directed Jerry to pull off the road. If anyone came along maybe they’d think we’d gotten stuck and had to walk.
We got out of the car and, since we were in the desert, left our jackets in the car. I could see Jerry’s.45 tucked into the back of his pants.
Once we started out on foot I looked around, imagining that this was the same view a cowboy would’ve seen a hundred years ago when he was out here on a horse. That is, until we once again came within view of the trailer.
‘Let’s circle and come in from the back,’ I suggested.
‘Good idea.’
From that angle we could see how large the structure actually was. An extension had been built on the back, which probably housed rooms — or cribs — for the girls.
We couldn’t walk right in and pretend to be customers. Irwin had seen both of us, would know us on the spot. Of course, we could’ve taken the chance that he wouldn’t notice us till too late, but with girls and customers around some innocent people could have gotten hurt if there was gun play.
And there were customers. We saw a few cars parked alongside the trailer’s extension. And there were those two out front. Some of the cars must have belonged to employees, so I was hoping the interior wasn’t going to be too crowded.