She was rolled onto her back, and before she could focus on the face above her, a wide strip of tape was slapped across her eyes, and another across her mouth.
“What are we going to do with her, Tommy?” the first voice said. “We can’t leave her here alive.”
“I guess not,” Tommy replied, “but we’re going to be here until tomorrow. Wouldn’t you like to fuck her while we wait to hear from the bank?”
Arrington was rolled roughly onto her stomach. and her hands were taped behind her back. She was blind and dumb, but her head was beginning to clear, and she digested what she had just heard.
“Sure,” Charlie said, and he sounded greedy.
“She’s hot stuff, take it from me,” Tommy said. “I won’t tape her feet.” He hauled her to her feet and dumped her on the sofa. “You’ll want to be able to spread her legs, won’t you?”
“Right,” Charlie said, chuckling. “Just let me finish this fax to the Luxembourg bank.”
Out on Fifth Avenue, Detective Ernie Martinez was on foot, doing a patrolman’s job. It was beneath him, but Martinez had his own reasons for working so hard that day. He saw a doorman standing outside an apartment building, at least the fiftieth he had talked to that day. “How y’doing?” he asked the man, flashing his badge.
“Pretty good, officer. Can I help you?”
Martinez produced the two photographs. “You ever seen either one of these guys before?”
The doorman looked carefully at the two photographs, then glanced back at Martinez. “Maybe, one of them,” he said.
“There’s twenty in it for you, if you do me some good here,” Martinez said.
“Yeah, I know this guy,” the doorman said, holding up one of the photographs. “He’s spent a lot of time with the lady in Nine-A, Miss Carter.”
“That’s Nine-A?” Martinez asked.
“Yeah. Pretty lady, Miss Carter.”
“You think he might be up there right now?”
The doorman hadn’t seen any money yet, so he played the detective along. “Could be,” he said.
“Thanks,” Martinez said, turning away.
“Hey, what about my twenty?”
Martinez stopped, produced a twenty, but snatched it back when the doorman grabbed for it. “You don’t say nothing to nobody about this, right? I was never here.”
“Right,” the doorman said, “you were never here.” This time he was allowed to grab the twenty.
Martinez hoofed it around the corner and found a pay phone.
“Yeah?” a voice said.
“This is Ernie Martinez. You know those two guys you’re looking for?”
“Yeah.”
“I just might have them for you.”
“Yeah? W
here?”
“You’ll tell the big guy that Ernie Martinez phoned it in?”
“Yeah, sure, Ernie.”