These included the Double-Seven Health Club where Marino had a financial interest. In course of the survey which showed everything to be clean Wizard amused himself by briefly bugging one of the club lines, a practice which he sometimes followed, rationalizing that he owed it to himself and his clients to maintain his own technical expertise. For the purpose he chose a pay phone on the health club's main floor. Through forty-eight hours Wizard left a tape recorder spliced across the pay-phone circuit, the recorder hidden in the basement of the Double-Seven.
It was a type which switched itself on and off each time the phone was used.
Though the action was illegal, Wizard reasoned that it didn't matter since no one but himself would hear the tape played back.
However, when he did play it, one conversation, especially, intrigued him.
Now, on Saturday afternoon, and alone in-his sound lab, he took the tape from the shelf above the test bench, put it on a machine and listened to that portion once again.
A coin was inserted, a number dialed. The sound of dialing was on the tape. A ringing tone. One ring only. A woman's voice (soft, with slight accent):
Hello. A male voice (whispering): You know who this is. But don't use names. The woman's voice: Yes. The first voice (still whispering):
Tell our mutual friend I've discovered something important here. Really important. It's most of what he wanted to know. I can't say more, but I'll come to you tomorrow night. A woman's voice: All right. A click.
The caller, in the Double-Seven Health Club, had hung up. Wizard Wong wasn't sure why he thought Tony Bear Marino would be interested.
He simply had a hunch, and his hunches had paid off before. Making up his mind, he consulted a private notebook, went to a telephone and called a number. Tony Bear, it transpired, could not see him until late Monday afternoon.
Wizard made an arrangement for then and having committed himself set out to extract more information from the tape. He rewound it, then carefully played it several times again.
"Judas Priestl" Tony Bear Marino's husky, thick features contorted in a savage scowl. His incongruous falsetto voice rose even higher than usual.
"You had that goddam tape, and you sat on your goddam ass a week before you came herel" Wizard Wong said defensively,
"I'm a technician, Mr. Marino.
Mostly, the things I hear are none of my bustness.
But after a while I got to thinking this one was different." He was relieved in one sense.
At least there had been no angry reaction because he had bugged a Double-Seven line.
"Next time," Marino snarled, "think faster!"
Today was Monday. They were at the trucking terminal where Marino maintained an office and, on the desk between them, was a portable tape player which Wong had just switched off.
Before Coming here he had re-recorded the significant part of the original tape, transferring it to a cassette, then erased the rest.
Tony Bear Marino, in shirtsleeves in the stuffy, heated office, appeared physically formidable as usual. His shoulders were a prizefighter's; his wrists and biceps thick.
He overflowed the chair he sat in, though not with fat; most of him was solid muscle.
Wizard Wong tried not to be intimidated, either by Marino's bulk or his reputation for ruthlessness. But, whether from the hot room or other reasons, Wong began to sweat.
He protested, "I didn't waste all that time, Mr. Marino. I found out some other things I thought you'd want to know n "Such as?" "I can tell you the number that was called. You see, by using a stop watch to time the length of each dial turn as recorded on the tape, then comparing it…"
"Cut the crap. Just give me the number." "There it is." A slip of paper passed across the desk. "You've traced it? Whose number is it?"
"I have to tell you, tracing a number like that isn't easy. Especially since this particular one is unlisted. Fortunately, I have some contacts in the phone company … Tony Bear exploded. He slammed a palm on the desktop, the impact like a gunshot.
"Don't play games with me, you little bastard! If you got information, give!"
"The point I'm making," Wizard persisted, sweating even more, "is that it costs. I had to pay off my phone company contact."
"You paid a goddam lot less than you'll squeeze out of me.
Get on with it!" Wizard relaxed a little, aware that he had made his point and Tony Bear would meet the price to be asked, each of them knowing there might be another time.
"The phone belongs to a Mrs. J. Nunez.
She lives at Forum East. Here's the building and apartment number." Wong passed over another slip. Marino took it, glanced at the address, and put it down.
"There's something else might be of interest to you. The records show the phone was installed a month ago as a hurry-up job.
Now normally, there's a long waiting list for phones at Forum East, but this one wasn't on the list at all, then all of a sudden it was put on at the top."
Marino's growing scowl was part impatience, part anger at what he heard.
Wizard Wong went on hastily, "What happened was, some pressure was applied. My contact told me there's a memo in the phone company ales showing it came from a guy named Nolan Wainwright who's head of security for a bank First Mercantile American.
He said the phone was needed urgently for bank business. Billing for it is going to the bank, too." For the first time since the audio technician's arrival, Tony Bear was startled.
Momentarily the surprise revealed itself on his face, then vanished, to be replaced by a blank expression. Under it, his mind was working, relating what he had just learned to certain facts he already knew.
The name Wainwright was the connection. Marino was aware of the attempt six months ago to plant a stoolie, a creep named Vic who, after they busted his balls, said "Wainwright."
Marino knew of the bank click by reputation. In that earlier series of events Tony Bear had been very much involved.
Was there another one now?
If so, Tony Bear had a strong idea what action he was after, though there was a lot of other business through the Double-Seven he had no wish to see disclosed. Tony Bear did not waste time in speculation. The caller's voice, a whisper only, you couldn't tell.
But the other voice the woman's had been traced, so whatever else was needed they could get from her.
It did not enter his mind that the woman might not co-operate; if she was foolish, there were plenty of ways.
Marino paid Wong off quickly and sat thinking.
For a while, he followed his usual cautious pattern, not rushing a decision and leaving his thoughts to simmer for several hours. But he had lost time, a week.
Later that night he summoned two musclemen. Tony Bear gave them a Forum East address and an order. "Pick up the Nunez broad."
18
"If everything you just told me turns out to be true,"
Alex assured Margot, "I'll personally administer the biggest kick in the ass that Nolan Wainwright ever had." Margot snapped back,
"Of course it's all true. Why would Mrs. Nunez invent it? In any case, how could she?"
"No," he admitted, "I don't suppose she could."
"I'll tell you something else, Alex. I want more than your man Wainwright's head on a platter or his ass. A whole lot more."
They were in Alex's apartment where Margot had come a half hour ago, following her Monday-night talk with Juanita Nunez.
What Juanita had revealed amazed and enraged her. Juanita had nervously described the month old agreement in which she had become the link between Wainwright and Miles Eastin. But recently, Juanita confided, she had begun to realize the risk she was running and her fears had grown, not just for herself but for Estela.
Margot had gone over Juanita's report several times, questioning her on details, and at the end Margot went directly to Alex.