Kobler opened his briefcase, poked LaRenne on the arm. “Look at this.”
LaRenne turned, saw the open briefcase.
Kobler said, “Look inside.”
LaRenne leaned forward and looked inside. When he saw the Blackhawk he lunged back in his seat and stared at Kobler goggle-eyed.
“Take it easy, LaRenne. I wasn’t supposed to tip myself to you before this, just in case.” Kobler’s voice was soft and easy.
“In case?” LaRenne was almost panicking, but was instinctively keeping his voice as soft as Kobler’s. “In case of what?”
“In case Hanks had a confederate anywhere around.”
“Hanks?” It didn’t make any sense to LaRenne that this perfect stranger would know his name and know Hanks’ name, and whenever something didn’t make any sense to LaRenne he automatically looked as though the whole thing was a wrong number. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kobler leaned close. “The seventy-five G’s,” he whispered. “In the coat.”
“What?”
“Keep it down!”
“Jesus Christ!” whispered LaRenne. “Who the hell areyou?”
The plane’s wheels scraped the runway, bounced away, scraped again. LaRenne and Kobler jounced against their safety belts. When the plane calmed down, Kobler said, “I’m your bodyguard. We just found out that Hanks is figuring on walking off with the payment.”
“He’d be crazy! They’d get him in a month!”
LaRenne had thought, more than once, of walking off with the money, but had given the idea up because he knew the Outfit would look for him until they found him, and they would surely find him. Now he was mad when he heard that Hanks had been thinking the same thing, and was even planning on doingit. It was as though he’d been cheated, as though Hanks had stolen his idea and was getting the credit for something that should have been his.
“Listen to me,” said Kobler. “We only got a minute. I would of told you before, but I fell asleep. You and me, we by-pass Hanks. There’ll be a car waiting for us. This time, you bring the cash all the way. Next time, there’ll be a replacement for Hanks. You’ll probably meet the new man this afternoon.”
“But I’m supposed to go all the way to Miami!”
“You’ll get back in time. You’ve got forty minutes.”
“But”
“They couldn’t tell you before you took off, can’t you see that? They don’t know if there’s anybody with Hanks or not.” The plane had stopped and people were standing up and starting to walk down the aisle. Kobler whispered rapidly, “You’re not supposed to take my word for it. When we get in the terminal, go over to Hanks and stall him. Then call the boss and check if I’m on the level or not. You’re not supposed to take my word for it. But, just remember, if Hanks tries anything you give me the high sign. Got it?”
“I don’t know,” said LaRenne.
“Come on, let’s get off the plane.”
They were the last two passengers off. Out of the side of his mouth, Kobler said, “Act like you’re not with me. If you see Hanks, signal him to wait a minute, then go straight to the phone booths and call the boss. Got it?”
“All all right.”
LaRenne couldn’t be sure if Kobler was on the up and up or not. He’d never seen Kobler around before, but that didn’t mean anything. And what could happen to him in the terminal? He’d stall Hanks and make a phone call. If the call proved Kobler a liar, then LaRenne could signal Hanks for help. Anyway, LaRenne already believed that Hanks was planning to walk off with the money. Hadn’t he thought about doing the same thing himself?
They walked into the terminal, Kobler one step behind LaRenne. LaRenne saw Hanks strolling across the terminal floor towards the luncheonette. LaRenne nodded briefly but kept walking away from the luncheonette at an angle. Hanks stopped and frowned, and LaRenne motioned with his head for Hanks to go on, trying to get the idea across that Hanks should wait a minute that he should go on into the luncheonette and wait a minute. Hanks started walking again, but very slowly, watching LaRenne with a puzzled frown on his face.
Kobler hadn’t known what Hanks looked like, but by following LaRenne’s signals he spotted the frowning puzzled man in the brown suit. He murmured to LaRenne, “I’ll keep him busy. Hurry up with the call.” Then he veered away from LaRenne and went over to talk to Hanks.
Hanks saw him coming, and looked more puzzled than ever, and also a little alarmed. He started angling away from Kobler, not wanting to talk with him, but Kobler caught up with him and asked, “Where’s the others?”
“What? You got the wrong man, friend.”
“You’re Hanks, aren’t you?”
Hanks debated denying it. Was this guy law or what?
Kobler hurried on. “Where’s the others, god damn it? You want him to get away?”
“What? Who?”
“LaRenne! Didn’t you people get the telegram?”
“What telegram?”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” exclaimed Kobler. “LaRenne’s figuring to walk off with the seventy-five G’s. We just found out about it. I barely got on the same plane with him. He doesn’t know me, see, he’s never seen me around. Where the hell’s he gone?”
Automatically, Hanks answered, “Back by the phone booths.”
“Yeah, We figured he had somebody with him. Are there any more phone booths around here?”
“Listen,” said Hanks. Things were going too fast for him. He’d thought of walking off with seventy-five G’s lot of times, but he’d never had the guts to try it. He couldn’t get used to the idea that maybe somebody else didhave the guts. He was so shaken, he couldn’t get his mental balance back.
And Kobler wouldn’t give him the chance. “Phone booths, dammit!”
“Yeah, over there by the lockers. But”
“No time! I don’t want him to see you phoning nobody. Go over there to those other booths and call your boss and see didn’t the telegram get there yet. Tell him to send two or three boys out here. We don’t know who’s with LaRenne or how many, and I’m not sure I can handle it by myself. Get going!”
“But”
“I can’t lose LaRenne!” said Kobler, and hurried away.
Hanks didn’t know what to do. But LaRenne was acting funny, and the big guy had given him a reason for it, so he did what the big guy told him to do. He hurried across the echoing floor towards the other bank of phone booths on the far side of the terminal by the baggage lockers.
Kobler meanwhile went after LaRenne. He had disappeared into a double rank of phone booths. If you stood between the ranks, you couldn’t be seen from the terminal proper. There were three people besides LaRenne closeted in booths, all of them talking like mad and paying no attention to the outside world. Kobler took out the Blackhawk, held it by the barrel, and opened the door of LaRenne’s phone booth. He clipped LaRenne with the gun butt just as the operator finally made the connection with Argus Imports.
A tinny voice sounded, “Hello?”
Kobler put the phone back on its hook, and stripped off LaRenne’s coat. He stuffed coat and gun into the briefcase, closed it, and shut the phone-booth door. He walked over to the self-service baggage counter where the baggage from his flight was just coming in. He stood with his back to the terminal and when his bag was put on the counter, he picked it up and headed towards the exit to the parking lot. He was just going through the electric-eye doors when Hanks came running from the phone booths at the far end. He knew something was wrong, and it probably wasn’t wrong with LaRenne. But he was staring at the phone booths far ahead of him, so he didn’t see Kobler going out.
Kobler walked over to the parking lot where Parnell was sitting in a year-old Mercury station wagon with the engine idling. Kobler put the suitcase and briefcase in the back, got in front next to Parnell, and they drove back to Parnell’s furnished room, where they split the coat up the back and the take down the middle.